As Amy Otto over at The Federalist rightly puts it, Jimmy Kimmel has officially degraded America’s rich late-night tradition into “Jerry Springer” after dark. Following the State of the Union Address Tuesday night, Kimmel has invited onto his increasingly Trump-obsessed show former porn creator Stormy Daniels to ask her “many questions” about her alleged sexual affair with Trump in the mid-2000s.
”I am pleased to announce that the very gifted @StormyDaniels will be on #Kimmel Tuesday 1/30 after the #StateOfTheUnion. I have MANY QUESTIONS! #MAGA”, Kimmel announced via Twitter last week.
Otto succinctly sums up the problems with Kimmel’s stunt, which she stresses “will not make the point that we should all expect better of the person who holds the presidency,” nor “hold up fidelity as an expected norm in marriage,” nor “consider the effects on Melania or Barron Trump, Trump’s wife and child, of this alleged infidelity and publicizing it”:
Hosting a porn purveyor who says she willingly participated in infidelity will not shift public conversation to the value of fidelity in marriage, which crucial for family security and happiness. Interviewing the person of low moral character, if she happily slept with a married man whose wife had just given birth, does not exactly drive the point home about Trump’s unworthiness for a public platform. Any person who chooses to pursue or engage with a married person is behaving in a way he or she knows, deep down, is wrong.
That’s the problem with this approach. It is more likely to normalize bad behavior and highlight this woman’s fame-seeking, creating more doubt about the veracity of her account. This is great PR for her, and every appearance of her on TV happily smiling and promoting herself makes her actions appear less harmful.
While many on the Left — like far-left outlet Jezebel, which declared “Stormy Daniels Is Going on Jimmy Kimmel, Now Nothing Else Matters” — are of course cheering Kimmel’s stunt, many others online are calling out the host for his egregiously partisan ratings grab.
A few examples of some of the online blowback, including some references to Kimmel’s own scandalous moment (see below) and questions about when Kimmel will invite on some other famous presidential accusers:
Here’s that other infamous Kimmel stunt that came back to haunt him amid the #MeToo wave:
UPDATE: Just hours before the big interview, Stormy Daniels released a statement revealing that…all those rumors that she’d had an affair with Trump were bogus. In other words, Kimmel’s shameless porn star stunt proved to be all for nothing. Read more: POOR JIMMY: Porn Star Stormy Daniels Releases New Statement Before Kimmel Appearance