Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel, the host started by expressing concern over LA’s loosening of Covid restrictions. “We’re keeping the Covid and we’re getting rid of the safety,” he joked.
He then moved on to “a full day of nonsense” in the US Senate as the hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson continued. The judge is Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee, and has been on the receiving end of barely disguised racist attacks from Republicans.
Her opening speech was well-received on both sides, but Marsha Blackburn and Josh Hawley have taken issue. “You lost us at Ketanji,” Kimmel said, in reference to their response.
Bizarre questioning has focused on paedophilia and child sex abuse images, inviting comparisons to QAnon theories. Kimmel criticised Republicans for “trying to smear a mother of two daughters and who is quite clearly not pro-child porn”.
Despite the “gratuitous attacks”, Kimmel complimented Jackson’s “grace under pressure” before remarking: “It’s funny listening to the same people who let the president try to overthrow the government call anyone soft on crime.”
Ted Cruz was also fixated on Jackson’s involvement with critical race theory, despite it not having any relevance to her work thus far. It led to the official Republican Twitter account tweeting a picture of the judge with her initials erased and replaced with CRT. “I think your dog whistle’s busted guys, everyone can hear it now,” Kimmel said.
He moved on to Tucker Carlson’s strange interview with Donald Trump favourite Kid Rock, showing a montage of the Fox News host “laughing like a seal with a mouthful of sardine penises”.
Eric Trump also appeared on Sean Hannity’s show, to criticise Biden for taking a bike ride in the middle of the day, something that elevated him up the “hypocrite hall of fame”, given that his father played golf an estimated 250 times during his presidency.
This week has also led to Stormy Daniels being ordered to pay Trump’s legal fees. “First you have to have sex with Donald Trump, then you have to pay him for it,” Kimmel said.
