Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel took a swipe at Republicans who are quick to offer thoughts and prayers after the deadly mass shooting Wednesday at a Florida high school that took the lives of 17 people and said President Trump has done “literally done nothing” to solve the problem of gun violence.
In an emotional opening monologue Thursday on his show, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, the comedian implored lawmakers and Trump to take tangible steps to prevent future mass shootings.
“As I’m sure you know and feel, this is another very sad day in America. Another senseless shooting. This time – at a high school in Parkland, Fla.,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel featured footage of Trump saying no child or teacher “should ever be in danger in an American school” and “no parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning” after the Florida attack.
“So I agree with both of those statements,” Kimmel said in response. “So here’s what you do to fix that. Tell your buddies in Congress — tell [House Speaker] Paul Ryan, [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell, [Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio — all the family men who care so much about their communities — that what we need — are laws. Real laws — that do everything possible to keep assault rifles — out of the hands of people who are going to shoot our kids.”
Kimmel also said it’s not too soon to talk about gun-control — a swipe at Republicans who often caution against talk about placing more limits on gun ownership rights immediately following a shooting.
“And don’t you dare let anyone say ‘it’s too soon to be talking about it.’ Because you guys said that after Las Vegas. You said it after Sandy Hook. You say that after every one of these eight now fatal school we’ve had in the United States this year,” Kimmel said about Trump. “Children are being murdered. And — yea, do something. We still haven’t talked about it. You still haven’t done anything about this. Nothing. You’ve literally done nothing.”
Kimmel went on to say Trump has done “worse than nothing,” pointing to when the president last year signed a bill that overturned an Obama-era regulation that gave the Social Security Administration the power to revoke a person’s Second Amendment rights based on whether he receives disability for a mental impairment that keeps him from working, or if he “[uses] a representative payee to help manage their benefits.”
Police have identified the shooting suspect from Wednesday’s attack as former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, who had been previously expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He was apprehended by authorities and has confessed to the shooting, in which he used a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle.
This isn’t the first time Kimmel has discussed mass shootings. After the Las Vegas shooting in Oct. 2017, he also addressed gun control and stricter vetting to obtain guns.
“What I’m talking about tonight isn’t about gun control. It’s about common sense,” he said during a monologue in the fall.
