Flashback: Kimmel Tried To Shame Trump Supporters, But They Turned the Tables
Editor’s Note: Our readers really enjoyed this story when it originally ran; we’re re-posting it for your enjoyment.
Liberals were fawning over Jimmy Kimmel last week after he pulled a stunt in which a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters was shamed in an encounter with a family who was affected by the president’s immigration crackdown. The encounter, as Kimmel’s political antics tend to do, led to an outpouring of love from the left.
However, in a piece published Monday at Townhall.com, Arthur Schaper — one of the Trump supporters Kimmel mocked during the segment — is urging ABC to release raw video of the encounter, which was aired in truncated form on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
If what he says about the interview is true, that could end up being a huge problem for the late-night host.
In his piece, Schalper claims Kimmel called him an “a–hole,” was dismissive of conservatives of color and was generally rude to the right-leaning participants.
Schaper says he was originally contacted by ABC casting to appear on the show for a segment about voters who oppose former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhoold Arrivals program for illegal immigrants.
“At first, I was reluctant,” he writes. “Kimmel uses every shame-inducing prop imaginable to attack President Trump and conservatives in general.”
However, he reached out to a friend with a Trump-friendly PAC for advice. “She encouraged me to go with her and four others: Chanell Temple, Wes Parker, Lorie Masonas, and Celeste Grieg,” Schaper says. “All of us know each in other conservative circles throughout Southern California.”
Schaper described arriving at the studios to see a litany of pictures of Kimmel’s guests and other ephemera, the most prominent being his appearance at a state dinner with Barack Obama. (Schaper “fixed” the picture by taking a photo of it with his MAGA cap in the foreground.)
“After a brief ‘rehearsal,’ we finally met Jimmy Kimmel who interviewed each of us about the program,” Schaper wrote. “I told him that nearly 50% of DACA recipients are fraudulent, and illegals commit proportionally more crime than Americans. He finished our brief interview with: ‘I want you to meet somebody.’
“After the interviews, our team waited in the Green Room. I pondered who Kimmel was going to have us meet. ‘He’s going to present a child who is in this country illegally,’ I imagined.
“Lo and Behold, Kimmel introduced us to Esmeralda, a DACA recipient brought into this country by her law-breaking illegal parents. She was seated with a baby girl in her lap. Kimmel staged the most compassionate scenario, hoping to shame us into silence.”
Yes, Schaper’s premonition had come to pass. And things were about to get a lot more pathetic.
Schaper describes being silenced by Kimmel five times. “Right away, I opened up about our need to put Americans first, including our homeless veterans and foster children,” Schaper wrote. “‘OK, Arthur, that’s enough.’ And why couldn’t I finish? ‘Because this is my show!’ Kimmel fired back. He would say that three more times. What a dictator!’
“I mentioned general statistics about illegals committing a higher rate of crimes that native-born citizens. ‘OK Sean Hannity, give it a rest,’ Kimmel mocked me. ‘I don’t watch Hannity,’ I countered. Other people in our group were shocked to see how triggered the comic had become.”
The discussion that Schaper describes was considerably more nuanced than the one that appeared on Kimmel’s show, including numerous points made regarding Esmerelda’s legal status and how it could be settled by a number of means.
“I pointed out that there are ways to settle Esmeralda’s unlawful status. My friend Fernando had entered illegally, then married an American citizen. I then reasserted to Michael (Esmerelda’s fiancé) and Esmeralda that we are a nation of laws, and that I have not been afraid to tell illegals that they must establish legal status,” Schaper describes. “’I find it hard to believe that you have friends,’ Kimmel retorted.”
Stay classy, Jimmy. And apparently, the host — for all of his liberal tendencies — left most of the opinions of the panel’s sole black member out of the final cut.
“Chanell gave the most impassioned statements, declaring how her husband was an immigrant, that she had waited in line with him for years before finalizing his naturalization status. ‘You are playing on our compassion! You didn’t let us bring our children!'” Schaper writes. “During the earlier individual interview segment, Chanell had railed against illegal aliens for stealing the civil rights movement forged by black Americans to assert their rights in the South. Chanell schooled Kimmel on the amnesty movement’s misuse of the term “Dreamer” for young illegals. ‘Our children are dreamers, too!’”
(That line evoked one of Trump’s most effective statements in last week’s State of the Union Address: “Americans are Dreamers, too.”)
That wasn’t the only time that Jimmy didn’t check his privilege, either.
“The pièce de résistance occurred when Kimmel tried one more time to silence me,” Schaper wrote. “Bursting through all of Kimmel’s attempts to shame us, Lorie reminded the audience about the needs of American citizens. In rude yet repeated fashion, Kimmel championed Esmeralda but talked over Lorie, and I finally calmly asked: ‘Jimmy, why won’t you let this Latina for Trump speak? You keep interrupting her. Is it because she has darker skin than you?’
“With that, Kimmel completely lost it and shouted at me: ‘Shut up, you a–hole!'”
In the end, though, Schaper describes the appearance as a positive one for him.
“Kimmel and Co. didn’t realize whom they were messing with, and I am glad I could relate what else happened behind the scenes,” he writes about turning the tables on the late-night host. “At this point, I hope that Kimmel and his production team will show some guts and release the entire video of our forum with Esmeralda, Michael, and their child!”
That’s unlikely to happen, particularly if it’s as incriminating as Schaper seems to let on. However, it seems like the darling of the left may be about to face some serious questions about the exploitative segment that won him so much liberal love.
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