Jimmy Kimmel on JD Vance: ‘A hollow shell of a human being’

Late-night hosts talk about JD Vance’s hypocrisy and Bob Woodward’s report that Donald Trump sent scarce Covid tests to Vladimir Putin in May 2020.

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel tore into Donald Trump’s “close and inappropriate relationship with sugar-Vladdy Putin” on Wednesday evening, after the journalist Bob Woodward reported that Trump sent the Russian leader coveted Covid tests in the height of the pandemic.

According to Woodward’s new book, War, Trump has also spoken to Putin seven times since he left office, and once instructed one of his top aides to leave the room so he could have a private call with him. “Which means either they were talking about something Trump didn’t want anybody to know about, or Donald Trump named his penis Vladimir Putin,” Kimmel laughed.

On the campaign trail, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, tried to downplay Trump’s chummy relationship with Putin. “Is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders?” he said.

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“First of all, yes,” Kimmel responded. “And second, yes, it’s very wrong to have chats with dictators who are trying to exterminate our allies when you aren’t the president anymore. Same reason you don’t throw a birthday party for Diddy, OK?”

It’s also illegal, under the Logan Act, for private citizens to engage in foreign policy that undercuts the US. “But this JD Vance, he is a hollow shell of a human being,” said Kimmel, pointing to an interview he did with Megyn Kelly from late November, 2020, in which Vance said: “I think that when Biden is inaugurated, people will, you know, more or less accept it, and it’ll be on to the next fight.”

“Good call, Nostra-dumbass,” Kimmel deadpanned. “The next fight was trying to hang Mike Pence, which is how he got the gig, I guess.”

Seth Meyers

On Late Night, Seth Meyers also marveled at Woodward’s report of Trump sending Covid tests to Putin. “He’s going to have to change his campaign slogan to ‘America! But first …’” Meyers joked.

“So the guy who claims he put Americans first as president sent rare Covid tests to a Russian dictator when Americans needed them,” Meyers recapped. “How did Trump even send them? Was it part of a care package with some snacks, a bath bomb and a CD that said ‘mixtape for Vlad, from Don, my heart is only loyal to you?’”

According to Woodward, Putin was the one concerned about the optics of the transaction. “Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” he reportedly told Trump. “People will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”

“Knowing Trump, I’m surprised he didn’t jump in and say: ‘They do care about you, Vlad!’” Meyers laughed. “What other sage political advice did Putin give Trump? ‘I think maybe less talk about how Hannibal Lecter is good guy?’”

Not only was Trump sending coveted Covid tests to a “corrupt Russian dictator”, he was also claiming in public that Americans actually didn’t need tests. “Now we know that Trump knew testing was important,” said Meyers. “He knew it, even as he was lying to the American people about it, because he was sending those tests to Putin at the same time. If Trump truly believed testing was overrated, then he would have said the same thing to Putin on that phone call, but he didn’t.

“This story is simple,” he concluded. “When the chips are down, and Trump has a choice between helping Americans and helping his wealthy, powerful friends, he’s always going to turn to his wealthy powerful friends and say,” as he has said to his followers on the campaign trail: “I’m only loyal to you.”

The Daily Show

Wednesday evening marked 26 days until the election, or “less than one menstrual cycle, according to the period app JD Vance is secretly tracking you with”, joked Jordan Klepper on The Daily Show.

With so little time left, “both campaigns are going all out”. Kamala Harris “has been everywhere recently” and “not a moment too soon, because voters are looking for change. And Kamala needs to articulate why she is the candidate of change.”

Asked on The View if she would have done anything differently than Biden, Harris answered “there’s not a thing that comes to mind …”

“Not a thing is coming into your mind?” Klepper scoffed. “You really are continuing the Biden legacy.”

When pressed, Harris said the one difference she could name was having a Republican in her cabinet. “Ok so … everything that Joe Biden did, plus Republicans,” Klepper said. “Sneaky move, appealing to Republicans by promising to do a diversity hire. They famously love that.”