Jimmy Kimmel is Taking On Politicians

22 Sep, 2017

If the latest Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare doesn’t work, it may become known as the Jimmy Kimmel Non-Law.

The comic’s withering attacks this week have transformed the debate over the bill (sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy) and, in the process, illustrated how thoroughly late-night talk shows have changed and become homes for potent points of view.

Kimmel’s monologues on Tuesday and Wednesday were deeply personal. His newborn son underwent surgery in May for a heart defect and faces two more operations. He felt a sense of personal betrayal from Cassidy, who was on the show this spring after Kimmel talked about his son’s medical problems, and felt that Cassidy lied to him about Republican health care plans. Cassidy said the comedian was misinformed.

Kimmel kept it up Thursday, saying that critics who say he’s not qualified to talk about health care are right, but he wonders why some senators aren’t listening to the various health organizations that have come out against the bill.

Kimmel’s initial speech on his ABC show, where a phone number to Congress was flashed on the screen to urge viewers to get involved, quickly spread online and became a focus of news coverage. Cassidy was asked to respond to Kimmel when he appeared Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, despite his own doubts about the Republican bill, balked in an MSNBC appearance at being compared to Kimmel. “He’s not a serious person,” Christie said.

But Kimmel was deadly serious.

“Before you post a nasty Facebook message saying I’m politicizing my son’s health problems, I want you to know I am politicizing my son’s health problems because I have to,” Kimmel said.

After Fox News Channel’s Brian Kilmeade criticized members of the Hollywood elite “like comedian Jimmy Kimmel for pushing their politics on the rest of the country,” Kimmel blasted him the next night as a “phony little creep” who “whenever I see him, kisses my ass like a little boy meeting Batman.”

One casual reference by Kimmel during his first monologue acknowledged he knew how many people would see it. He urged his fans not just to “like” his speech on social media when they saw it, but to take action.

Kimmel also gave attention to an issue, attention Republican leaders surely didn’t want to see, at a time cable television was preoccupied with hurricanes, the Mexican earthquake and ongoing investigation into President Trump’s Russian connections.

AP

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