An emotional Jimmy Kimmel opened his show Thursday night by speaking to both his audience and President Trump following Wednesday’s school shooting that took place in Florida.
“As I’m sure you know and feel, this is another very sad day in America,” Kimmel said on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “At least 17 lives have been lost. More than a dozen people are hospitalized, and our President, as he should, weighed in on the tragic events this morning from the White House.”
The host then showed clips of Trump’s speech from the White House on Thursday morning in which the president said, “No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning.”
“Agreed,” the host responded. “Here’s what you do to fix that. Tell your buddies in Congress — tell Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and 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.”
Authorities say that Nikolas Cruz, 19, gunned down students and staff with a rifle on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people. It is at least the eighth shooting at a U.S. school this year.
Kimmel, who was visibly shaken, continued by speaking directly to Trump.
“Tell these Congressmen and lobbyists, who infest that swamp you said you were going to drain, force these allegedly Christian men and women who stuff their pockets with money from the NRA year after year after year to do something,” he said. “Now. Not later. Now.”
The host told Trump not to let anyone say that “it’s too soon to be talking about it.”
“Children are being murdered. Do something,” Kimmel said with his voice breaking. “We still haven’t even talked about it. You still haven’t done anything about this. Nothing. You’ve literally done nothing.”
Kimmel kept addressing Trump by adding that politicians and the president like to say that mass shootings are a mental health issue. He then said that one of the first acts of Trump’s presidency was to roll back a regulation designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill.
“Your party voted to repeal the mandates on coverage for mental health,” Kimmel said. “So I agree, this is a mental illness issue because if you don’t think we need to do something about it, you are obviously mentally ill.”
Kimmel finished his monologue by saying that viewers could write or call their representatives to demand gun control. And if they don’t listen, he said, people can vote those representatives out.
“Whatever you do, do something because I, for one, am very, very, very, very tired of this,” he said before showing clips of politicians and the president saying it’s too early to talk about gun control.
“Yeah, no it isn’t,” Kimmel said.