Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trump for Wanting to ‘Liberate’ Michigan But Not Melania

As the coronavirus shutdown wears on, “people are getting restless,” Jimmy Kimmel said Monday night. “Especially the people who aren’t too bright.”

When the late-night host saw the hashtag #FloridaMorons trending over the weekend he thought, “that could mean a lot of things.” Specifically, people all over the country were outraged that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had decided to reopen several beaches. “Fortunately there are no old people living in Florida who might be at risk,” Kimmel joked.

This brought the host to the many “stay-at-home” protests across the country, which have been explicitly encouraged by President Donald Trump.

“Despite everyone who works for him telling people to stay at home, despite the official White House mandate being ‘shelter-in-place,’ over the weekend, the guy who runs the White House tweeted, ‘Liberate Michigan,’ ‘Liberate Minnesota’ and ‘Liberate Virginia,’” he said. “This from a man who refuses to even liberate Melania!”

Calling Trump’s comments “irresponsible to the most unbelievable degree,” Kimmel played footage that refuted the president’s claim that the protesters were demonstrating in an “orderly” fashion, six feet apart. “If he thinks those people were six feet apart, it might explain why he thinks his hands are normal size,” the host joked.

“I get that people need to go back to work, I do,” Kimmel said. “But the point of ‘stay-at-home’ is to get a lid on this, so we can get back to work. And then stay at work. I’m starting to think that these characters who support Trump might be suicidal. They seem to fight hardest for the things that will kill them.”

“They want freedom to gather in large groups during an epidemic,” he continued. “They want guns. They want pollution. I figured it out: They want to die and they’re taking us down with them.” 

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