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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Guardian staff

Kimmel on Trump’s town hall dance: ‘swaying like a manatee tangled in seaweed’

man in a suit points
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Trump actually knows a lot about skin conditions, he suffers from having the thinnest skin of any person ever.’ Photograph: YouTube

Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s unhinged town hall which descended into a 40-minute dance and his latest attacks on Kamala Harris.

Jimmy Kimmel

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host asked international viewers for help, saying that in the US “there’s a big hole in the ship and it’s sinking” referencing the “general election anxiety” in the remaining days.

Kimmel said: “We have the most ridiculous major candidate of our lives” in the shape of Trump before playing footage of the former president slamming him on a podcast calling him “terrible” and “a loser”.

Trump claimed that he had been on Kimmel’s show many many times which Kimmel denied, saying it had only happened thrice. “Mike ‘the Situation’ from Jersey Shore was on more times than you,” he added.

Kimmel said Trump “loves telling this made-up story” of the host allegedly meeting him out on the sidewalk before the show out of excitement. Kimmel countered, saying the only time he has gone out on the street for Trump “was to urinate on his star on the walk of fame”.

Kimmel said he was “genuinely questioning his mental health” after Trump had been doing “some really weird stuff lately”, including a bizarre town hall which went from question-and-answer session to the former president playing music and “swaying like a manatee tangled in seaweed” on stage.

While Trump has refused to undergo the standard medical exam, he has been criticising the results of his opponent’s “excellent” report.

He went on Truth Social to call out ailments listed that just amounted to hives and hay fever, claiming this meant Harris wasn’t fit to be president. “What if the Russians bombard the White House with hay?” Kimmel joked.

The television host added: “Trump actually knows a lot about skin conditions, he suffers from having the thinnest skin of any person ever.”

Stephen Colbert

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also brought up the “bananapants boo-boo-bonkers” town hall in Pennsylvania.

After playing clips, he said: “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

One of the songs Trump played was Memory, which Colbert joked was “from his favourite musical They’re Eating the Cats”.

During the debacle, Trump also reminded people to vote on 5 January, rather than 5 November. Colbert then implored: “To all of his supporters: do not forget to vote on January 5.”

He added: “Watching an elderly man sway to Vatican elevator music for 40 minutes, might make you wonder, is he OK?”

Colbert said: “you wouldn’t be the only one”, with more than 230 doctors and healthcare providers calling on Trump to release medical records.

“Do you know how hard it is to get 230 doctors to agree on anything?” he joked.

This week, it was announced that Harris would be interviewed on Fox News and “one of Fox’s elderly viewers is already complaining about it” with Trump criticising the choice of the host Bret Baier as someone who doesn’t go hard enough.

“He’s right, Fox has plenty of hard-hitting journalists to pick from,” he said. “There’s Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and the puppet from Saw.”

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