ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel likened the newly sworn-in Department of Homeland Security secretary to the Nintendo game icon Mario.
Why? Because they both have backgrounds in plumbing.
“He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma,” Kimmel said during his show last Tuesday. “Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?”
He continued, “But honestly — I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it, right?”
Implying that Mullin is “unqualified” to defend the homeland because of his blue-collar background set many people online off, upset by what they saw as an elitist tone.
DHS told Fox News the department is “too busy arresting gang members, terrorists, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and other criminal illegal aliens to engage in this kind of silliness.”
A few days later, Kimmel went back on his show to defend his Mullin comments.
“I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security was a plumber,” he said. “I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber.”
“I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet, OK? We all have our areas of expertise,” Kimmel added.
Was Kimmel tone-deaf, again?
About 27% of American workers fit into the blue-collar occupation category, according to Pew Research Center — plumbers, electricians, construction, agriculture, etc.
After Kimmel doubled down on his comments about Mullin’s previous employment, former “Dirty Jobs” host and current podcaster Mike Rowe posted his reaction on Friday with a lengthy statement.
Rowe said he wasn’t offended, but said he was a tad hurt “by the suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new, and that competence is somehow limited to one vocation. Obviously, expertise and skill are important. If I need a new kidney, I’d prefer a doctor do the surgery, not a late night talk show host. But if the doctor in question used to host a talk show, why would I hold that against him?”
Rowe, is also the founder of mikeroweWORKS Foundation, a nonprofit that supports individuals seeking education in the trade sector. Its mission is to close the skills gap and remove stigmas surrounding blue-collar work.
“I think it’s a mistake to promote one vocation at the expense of the other. What we really need in this country, are more welders who can talk intelligently about Aristotle, and more philosophers who can run an even bead. More generals, in other words, who can fix their own toilets, and more plumbers who can hold a powerful government job,” Rowe said.
He continued, “This is what Mullin did. He was a private citizen who mastered an essential skill, and then turned that skill into a multimillion-dollar company that employed a lot of people and served a lot of customers. That gave him the freedom to do other things with his life, including a career in public service which got him into Congress, where he’s spent the last 11 years doing whatever congressmen do. Now, he has a very consequential position in the Cabinet of the current administration. Is that not the embodiment of the American dream? I get that Jimmy Kimmel might have a problem with Mullin’s politics, but what possible objection could he have about the trajectory of his career, or his desire to do more than one thing with his life?”
This isn’t the first time Kimmel has offended people online with comments that were political in nature. Last September, after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Kimmel labeled Tyler Robinson, who is charged with Kirk’s murder.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he previously said.
His comments led to his show getting indefinitely suspended, but it was revived a week later. Since then, he’s remained heavily critical of the Trump administration and its supporters.
In the last presidential election between now-President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, blue-collar/service workers and non-college-educated voters were more likely to vote for Trump than for his Democratic opponent, according to the Economic Innovation Group.