Kimmel Slams Kennedy as ‘Inbred’ Over Health Care Bill
Late-night host also says Trump doesn’t understand health policy
Late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel continued his critique of the latest Republican attempt to repeal the 2010 health care law, calling Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy “inbred.”
Speaking Thursday night on his ABC show, Kimmel played a video of Kennedy telling Fox News that the TV host is “a funny guy” but not a health care expert.
Kimmel said he did not claim to be a health care expert.
“I should not be the guy you go to for information about health care, and if these guys — like inbred John Kennedy — would tell the truth for a change, I wouldn’t have to,” he said.
Kimmel has mostly criticized Kennedy’s Louisiana colleague, Sen. Bill Cassidy, for being dishonest about legislation he co-sponsored with fellow GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Dean Heller of Nevada and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
Kimmel’s infant son William was born with a congenital heart disease and underwent open-heart surgery three days after his birth. The comedian has argued that with such a pre-existing condition, millions of others like his son would lose their guarantee of being covered under the latest GOP repeal effort.
Cassidy told CNN four months ago that a new health care overhaul should pass a “Jimmy Kimmel test,” saying that “a child born with congenital heart disease [should] be able to get everything she or he would need in that first year of life.”
Kimmel also criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying the commander in chief did not care about the details of health care legislation as long as it repealed the 2010 law signed by his predecessor Barack Obama.
“He likes to have his name on things, buildings, boxes. And, at this point, he’d sign anything if it meant getting rid of Obamacare,” Kimmel said. “He’d sign copies of the Quran at the Barnes & Noble in Fallujah if it meant he could get rid of Obamacare.”
