Jimmy Kimmel has expressed surprise that recent allegations concerning Donald Trump’s association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein haven’t significantly influenced voter sentiment in the presidential election.
During the final segment of Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday, the host addressed newly surfaced claims involving Trump’s past connection with Epstein, highlighted in journalist Michael Wolff’s podcast Fire and Fury, which featured an audio recording purportedly of Epstein discussing Trump’s Cabinet in detail.
“Don’t Understand How This Race Is Close”
Kimmel remarked, “I still don’t understand how this race is close,” expressing disbelief over the minimal impact of these revelations. He emphasized, “We heard a bombshell audio tape in which Jeffrey Epstein says he was Trump’s closest friend and shares a bunch of crazy stories, this barely moves the needle. We just got a hundred hours of Jeffrey Epstein saying he and Trump were BFFs, I didn’t even get an alert about it on my phone.”
In his monologue, Kimmel mentioned that Epstein’s claims included Trump allegedly boasting about engaging in relationships with the spouses of close friends and being described by Epstein as lacking any moral compass.
Kimmel joked, “Do you know what kind of low life you have to be for Jeffrey Epstein to say you have no moral [compass]? It’s like if R Kelly got mad at you for leaving the toilet seat up.”
Did Jeffrey Epstein Criticize Trump?
The Daily Beast reported that these recordings contained Epstein’s critical remarks about Trump, where he stated, “The moral compass just does not exist,” during his conversation with Wolff.
Ahead of election day, Kimmel also brought up a Fox News interview from June, in which Trump was asked if he would declassify the Epstein files. While he readily agreed to release the 9/11 and JFK files, he hesitated when addressing the Epstein documents, saying, “I guess I would, but I think that less so because you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there.”
Kimmel sarcastically added, “Right, better to keep them locked up in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago,” alluding to allegations about Trump’s mishandling of classified documents post-presidency.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s 2024 campaign national press secretary, dismissed Wolff’s claims, saying, “Michael Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics. He waited until days before the election to make outlandish false smears all in an effort to engage in blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris. He’s a failed journalist that is resorting to lying for attention.”
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