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President Joe Biden made his first in-person appearance on a late-night talk show on Wednesday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel began his interview with Biden by saying, “Biden is to aviator sunglasses what Tom Cruise is to aviator sunglasses.”
Then Kimmel and President Biden wasted no time in getting right down to business discussing politics and gun control.
President @JoeBiden on issuing an Executive Order in response to gun violence… pic.twitter.com/KUXsyNfZrW
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) June 9, 2022
Kimmel pressed Trump on why he isn’t taking more executive action to combat gun violence. Then he brought up Trump’s executive orders, “He passed them out like Halloween candy.”
Biden told Jimmy Kimmel that he has issued executive orders regarding guns “within the power of the presidency.”
“But what I don’t want to do, and I’m not being facetious, I don’t want to emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution,” Biden told Kimmel. “I often get asked, ‘look, the Republicans don’t play it square, why do you play it square?’ Well, guess what? If we do the same thing they do, our democracy will literally be in jeopardy.”
“It’s like you’re playing Monopoly with someone who won’t pass ‘Go,'” Kimmel countered.
Kimmel pushed back a bit at this assertion saying, “it’s like you’re playing Monopoly with somebody who won’t pass ‘Go’ and won’t follow any of the rules. How do you ever make any progress if they’re not following the rules?” Kimmel asked.
“You’ve got to send them to jail,” responded the President.
Other pressing issues Kimmel posed to Biden during the appearance are the economic recovery after COVID-19 and the rapid rise of inflation over the past year, which has been particularly driven by energy prices.
“We have the fastest-growing economy in the world. We have 8.6 million new jobs since I got into office,” the president said. “Unemployment rate is down to 3.6%. We reduced the deficit last year by $320 billion. This year we’re going to reduce it by $1.7 trillion, trillion dollars.”
Another issue on many Americans’ minds is abortion and the Supreme Court’s impending decision in a Mississippi case that could overturn the landmark decision in Roe vs. Wade that legalized the practice. A leaked opinion last month from the court’s conservative majority indicates that the high court will strike down the 49-year-old law before its term ends later this month.
If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, the question of whether abortion is legal will rest with each individual state.
Biden said Wednesday night that if the court vacates the 1973 ruling, the federal government should make sure abortion is protected nationwide by codifying Roe vs. Wade into law. An attempt in Congress to take that step last month was unsuccessful.
The president also said that he believes some Republicans will be voted out of office if the Supreme Court overturns the ruling. Polling has consistently shown that a majority of Americans support some form of legalized abortion.
“I don’t think the country will stand for it,” he said. “It’s going to cause a mini-revolution and they’re going to vote a lot of these folks out of office.”
