Jimmy Kimmel trashed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for apparently lying about the extent of his relationship to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
In an October interview, Lutnick claimed he’d cut all contact with his New York neighbor Epstein after meeting him in 2005 and finding him to be a “disgusting person.” However, the January 30 drop of Epstein emails revealed that Lutnick visited Epstein’s infamous island in December 2012.
On Tuesday, Lutnick was grilled over this revelation at a Senate subcommittee. “I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person. Okay?” he declared. While lawmakers acknowledged that Lutnick was not accused of any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein, they did raise the contradiction in his statements.
Kimmel showed a clip from the hearing, in which Lutnick admitted to bringing his wife, his kids, and his kids’ nanny to Epstein’s island.
“What a fun dad,” Kimmel joked. “‘Where do you want to go, kids? You want to have lunch with the most notorious pedophile in American history?’”
Kimmel told the Trump-appointed commerce secretary, “The fact that you brought your family to Epstein Island is not the point. It’s super crazy, but it’s not the point.”
“The point is, you lied about never being in the room with that ‘disgusting person’ ever again,” Kimmel said. “Not only were you in the room with that disgusting person, you sailed to his island for lunch.”
Kimmel described Lutnick as a “rodent” who appeared in the Epstein files “more than 100 times.”
Kimmel emphasized the sheer extent of Lutnick’s apparent lie, quoting from Lutnick’s October interview where he claimed, “I was never in the room with [Epstein] socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going ‘cause he’s gross.”
Kimmel showed another clip from Tuesday’s subcommittee in which Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen asked Lutnick about Epstein’s apparent interest in meeting his nanny. Lutnick replied, “I have no idea about that whole thing.”
Van Hollen told Lutnick, “It’s just, you know, this guy was a convicted sex offender, and obviously not a great place for kids and nannies.”
Kimmel agreed, joking, “In fact, it might be one of the least great places for kids and nannies.”
Kimmel added, “Oh, Howard, what a mess you are in.”
