ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel reacted to Donald Trump warning Iran that he would “blow it to smithereens” if it harmed him or any other presidential candidate by claiming Trump cannot actually do that because he withdrew from the nuclear deal as president.
Kimmel began by reading a Trump Truth Social post, “And then, he said something I've never seen him say before, ‘Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service - Zero ‘no’ votes, strictly bipartisan. Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something.’”
Then, because history began in 2016, he added, “Yes, I wonder who has driven them so far apart? It's a mystery.”
Kimmel then teed up a clip of Trump by declaring, “And yet, even though both parties joined together to protect him while he plays putt-putt, he's angry at the White House for not doing more.”
In the clip, Trump declared, “As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life. That we know of. And they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran. [Jump Cut] But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We're going to blow it to smithereens. You can't do that.”
By “that,” Trump clearly meant “threaten American presidential candidates,” but Kimmel appeared to think he meant his ability to threaten Iran, “Right. And the reason you can't do it is because they currently have the ability to activate a nuclear weapon in about a week and the reason they have that ability is because you backed out of the deal agreeing to dismantle most of their nuclear weapons. Oops, you did it again.”
By that logic, Iran can do anything it wants, because Kimmel is willing to pay nuclear blackmail. Yes, blowing a country “to smithereens,” especially one close to nuclear weapons, is serious business, but so would that country assassinating a president or presidential candidate, and Iran needs to know there are lines that it shall not cross.
Here is a transcript for the September 25 show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
9/25/2024
11:41 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: And then, he said something I've never seen him say before, “Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service - Zero ‘no’ votes, strictly bipartisan. Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something."
Yes, I wonder who has driven them so far apart? It's a mystery and yet, even though both parties joined together to protect him while he plays putt-putt, he's angry at the White House for not doing more.
DONALD TRUMP: As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life. That we know of. And they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran. [Jump Cut] But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We're going to blow it to smithereens. You can't do that.
KIMMEL: Right. And the reason you can't do it is because they currently have the ability to activate a nuclear weapon in about a week and the reason they have that ability is because you backed out of the deal agreeing to dismantle most of their nuclear weapons. Oops, you did it again.
