The latest chapter in the healthcare fight has come to an end and with it comes the end of Jimmy Kimmel’s starring role. While it was technically a continuation of the fight he started in May after the birth of his son and the health scare that followed, Kimmel took the latest developments personally because it involved Senator Bill Cassidy. The senator was a guest on Kimmel’s show shortly after the host’s emotional monologue about his son and mentioned that any bill passed by Congress would need to pass “the Jimmy Kimmel test” to earn his vote.
Cassidy then ignored all of that by co-sponsoring the latest bill and nullified everything he said to Kimmel, lying to his face as the host put it. This led to the host using his show as a platform to launch countless attacks on the bill and criticize those pushing it through Congress, including Cassidy, Lindsey Graham, and the folks at Fox And Friends.
With the bill effectively dead after losing the support of senators Susan Collins and John McCain, leading to Mitch McConnell pulling a potential vote ahead of this weekend’s deadline, Kimmel decided to celebrate a bit. He took time to thank John McCain for pulling his support of the bill, following his tweet from Friday when the senator announced it, and used the moment to attack Donald Trump for his criticism of the Arizona congressman. If you’re planning on calling someone a flip flopper, make sure you’ve never flipped your opinions on camera.
He finishes his victory lap by saying he doesn’t want to tell Congress what to, right before he dives into telling them all exactly what to do. And that’s to take their time, listen to people, evaluate the needs of everybody, and work on a solution that will be best instead of pushing through a bill that exists for purely political reasons. Kimmel adds, “sometimes you have to think inside the box,” while referring to the lawmakers opening their ears and possibly even working together to find a way to “fix” what’s broken about healthcare and strengthen what already works. It could be a year before any of that happens, but that’s better than rushing something through.
(Via Jimmy Kimmel Live)