Jimmy Kimmel on House Republican dysfunction: ‘Maybe we take away their right to choose’
Late-night hosts checked in on Donald Trump’s latest legal woes on Tuesday evening, after he spent another day in a New York courthouse for his fraud trial. “This is not the January 6 insurrection case, that’s in Washington,” Jimmy Kimmel explained. “It’s not to be confused with the election tampering case that’s in Georgia or the stolen documents case in Florida or the Stormy Daniels or E Jean Carroll cases that are also in New York.
“This is his fraud trial in New York. I know, it’s really hard to keep track,” he added.
Trump has been using this trial as a “platform to air grievances”, Kimmel continued. At a press conference outside the courtroom, Trump claimed: “I’m being restricted. My speech has been taken away from me.”
“Did all 50 microphones get that?” Kimmel deadpanned. “Only Donald Trump would claim he’s not allowed to speak while talking to 40 cameras at a press conference.”
In other political news, the House is still without a speaker after the Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, a far-right Republican who supported overturning the 2020 election, did not receive the necessary votes. “Turns out there’s something about being a loser that really suits Jim Jordan,” said Kimmel.
Jordan is “a particularly terrible choice for speaker”, he continued, because of his conduct as a wrestling coach at the Ohio State University. Jordan allegedly knew of sexual abuse perpetrated by a team doctor on several athletes, and did nothing. “A man who is famous for not speaking up would like to be speaker. It’s really something,” said Kimmel.
Two weeks since House Republicans removed Kevin McCarthy as speaker, they still haven’t decided on a new leader. “Maybe it’s time we take away their right to choose,” Kimmel quipped.
Seth Meyers
Jim Jordan may have failed in his first bid to become speaker of the
House, “but Republicans are determined to keep trying until they finally get it wrong,” Seth Meyers said on Late Night.
Several GOP lawmakers voted for the former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, “which means they’re running out of options even alphabetically”, Meyers laughed.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump endorsed Jordan for House speaker. “Good luck with that, said David Perdue, Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano, Herschel Walker, Dr Oz and that kid he forced to mow his lawn,” said Meyers of Trump’s former failed endorsements.
And Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in a new interview that the US supreme court should adopt an ethics code, adding “all nine justices are very committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct.”
“And when he read that interview, Clarence Thomas laughed so hard he almost fell off a billionaire’s yacht,” Meyers joked.
Jimmy Fallon
And on the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon recalled the dysfunction in the House earlier this year, when it took a record 15 rounds of voting to install
Kevin McCarthy as speaker. “Only 14 more rounds to go. Hang in there, Jim!” he quipped.
“You can tell after the first vote that Jordan was getting desperate, because he changed his name from Jim to Michael B. And it didn’t help,” he added.
Fallon also observed the 100th anniversary of Disney, which is celebrating its centennial this week. “You can tell Disney is old because Pinocchio now has to take a pill to make his nose grow,” he joked.
And he noted a new pepper recently named the hottest in the world, called Pepper X. “I don’t care what anyone says, I’m still going to call it Pepper Twitter,” he said.