VICTORY LAP

Jimmy Kimmel Makes ‘Confession’ About Working With Chuck Schumer

The host said he still ‘can’t believe’ they pulled off their plan to stop Graham-Cassidy.

While the rest of late-night TV was focused on President Donald Trump’s war with the NFL Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel was not going to let himself be distracted from the one topic that has dominated his show for the past week: health care.

The host said he had an “emotional weekend” meeting people in three different cities who just wanted to tell him how important the Affordable Care Act has been for them. “They came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Fallon, thank you for speaking out,’” Kimmel joked.

Kimmel noted that “common sense and decency prevailed” Friday when Sen. John McCain announced that he would not be voting for the Graham-Cassidy bill. As he did on Twitter following that news, the host thanks McCain for “pulling a Red Wedding” on the legislation. “The truth is, John McCain probably saved the Republican Party by doing this,” Kimmel said. “Because if you think Graham-Cassidy is unpopular now, wait until people have to live with it. Or not live with it.”

“This is one of those rare moments where we actually needed Congress to do nothing,” Kimmel said, “which is what they’re really good at, by the way.”

Kimmel then addressed The Daily Beast exclusive that revealed he had been in contact with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for months, discussing his health-care commentary. “All the propaganda outlets got very excited,” Kimmel said, saying they “went absolutely nuts, they called me a pawn and a mouthpiece, they said I was a puppet for the Democrats.”

In response to criticism from Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth, Kimmel said, “Thank you man with a pony keg full of gel in his hair.”

With that, Kimmel said he needed to make a “confession” about something. “Here’s what happened,” he began. “My wife and I were worried about health care. We didn’t like what the Republicans were doing, so we decided to have a baby with congenital heart defects. And then once we had that going for us, I went on TV, I spoke out, and we may have stopped Cassidy-Graham. I still can’t believe we pulled it off, but we did!”

Finally, Kimmel applauded Sen. Susan Collins for coming out against the bill on Monday, meaning that it’s “almost certainly dead” in the Senate. “Or at the very least it’s on life support, which isn’t covered,” he joked.  

“The best news is now I can go back to talking about the Kardashians,” Kimmel said. “You guys, Kylie’s pregnant!”

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Matt WilsteinSenior Editor

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