October 3, 2017

Jimmy Kimmel Fights Back Tears While Delivering Powerful Plea for Gun Control

“They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country.”

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In the wake of the worst mass shooting in US history, Jimmy Kimmel on Monday delivered a scathing monologue calling out congressional lawmakers who send their prayers instead of working for increased gun control measures. The Las Vegas native specifically called out President Trump and Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan for failing to act “because the NRA has their balls in a money clip.”

“The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, a number of other lawmakers who won’t do anything about this because the NRA has their balls in a money clip, also sent their thoughts and their prayers today—which is good,” Kimmel said.

“They should be praying,” he continued. “They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country because it is so crazy.”

Kimmel also showed the images of senators who just days after the Orlando shooting in June 2016 voted against a bill that would have closed certain gun sale loopholes. “These are the 56 senators who didn’t want to do anything about that,” he said.

The powerful plea comes on the heels of similar emotional speeches from Kimmel over Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

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You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

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