On Tuesday, ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel said he did not regret anything he has said about President Trump.
Interviewer Paula Faris brought up the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements against sexual harassment and assault, then asked how Kimmel would “walk” that “tightrope” when he hosted the Oscars on March 4. She asked, “Are you nervous at all that you’re going to strike the right tone?”
Kimmel, responded, “Yeah, that, I do worry about that, because I have a tendency to not strike the right tone in my life, and so I do think about that.”
Faris asked, “How will you know if you’ve gone too far?”
Kimmel, laughing, “I’m sure the internet will tell me.”
Faris: “In real time?”
Kimmel: “Yes, almost immediately.”
Later, Faris pressed, “You probably saw that there was a USA Today poll that was released recently that said 94% of women in Hollywood have been harassed or assaulted. … That’s your audience right there. How do you address it?”
Kimmel, suddenly reticent to speak out, “Well, listen, here’s the thing: this show is not about reliving people’s sexual assaults; it’s an awards show for people who have been dreaming about maybe winning an Oscar for their whole lives, and the last thing I wanna do is ruin that for someone who is nominated for Best Leading Actress, or Best Supporting or Best Director or cinematography or whatever by making it unpleasant. That’s not what I want to do. I’m not going to stop any bad behavior with my jokes.”
Later, after playing a clip of Kimmel mocking President Trump, Faris queried, “Do you think that maybe there have been times where you pushed the envelope too far and maybe become a little too political?”
Kimmel, who has called Trump “mentally ill,” said bluntly, “No, I don’t.”
Faris: “You don’t regret anything that you’ve said?”
Kimmel, unrepentant: “Not at all. I don’t think you can go too far. I think that I’m still doing a comedy show and I need to be funny and entertain my audience but I also think we’ve matured enough to the point where we can accept late night talk show hosts speaking about a serious subject, and I think that it’s almost necessary now.”
Kimmel patronized that Trump would do “the right thing,” adding, “I do think that there’s probably a person in there who knows what the right thing to do is and who wants to do the right thing.”
H/T Newsbusters