Jimmy Kimmel Calls Out 'Cowardly' Republicans By Name In Scathing Opener
Jimmy Kimmel began his show without an audience on Wednesday and delivered an emotional monologue about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Kimmel said most Americans support common-sense gun laws, but legislation had stalled “because our cowardly leaders just aren’t listening to us ― they’re listening to the NRA.”
Then he went to town on those “cowardly leaders,” particularly Texas GOP lawmakers such as Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Gov. Greg Abbott, who’ve called for more armed police and teachers in schools rather than gun control.
“If your solution to children being massacred is armed guards, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on,” Kimmel said. “There was an armed guard in Buffalo. There was an armed guard in Parkland. There was an armed guard in Uvalde.”
Kimmel said he can’t believe Cruz doesn’t care.
“He’s not a monster. He’s a human being,” Kimmel said, adding:
“So here’s the thing I would like to say to Ted Cruz, the human being and Gov. Abbott, everyone: It’s OK to admit you made a mistake. In fact, it’s not just OK, it’s necessary to admit you made a mistake when your mistake is killing the children in your state. It takes a big person to do something like that. It takes a brave person to do something like that.”
“And do I think these men are brave people?” he added. “No, I don’t. I don’t. But, man, I would love it if they surprised me.”
Kimmel also called for Americans to “be loud and to stay loud” and shared a supercut video of Republican lawmakers and candidates celebrating easy access to guns.
“Let’s make sure that not one of any of these politicians ever holds office again,” he said:
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
