The late-night host teed off on Trump’s vaccine screw-up and how COVID continues to spread through his ranks.
On Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the latest edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live! by tackling President Trump’s continued bungling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thus far claimed over 270,000 American lives, seen millions slide into poverty, and kept many trapped indoors. His administration’s latest screw-up involves Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
It seems that after the vaccine proved promising in clinical trials, the pharmaceutical giant reportedly offered the Trump administration the opportunity to purchase additional doses beyond the 100 million it had acquired (enough to treat 50 million people, as it is a two-dose treatment). But Trump, for whatever reason, declined.
“We learned from The New York Times that over the summer, the Trump administration refused an offer from Pfizer to pre-order additional doses of the vaccine, so those additional doses—that we could have used—are now set to go to other countries,” Kimmel explained.
He then threw to a clip of ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos interviewing Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser of Trump’s vaccine program Operation Warp Speed. When asked about a proposed Trump executive order that would prioritize vaccines for Americans before those in other countries—even though vaccine distribution is already underway in the U.K.—Dr. Slaoui couldn’t answer.
The late-night host then pivoted to the numerous members of team Trump who have come down with COVID-19. In addition to Trump, the first lady, and a number of his senior staffers, it was recently revealed that Rudy Giuliani, who’s been traveling all over the country and going to events sans mask, came down with COVID.
“Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani tested positive over the weekend, and today we learned that Trump’s other lawyer, Jenna Ellis, seen here seated virus-adjacent, has COVID too,” offered Kimmel, throwing to the infamous photo of Ellis reacting to Rudy Giuliani audibly farting in court. “Did she get it from Mayor Tooty? Well, we’ll never know, I guess.”
“Ellis was also spotted at the White House staff Christmas party on Friday,” Kimmel added, before putting up a photo of Ellis posing at the bash. “There she is. No mask, no brain.”
“Senior Trump officials are said to be upset that she was at the party. Well, why were they at the party! Why did you have the party in the first place?!” Kimmel exclaimed. “Of course, this Jenna Ellis, just a few months ago she tweeted, ‘There is no pandemic.’ So… I’m starting to think the virus may have a sense of humor about all this.”
