Finally: Under Duress, Pope Kimmel Makes Weinstein Joke -- After Trashing Trump, Of Course

Under heavy criticism, former late night comedian and current American Pope Jimmy Kimmel followed up on his weekend Twitter battle with Donald Trump, Jr. (which we referenced in this post) on his ABC program last night. The president's son had called Kimmel out for ignoring the scandal engulfing disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, a power player in Kimmel's world, and a buddy of his. The Nation's Conscience and former host of The Man Show, -- which featured slow motion footage of women jumping on trampolines -- was hardly alone in his avoidance of the subject. In his back and forth with Trump Jr, Kimmel essentially agreed to make a joke about the Weinstein story this week. He finally did so in his Monday monologue, but not before he lit into the man who (yes, hypocritically) browbeat him into acknowledging the story in the first place. Kimmel's shot at Hillary -- and by extension, Trump -- is pretty solid. Then came his perfunctory, box-checking one-liner about Weinstein:

Here's the full bit of @jimmykimmel going after @DonaldJTrumpJr - plus a teed up Weinstein joke at the end: pic.twitter.com/dYvV6CuZkd
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 10, 2017

Yeah, so "the insinuation" is not that liberal comedians won't make jokes at the expense of liberal politicians (although guys like Kimmel certainly would never openly agitate against them, urging viewers to inundate their offices with angry phone calls while regurgitating verbatim GOP talking points). The insinuation, and it's a fair one, is that liberal comedians and entertainers have no problem blasting serial sexual harassers or abusers who have no power over their own careers, but apply a very different standard to serial sexual harassers or abusers who do. Horrible and even criminal conduct is overlooked, covered up, and protected within the club. Kimmel dismissively describing Weinstein as "not the president" diminishes Weinstein's power and the seriousness of his appalling, decades-long pattern of aggressive, predatory treatment of women. I might note that Kimmel had no compunction about hammering and mocking Bill O'Reilly, who's also not the president. But speaking of presidents who've been credibly accused of sexual misconduct and assault, Kimmel would never want to be associated with one of those, right?

.@TheEllenShow- No Brad Cooper but 3 Clintons & a Kimmel @BillClinton @HillaryClinton @ChelseaClinton #selfie pic.twitter.com/GyGFxnUjfP
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 23, 2014

Yes, please tell us more about "absolution," Madame Not President. In fairness to Hill, she's probably still counting on some big checks from Harv to finance her 2020 presidential campaign. But knowing her, and accounting for her out-of-touch self-interested calculation, she'll probably be dragged into a condemnation just late enough for peak inauthenticity. Oh, and is Obama ever going to weigh in on his campaign cash cow, or nah? I'll leave you with Mrs. Clinton sounding off on behalf of anthem protests, and pledging to remain front-and-center in our national debates:

Hillary Clinton: "I am not going anywhere other than right into the middle of the debate about the future" https://t.co/gSocvPrkxv pic.twitter.com/ZWsLvqXlUe
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 10, 2017

Terrific -- the RNC couldn't be happier. But since you're a super active pundit now, bravely chiming in on the Issues That Matter, may we have your thoughts on your mega donor and friend who regularly did things like corner women in hallways, forcing them to watch him pleasure himself? We'll wait.