A visibly shaken Jimmy Kimmel addressed Donald Trump during his late-night monologue on Thursday night, urging the President to take action to prevent the cycle of gun violence in the wake of Wednesday's Parkland, Florida, school shooting in which a 19-year-old gunman killed at least 17 people.
"At least 17 lives have been lost. More than a dozen people are hospitalized, and our President, as he should, weighed in on the tragic events this morning from the White House." Kimmel said. He then introduced a segment with clips of Trump doling out obligatory platitudes that never seem to result in action.
"No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school," said Trump in a recent press conference. So far, Kimmel was on board with the President's comment. "Agreed," the late show host told viewers.
Trump adds, "No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning."
"I agree with both of those statements," said Kimmel, and then proceeded to offer Trump some suggestions on how to channel the nation's frustration into action.
Here's what you do to fix that. Tell your buddies in Congress -- tell Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio, all the family men who care so much about their communities -- that what we need are laws. Real laws that do everything possible to keep assault rifles out of the hands of people who are going to shoot our kids. Go on TV and tell them to do that.
The late show host continued imploring Trump to do something about gun violence:
Tell these Congressmen and lobbyists, who infest that swamp you said you were going to drain, force these allegedly Christian men and women who stuff their pockets with money from the NRA year after year after year to do something. Now. Not later. Now.
The emotional host urged Trump not to let anyone tell him that it's too soon to be talking about the gun violence epidemic. Kimmel also reminded Trump that he offered the same comments after every mass shooting incident in the past year, but nothing was done about it.
Holding back tears, Kimmel commented about the lives that have been lost.
Children are being murdered. Do something. We still haven't even talked about it. You still haven't done anything about this. Nothing. You've literally done nothing.
Twitter agreed it's time for a serious discussion. Again.
Kimmel went on to say that Trump has done, "worse than nothing. You like to say this is a mental health issue. But one of your very first acts as president, Mr. Trump, was to actually roll back the regulation that were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill. You did that."
The late show host was praised for speaking out on the issue.
The gunman was Nikolas Cruz, who used a legally owned AR-15 rifle. In September, Cruz commented on a vlogger's page, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." He also made another comment on a YouTube channel, saying, "I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people."
Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said during a news conference that Cruz "had been dealing with mental health issues."
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