Personal anecdotes suddenly matter to the left when talking about health care. After ABC's late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel went on an emotional rant last week for his sick child over the GOP’s health care bill provisions, the media rewarded him with gushy praise over the “brave” admission, using it as a launch pad to attack Republicans with for getting rid of ObamaCare.
Well, Kimmel was back at it again on Monday night, this time personally targeting specific Republicans and conservative outlets over their criticism of his sob story’s appeal to emotion over hard facts.
In the bitter ten-minute opener, Kimmel went after Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Newt Gingrich and the conservative Washington Times.
“This is from something called the Washington Times. I don't think it's a real newspaper,” Kimmel snarked, before reading a negative headline calling him an “elitist creep.”
Kimmel joked that he could not count the number of times he’d been called that, before delving into his childhood being raised in a working class family who couldn’t afford things like milk and orange juice. Somehow Kimmel’s rags to riches story disqualifies him from spouting off ill-informed liberal talking points on health care, from his nationally televised platform.
He then went after former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, calling him a “sick and sad person.”
"There are some very sick and sad people out there. Here's one of them. His name is Newt Gingrich,” Kimmel began, before tearing down Gingrich’s argument that sick babies receive free emergency medical care, regardless of insurance coverage. “I don't know if the double layers of spanx are restricting the blood flow to his brain,” Kimmel mocked.
He then played a clip from Gingrich on Fox News, where he said that the late night comedians were so “angry” at Trump that it was coloring their comedy. A riled-up Kimmel lashed out:
KIMMEL: Gee, I wonder why we're so angry. [ Laughter ] Maybe it has something to do with, I don't know, you. [ Laughter ] Listen, Newt Gingrich does know a lot about comedy. This is a man, this is the guy who helped lead the impeachment effort against Bill Clinton for trying to cover up his affair while he was having an affair. [ Laughter ] That is -- that's hilarious. Come on. Whatever you want to say about him. [ Applause ] Thank you, Newt. There's a reason he's named after a lizard, and that was it. [ Laughter ]
Kimmel then shifted his target to Rep. Raul Labrador from Idaho, calling him “maybe the worst person of all,” for saying something the media has taken way out-of-context. He laughed and said scornfully:
“And that's a congressman. It's not a garbage man. That's a congressman.”
But there was one GOP member that Kimmel happened to like. After Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana told CNN yesterday that their health care bill should pass the “Jimmy Kimmel test,” the late-night host invited Cassidy on his program Monday night. His first question was an attack against the GOP of course:
My first question is why are the vast majority of Republican politicians against making sure Americans are truly covered when it comes to health care?
Kimmel followed up by asking questions like:
Why is there even such a thing as the working uninsured in the United States? Should there be?
Will the Senate make sure that the millions of children who count on Medicaid don't lose access to medical care because this House bill would cut they say $888 billion dollars mostly to benefit wealthy Americans?
He ended the interview and segment by demanding that the Republican Senator make an amendment to the “Jimmy Kimmel test.”
The Jimmy Kimmel test I think should be no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it. Can that be the Jimmy Kimmel test, as simple as that?
After Cassidy talked about the “challenge” of making an affordable plan that had adequate coverage, Kimmel trotted out the liberal line of giving “tax cuts” to millionaires and billionaires:
Well, I can think of a way to pay for it is don't give a huge tax cut to millionaires like me and instead leave it how it is! That would be one way.
ABC followed up this segment with a full report on Good Morning America Tuesday morning, where reporter Diane Macedo reported sympathetically that Jimmy Kimmel was “taking on healthcare.” Laughably, Macedo characterized his bitter jokes like this one---
And I would like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care. It was insensitive. It was offensive, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
--as simply “pok[ing] fun at his critics.”
After the report, the GMA panel did their part in offering no nuance to the controversial and polarizing topic.
“He got a lot of good points in there,” co-host Robin Roberts praised. Former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos touted Kimmel had “hit a nerve.” Roberts responded, “he sure has!”
