Amid MSNBC celebrating Arizona Senator John McCain refusing to support the latest Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare on Friday, anchor Katy Tur led her panel of fellow liberal journalists in hailing ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his role in killing the GOP health care legislation.
Tur proclaimed: “The other person that’s involved in this national debate is, of course, comedian Jimmy Kimmel. He has just tweeted, ‘Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN.’” She reminded viewers of the comedian’s activism on the issue: “Jimmy Kimmel has found himself in the middle of this firestorm....He made a plea for health care to be fixed with a conscience.”
Turning to NBC colleague Kasie Hunt, Tur wondered: “Kasie, the Jimmy Kimmel factor, how much was it?” Hunt declared: “Look, I actually think it played a pretty significant role here. It was a high-profile way to thrust this debate on to center stage when I think that Republicans, if they did want to pass something, they were quite frankly better off doing it quickly and with as little attention as possible.”
She confessed that she was worried the left wouldn’t be able to move quickly enough to attack the new Republican health care bill: “And you know, one question I had when this kind of cropped up earlier this week was how quickly would Democrats be able to re-mobilize all of the forces that they brought to bear right before the last failure.” Hunt then observed: “And I think that Jimmy Kimmel helped them in that effort. He helped them elevate this in a pretty remarkable way.”
Moments later, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page chimed in, praising Kimmel for having “focused attention on the details of what happened to people with pre-existing conditions.” She explained:
Because Republicans had a talking point on that, that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected, and Jimmy Kimmel, a comedian, a late-night comedian, focused on the details of how that would work and how you could have protection to buy insurance but maybe it would be at a price you couldn’t possibly afford. So in a way he fueled the substance of a debate that proved to be very damaging.
Of course whenever a liberal celebrity does something “very damaging” to Republicans, they become an instant hero in the news media.
The biased exchange was brought to viewers by Coca-Cola, AARP, and Kia.
Here is a transcript of the September 22 segment:
2:10 PM ET
(...)
KATY TUR: The other person that’s involved in this national debate is, of course, comedian Jimmy Kimmel. He has just tweeted, “Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN.” Jimmy Kimmel has found himself in the middle of this firestorm. He spoke about it initially, about health care, after his son was born who had a problem with his heart, he needed emergency surgery. He made a plea for health care to be fixed with a conscience. And he had Senator Cassidy on his show to talk about this. After that, the two of them have gotten into a war of words. Jimmy Kimmel saying that Senator Cassidy did not keep his word to protect those with pre-existing conditions. Cassidy and Graham firing back, saying that Jimmy Kimmel didn’t understand the legislation and he was just listening to liberal talking points. Last night, Jimmy Kimmel responded to that. Take a listen.
JIMMY KIMMEL: To them, I say all of these very reputable organizations, American Diabetes Association, American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, the list goes on and on. All of these groups populated by doctors say this health care bill is bad.
TUR: And again, we’re going to hear from the President tonight in Alabama. Kasie, the Jimmy Kimmel factor, how much was it?
KASIE HUNT: Look, I actually think it played a pretty significant role here. It was a high-profile way to thrust this debate on to center stage when I think that Republicans, if they did want to pass something, they were quite frankly better off doing it quickly and with as little attention as possible. And you know, one question I had when this kind of cropped up earlier this week was how quickly would Democrats be able to re-mobilize all of the forces that they brought to bear right before the last failure. And I think that Jimmy Kimmel helped them in that effort. He helped them elevate this in a pretty remarkable way. And he also brought a very –
TUR: It’s unusual, because usually when Hollywood gets involved in these sorts of debates, Republicans can use that in their favor, saying, “Hollywood’s liberal, they’re not on your side and don’t listen to them.”
HUNT: Yeah, but this is a case where he has such a personal story and he spoke about it. You know, I – one of the things I did this week was I went back and watched that monologue back in May when he first talked about his son, and you know, he is clearly visibly choked up and emotional about it. And he also was pretty straightforward in acknowledging, “Look, this is my son, so my son is going to be okay because I have this position where I have health insurance, I have all of these things that you could possibly want, I can take care of my son.”
TUR: He has money.
HUNT: He has enough money. And so – and he said to people, “Look, my son is lucky but your son might not be.”
SUSAN PAGE [USA TODAY]: You know he did one thing I thought was very important, which is he focused attention on the details of what happened to people with pre-existing conditions. Because Republicans had a talking point on that, that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected, and Jimmy Kimmel, a comedian, a late-night comedian, focused on the details of how that would work and how you could have protection to buy insurance but maybe it would be at a price you couldn’t possibly afford. So in a way he fueled the substance of a debate that proved to be very damaging.
TUR: He did.
(...)
