With most late-night shows off this Memorial Day week, Jimmy Kimmel somehow became the first host to wade into the growing scandal surrounding Jared Kushner Tuesday night. As the host explained, Kushner has been accused of allegedly trying to set up a secret backchannel communication with Russia before President Trump took office. “And you thought your son-in-law was an idiot,” Kimmel joked.
“This is potentially illegal, maybe even very illegal,” the host continued. “Fortunately this morning Trump retweeted the story from Fox & Friends that said Jared didn’t do it. So, that’s a relief.”
No punchline was needed to make his audience laugh at that one.
Kimmel went on to note that Republican Sen. John McCain has begun to draw comparisons between the Trump-Russia story and Watergate. “But Watergate was different,” Kimmel said. “Watergate was some guys breaking into a hotel. This is a guy with a hotel breaking into the White House.”
The host also weighed in on the apparent “shakeup” in the Trump administration’s communications team. “I don’t know what Sean Spicer’s situation is, but based on his performance today, it seems like he’s making a concerted effort to stay on someone’s good side,” Kimmel said, before playing a montage of quotes from Tuesday’s briefing in which the press secretary lauded Trump’s “incredible,” “historic” and “unprecedented” foreign trip.
“I’ve got to say, either Sean Spicer is covering his ass or someone is bigly in love with President Trump,” Kimmel joked.