(The Hill) – Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who is known for criticizing Donald Trump, made an appeal to Republicans to reject the former president in his 19-minute opening monologue on Tuesday evening, one week before Election Day.
“Tonight’s monologue is for Republicans. So, if you have someone in your life who is either planning to vote for Trump or thinking about it, I would like you to send this to a Republican you love and respect with a request: Ask them to watch this whole thing as a personal favor to you. And I promise I won’t make you regret it, because it’s not going to be our usual roast of Trump or some kind of liberal virtual signaling, none of that,” Kimmel said.
“We’re a week away from an election, and we are very divided, and not just because of Donald Trump, because of people like, if I’m being honest, me. I do a lot of mocking and belittling and it isn’t always productive,” the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” admitted. “Am I biased against Donald Trump? Yes. Do I think I have good reasons for being biased against him? Yes.”
In his monologue, Kimmel then went on to show clips of the former president, saying he believes some Republicans are so busy they might not really take in the “words that come out of his mouth.”
He included clips dating back to 2015 of Trump saying he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a new plan. The clips sifted through the years as no GOP alternative to ObamaCare ever emerged, going up through the recent presidential debate against Vice President Harris, when Trump said he has “concepts of a plan” for health care in the country.
Kimmel then went on to talk about Trump’s baseless claims of transgender children undergoing sex change surgeries at school.
“Parents can’t send their kids to school with peanut butter, OK?” Kimmel said. “This is a lie, you have to know this.”
The late night host then pointed out that most presidents and former presidents don’t try to brand themselves for personal gain, though Trump has hawked everything from sneakers to Bibles to NFTs.
“Listen, politics, in a lot of ways, is like sports. You probably just root for the team your Dad roots for. Maybe you’ve been a Republican your whole life, that’s your team, and it feels wrong not to root for them, or to vote for them, but this time around, you wouldn’t be alone,” Kimmel said.
He later added that he saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said they support Trump because Trump angers the same people who anger them.
“It’s funny, I get it. Sometimes it feels like no one has a sense of humor anymore. But is that really all we want for America? To piss each other off? I don’t want that, away,” Kimmel said. “If you made it this far, thank you for listening, and whoever wins, once the votes are counted, if Trump has more of those votes, we are going to accept that, even if it doesn’t go our way. We won’t like it, but we’ll accept it, because that’s how it has to go.”
“We vote, we count the votes, winner wins, loser goes away. That’s the only way this country can work, and it’s up to you to do whatever you think is the right thing to do,” he concluded.