While the official election results remain inconclusive, Jimmy Kimmel sounded relieved on Wednesday about the possibility that President Donald Trump may have lost.
“I have to say, I am very happy and relieved that it looks like we’re finally sending this monster back to Mar-A-Lago,” Kimmel said. “But I’m also shocked that it was this close.”
Turnout for Tuesday’s election was the highest in the United States in more than 100 years, leading to record vote totals for both Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Trump. While ballots are still being counted as of Thursday morning in states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, Biden has already set a record for receiving the most votes in the history of the country, with more than 71 million. Trump, meanwhile, has received almost 69 million votes thus far, an increase from the nearly 63 million ballots cast for him in 2016. No Republican candidate has ever received more votes than Trump’s current total.
The thin margins of Biden’s potential victory, however, left Kimmel confused. “It is unimaginable to me that close to half of American voters saw what this man has done to this country over the last four years,” Kimmel said, before rattling off a litany of actions and statements that he felt should have been disqualifying for the president.
“He Kowtowed to Vladimir Putin. He cozied up to Kim Jong Un. He alienated us from our allies. He put children in cages. He villainized the press, hid his tax returns. He tear-gassed peaceful protestors. He pardoned his criminal buddies. He extorted Ukraine. He misled us about COVID. He dismantled the Pandemic Response Team. He dismantled healthcare. He called neo-Nazis ‘very fine people.’ He hired a never-ending parade of imbeciles. He lied, lied, lied, and lied, and then he lied some more.”
“He is a liar and a cheat who wants them to stop counting thousands of legitimate votes—and almost half us are apparently okay with that,” Kimmel concluded, citing Trump’s attempts to falsely contest the election. “Half of us want it to keep going for four more years.”
Kimmel said it wasn’t even about voting for Biden so much as denouncing Trump. “I don’t care what you think of Joe Biden,” he added. “If Joe Biden stopped by my house every morning to key my car and pee in my pool, there still would be no question which one of them I’d vote for. None.”
With rising anger in his voice, Kimmel concluded with a question to his viewers. “What more did Donald Trump have to do to show us that he’s insane? And not fit to lead this country?” Kimmel asked.
“I feel like I overestimated the American people,” he added, before ending on a punchline. “And I underestimated The Village People.”
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