Upon Ted Cruz’s victory in Iowa this weekend, late-night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel took the opportunity on Tuesday to mock Cruz and the Evangelical voters who voted for him.
After remarking that GOP candidates like Cruz had been going “out of their way to talk about the Bible and their faith,” Kimmel wondered how it would look if Jesus himself had been running for President saying some of the more colorful rhetoric from certain GOP candidates.
Kimmel led into the pre-taped video sketch with,“[H]ere they are. The words of the candidates as read by Jesus himself.”
While this clearly was a broad-brush attempt to take words out of context and characterize every candidate running as hypocrites, what Kimmel didn’t say was even more telling. Four of the eight quotes used were only said by one candidate — Donald Trump. Here's the exchange from the February 2 Jimmy Kimmel Live:
JIMMY KIMMEL: Ted Cruz, after Ted Cruz won he gave an hour-long victory speech thanking God and saying his win was a victory for Judeo-Christian values. On Sunday he called on voters in Iowa to awaken the body of Christ by voting for him. It actually worked out pretty well. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump have been doing the same thing. God is a very important part of this primary election. Most all of the candidates go out of their way to talk about the Bible and their faith. So we thought it would be interesting to take real quotes from the primary candidates. These are things these guys actually said. And we want to get an idea of what they would sound like from the mouth of Jesus. [ Laughter ] So, um, here they are. The words of the candidates as read by Jesus himself.
[Video skit plays]
‘JESUS’:You don't lock your doors because you hate the people on the outside. You lock your doors because you love the people on the inside. [Applause]
‘JESUS’: The fact is that we need appropriate vetting and I don't think that orphans under 5 should be admitted into the United States at this point. [Applause]
‘JESUS’: You don't stop bad guys by taking away our guns. You stop bad guys by using our guns. [Applause]
‘JESUS’: Look at that face. I mean, would anybody vote for that? Ugh.
‘JESUS’: I would bomb the [bleep] out of them. I'd just bomb those suckers.
‘JESUS’: The other thing is with the terrorists you have to take out their families. [Applause]
‘JESUS’: I'll take the votes of everyone who likes machine guns and bacon. [Applause]
‘JESUS’: I will build a wall. It will be a great wall.
But taking cheap shots at the GOP and Evangelical voters is just part of the agenda in late-night shows. According to a study published in December of 2015, Trump and the GOP were targeted more than twice as many times as Democrats in late-night comedy jokes.
