“CNN Tonight” with Don Lemon got heated over a health care debate Thursday, with CNN commentator Matt Lewis calling out comedian Jimmy Kimmel for being in over his head for commenting on public policy.
Kimmel shot down an Affordable Care Act repeal bill sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, both Republicans, during a monologue on his ABC late night show Tuesday. The Graham-Cassidy repeal bill is bad for the country and would hurt patients with preexisting conditions, Kimmel claimed.
Lewis disagreed.
“[Kimmel’s] entirely wrong. It’s 100 percent wrong. It couldn’t be more wrong,” Lewis said. “You can’t discriminate based on preexisting conditions.”
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“The entire soliloquy that Jimmy Kimmel gave, Politifact said it’s unverifiable. His information, no one mentions comes from a left wing think tank. I’m just saying Jimmy Kimmel does not have his facts right,” Lewis added. “I don’t think we should be essentially designing one sixth of our economy and making public policy decisions based on an albeit emotional and maybe tragic example, but an anecdotal example of someone who happens to have a TV show.”
The Politifact webpage, which Lemon pulled up, analyzed Kimmel’s claims. The site showed most of those claims were “unverifiable” or “could happen.”
“There’s nothing there that says Jimmy Kimmel is wrong,” Lemon said.
“But there’s nothing that says he’s right!” Lewis shot back.
ABC news contributor Tara Setmayer backed up Lewis’ argument and said Kimmel was pushing a system that failed millions of Americans. People are overreacting to the Graham-Cassidy bill, Setmayer claims, because it ultimately leaves many of the old elements of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law in place.
“[Kimmel is] advocating for a system that is not working for millions of people in this country as well,” Setmayer said. “And plus this bill keeps most of the main mechanisms of Obamacare in place. It’s not a doom and gloom scenario.”
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