Nearly two years after first being identified, the COVID-19 virus is still spreading at an alarming rate, and mutating new variants around the world. While we still don’t know much about the omicron variant, scientists are working quickly to figure out just how effective our current vaccines will be in fighting against it. Meanwhile, a couple of Fox News pundits and some seriously unhinged conspiracy theorists think this new strain of the virus is just a scare tactic invented by the Democrats in order to scare up some more votes.
Jimmy Kimmel laid into these “right wingnuts” on Monday night’s show, as he noted that:
“Omicron has been declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization. Experts are hoping it ends up being like the second season of Tiger King, where everybody talks about it, but no one actually experiences it. But, of course, the right wingnuts have a theory on this: Their theory is that this variant is some kind of ploy concocted by the Democrats to help them win elections.”
It doesn’t help that people like Ronny Jackson, who served as the White House Doctor to both Barack Obama and Donald Trump and is now a Texas congressman, is fueling these wild conspiracy theories by dubbing what could be a deadly new strain of COVID the “Midterm Election Variant,” recklessly tweeting that Democrats “NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots” and “will do anything to CHEAT during an election.”
Here comes the MEV – the Midterm Election Variant! They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots. Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election – but we’re not going to let them!
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) November 27, 2021
Kimmel couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi getting together to develop omicron, and pointed out that it seemed like Jackson “was maybe giving them too much credit. Do you think Democrats are that organized? I mean, they can’t even get Joe Manchin to support maternity leave. I don’t think they’re creating viruses.”
Kimmel was particularly bothered by the fact that these ideas were being spun into the public consciousness by a former White House physician—“a man who had Obama and Trump’s testicles in the palms of his hands. He’s just making up crazy stuff; that’s our world now.”
You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 3:20 mark.