Kimmel on Alienating Conservatives: ‘I Probably Wouldn’t Want to Have a Conversation with Them Anyway’

‘I would do it again in a heartbeat’

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RUSH EXCERPT:

REPORTER: "Kimmel, who turns 50 next month was always a lovable frat boy at 11:30. but like other late night hosts he put comedy on hold after the Las Vegas massacre."
[BEGIN CLIP] 
KIMMEL: "Maybe I'm nuts, but I would like to think we could put politics aside and agree that no American citizen need an M-16 or ten of them. And maybe that way, we don't do this again." 
REPORTER: "Kimmel's call for gun control after the shooting was both praised and criticized. You've heard those one conservative commentator who made Jimmy Kimmel the moral arbiter." 
KIMMEL: "I'm not. I agree with him. I'm nobody's moral arbiter. you don't have to watch the show, you don't have to listen to what I say."
REPORTER: "His monologues, written just before every show, have drawn fire from critics who bash him for everything from being wrong on gun control to being soft on Harvey Weinstein."
REPORTER: "It's a bit of a risk that you're taking talking about that stuff. you might lose the audience." 
KIMMEL: "Yeah, I mean, I saw -- I don't know fit was a study or a poll or some combination of those two things that three years ago I was equally liked by Republicans and Democrats. and then Republican numbers went way down like 30 percent or whatever. And, you know, as a talk show host that's not ideal. But I did -- I would do it again in a heartbeat." 
REPORTER: "So you don't mind if republicans turn off your show, they're not watching any more?" 
KIMMEL: "I love for everyone, everyone with a television to watch the show. But if they're so turned off by my opinion on health care and gun violence then, I don't know. I probably won't want to have a conversation with them anyway."
REPORTER: "Good riddance?"
KIMMEL: "Not good riddance, but riddance."

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