Monday night marked the first show of Jimmy Kimmel Live! for 2024, and Kimmel opened the show by addressing his very real issues with Aaron Rodgers.
Jimmy Kimmel fires back at Aaron Rodgers over Epstein claims
Kimmel used his opening monologue to blast Rodgers over his false claims.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Last week Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and insinuated that Kimmel would appear on the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs (which he didn’t), which led to Kimmel threatening to take Rodgers to court for slander. Here’s a bit from Kimmel’s monologue on Monday night.
“[Rodgers] I guess believes one of two things: Either he actually believes my name was going to be on Epstein’s list, which is insane — or, the more likely scenario is he doesn’t actually believe that, he just said it because he’s mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated. He’s particularly mad, I think, because I made fun of the fact he floated this wacko that the UFO sightings that were in the news in February were being reported to distract us from the Epstein list. That was Aaron’s theory that he shared, and I mocked.”
Kimmel went on to show the clip from 2023 in which he made fun of Rodgers, which he believes started this ball rolling. At this point Kimmel went on to mock Rodgers’ faux intelligence, before returning to the real root of his issue with Rodgers’ claim on McAfee.
“I think Aaron Rodgers has the right to express any opinion he wants to, but saying someone is a pedophile is not an opinion, nor is it ‘trash talk,’ sorry Pat McAfee. And as far as the ‘well, you say things about people all the time’ argument goes: Yes I do. It’s not the same. It’s not even close to the same. We say a lot of things on this show. We don’t make up lies. In fact, we have a team of people who work very hard to sift through facts and reputable sources before I make a joke, and that’s an important distinction. [...] The truth still matters, and when I do get something wrong, which happens on rare occasions, you know what I do? I apologize for it, which is what Aaron Rodgers should do, which is what a decent person would do — but he won’t, but if he does know what I’ll do? I’ll accept his apology and move on.”
Rodgers is scheduled to appear on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, where he claims he’ll address the issue with Kimmel. We’ll wait and see if he does, in fact, apologize for making false claims about the late night host.
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