Comedian Jimmy Kimmel defended the absence of jokes about disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein on his late night television show, saying he “never” called himself the “moral conscience of America.”
In an interview with Good Morning America’s Amy Robach, Kimmel discussed his ABC show’s apparent lack of Weinstein jokes. The Miramax co-founder is currently embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, as Breitbart News has extensively reported.
“First of all, the Harvey Weinstein thing, people like this false equivalence of that’s somehow equivalent to what happened in Las Vegas,” he said.
Kimmel continued by saying Weinstein was “not a friend” of his and that he is “not in the movie business,” despite having close relationships with Hollywood’s biggest stars, who have close ties to Weinstein.
“And I’ll add that that story came out like I think moments before we went to tape on Thursday and we didn’t have a show on Friday,” Kimmel said.
“They’re saying that I’m calling myself the moral conscience of America, which I most certainly never did and most certainly never would,” he added.
Even when Kimmel did make a joke about Weinstein’s sexual assault scandal, the joke was aimed towards President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
“Next time you’re defending your father and you think it’s a good idea to draw a comparison between him and a freshly accused sexual predator, don’t,” Kimmel said of Trump Jr. before he made the joke about Weinstein. “It doesn’t help.”
Despite Kimmel’s insistence that he does not claim to be the moral conscience of the country, it was only weeks ago that the late-night comedian decided to take on major issues like the debate on Obamacare and gun control after the Las Vegas mass shooting.
After 58 Americans were killed by a mass shooter at a country music concert in Las Vegas earlier this month, Kimmel weighed in with a lengthy, emotional monologue, saying that “nuts” who own guns bore some responsibility for the mass shooting, as Breitbart News reported.
“They say it’s inappropriate to be talking about it because it’s too soon,” Kimmel said. “Well, maybe it is too soon for you because deep down inside you know — in your heart you know you bear some responsibility for the fact that almost anyone can get any weapon they want, and now you want to cover yourself until the storm of outrage passes and you can go back to your dirty business as usual.”
Weeks before, Kimmel made national headlines when he used his late night to rail against Republicans for attempting to repeal Obamacare, as Breitbart News reported.
This month, CNN’s Bill Carter wrote an essay explaining how Kimmel had become “America’s conscience.”