Introducing himself as Wednesday night’s guest-host on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Billy Eichner said, “Welcome to another night of entertainment in our disease-ravaged fascist state.”
Later in his monologue, the comedian and Lion King star explained that he’s always dreamt of hosting a late-night talk show. “So someday I hope to,” he joked. “Because this is not a late-night talk show. This is like hosting the world’s saddest makeup tutorial.”
Among Eichner’s guests for the night was South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison, who just happens to be running for Senate against Lindsey Graham. Even the night’s first guest, Amy Schumer, was excited for Harrison’s appearance, telling Eichner, “Let’s unseat Lindsey Graham, honey!”
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When it came time to introduce his next guest, Eichner described him as the man who is “hoping to send Lindsey Graham off into a very unhappy retirement at Shady Pines.” Harrison may or not have gotten the Golden Girls joke, but he was clearly thrilled to be there.
Eichner congratulated Harrison on raising a “staggering” $13.9 million in the second quarter, but also acknowledged that South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. “What made you say: I’m the guy to do it, I’m the guy who can beat Lindsey Graham?” he asked.
Harrison explained that when he first told people he was going to run, they said, “You can’t win against a guy who's been there for 25 years, a guy who flies around on Air Force One and golfs with the president of the United States.” But in “every step” of his life, he said people have been telling him he can’t do things and he keeps proving them wrong.
“We’re going to beat him,” Harrison added. “We’re going to close the chapter on what I call the Old South, which Lindsey is a relic of, and we’re going to start our own new chapter, a New South, that’s bold, inclusive and diverse.”
Noting that Graham was one of Trump’s fiercest Republicans critics before becoming his best friend, Eichner brought up an explanation that the senator gave to The New York Times last year. “He literally said it’s because I like to stay ‘relevant.’ He used that word,” Eichner said.
“And I thought, relevant? That’s not something a politician describes themselves as being. Relevant is what a pop star worries about. Relevant is what Meghan Trainor worries about or Kylie Jenner. That’s not something that a politician should be thinking about, you know what I mean?”
“It’s a sad statement,” Harrison agreed. “Because relevance for me is making sure that all the kids that grew up the way that I did, poor and having all these barriers in front of them, can live the American Dream.”
When Harrison told the guest host that he would send him a pair of the Lindsey Graham flip-flops he’s selling on his campaign website, Eichner joked, “They’ll go great with my Lindsey Graham condoms that I use.”
