Jimmy Kimmel Accepts Roy Moore’s Invitation to Fight Him “Man to Man”

“I’ll wear a Girl Scout uniform so you can have something to get excited about.”

Jimmy Kimmel is coming for Roy Moore. 

On Thursday, the late show host publicly accepted Moore’s invitation to confront him “man to man” and discuss Christian values in light of the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama. Kimmel said that he’d bring along a team of cheerleaders and the setting could take place at a mall—a scathing reference to accusations the former judge pursued teenage girls and was once banned from the local mall.

“I accept that invitation,” Kimmel said. “There is no one I would love to fight more than you. I will put my Christian values aside just for you and for that fight.”

“I’ll wear a Girl Scout uniform so you can have something to get excited about,” he added.

The monologue came after Moore took to Twitter earlier in the day to complain about a stunt Kimmel’s show had conducted involving comedian Tony Barbieri and the character Jake Byrd inside a church campaign event. (You can watch below for additional context.) In his tweets, Moore accused Kimmel of mocking Christian values and appeared to propose an in-person challenge.

https://twitter.com/MooreSenate/status/936347050614108162

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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