On Thursday, Jimmy Kimmel was, for the third day in a row, highly amused by the chaotic situation in the House of Representatives. So much so, he joked, that he can’t wait for it to inspire Lin-Manuel Miranda to make a musical follow-up to “Hamilton.”
On Thursday California Republican Kevin McCarthy failed to be elected Speaker of the House five more times, making for a total of 11 ballots he’s lost. Naturally, Republicans will try again on Friday, but we suspect this is going to be a Speaker of the House-free weekend.
In his monologue on Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Kimmel unsurprisingly spent a lot of time talking about it.
“Congratulations, Kevin. That’s a hell of an accomplishment. I can’t wait for Lin-Manuel Miranda to make a musical out of it,” the host joked after bringing the audience up to speed.
“I’m worried about Nancy Pelosi. I don’t know if it’s healthy for a woman her age to laugh so hard for so long. She’s just sittin’ back, snappin’ into a Slim Jim – and slow-clapping the bejesus out of this one,” Kimmel continued. “You know, Speaker Pelosi was supposed to be here on our show tomorrow night, but she can’t fly home because she needs to be in Washington to watch McCarthy lose 11 more times.”
Kimmel then noted how this humiliating chaos isn’t actually the worst it’s ever been, noting the case of Nathaniel P. Banks, who need 133 rounds of voting and several months before being confirmed as Speaker of the House. Then he got back into just why McCarthy is following in Banks’ footsteps.
“The reason McCarthy can’t get over the hills is because a group of about 20 super right-wing holdouts are refusing to go along with the majority. Circus jerk Matt Gaetz of Florida is one of them. He is particularly adamant [that] he will not vote for Kevin McCarthy,” Kimmel said, explaining that Gaetz even nominated Donald Trump to be Speaker at one point.
Kimmel then noted how Trump has attempted to help push McCarthy over the line. “Trump personally intervened to try to get McCarthy the votes. He called Matt Gaetz, he called Lauren Boebert, he called all the people he endorsed. You know how many of them changed their minds after he called? Zero,” Kimmel said. “In other words, Trump might not be gone for good – but he’s in remission.”
You can watch the whole “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” monologue in the video above.
