Joe Kennedy III made a rare late-night appearance on Wednesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
The Massachusetts congressman’s interview with Kimmel covered a lot of ground, from his famous family to Donald Trump’s tweeting habits. While things got a little uncomfortable when they chatted about Kennedy’s “uncle Terminator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, who used to be married to his cousin Maria Shriver, the Boston-born politician seemed right at home talking about bigger issues, and even had a bit of fun with the late-night host.
When the topic of the president’s use of social media came up, Kennedy admitted that even Republican members of Congress are baffled by Trump’s tweets.
“Your Republican colleagues, do they also go like, ‘Oh no, what is this?'” Kimmel asked.
“Yes,” Kennedy bluntly replied to a chorus of laughter from the crowd. “Of course they do.”
Will Joe Kennedy III run for president?
Since Kennedy delivered a well-received Democratic response to the president’s State of the Union address this year, Kimmel asked the congressman whether he’d make a run at the White House. As expected, the comedian didn’t exactly receive a straight answer.
“I came here today to hope that you would announce and I could be your V.P.,” Kennedy joked.
Towards the end of the conversation, Kimmel grilled Kennedy over a few of his stances that don’t seem to align with other Democrats, such as his opposition to legalizing cannabis.
“If we’re going to move towards legalization, I think we’ve got to be thoughtful about what that means,” Kennedy said. “If we’re going to move this way — which clearly California’s there, my home state of Massachusetts is there — I acknowledge the fact that I’m an outlier on this. I just think it’s something that we want to be careful and deliberate about as we go forward.”
Kennedy did push back against Kimmel’s assertion that he’s not in favor of health care for all, which is a topic that’s close to the comedian’s heart.
“Health care is a right that should be enjoyed by every single family across this country,” Kennedy said. “I have worked very, very hard over the course of my time in Congress to make sure that everybody does get access to quality, affordable, accessible health care.”
