On a Thursday and a rare Friday episode of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the eponymous host insisted that if you just ignore all the burning cars, robberies, and other criminality, “all hell isn’t breaking loose” in Los Angeles.
For Thursday’s show, Kimmel introduced a video, “You know, our announcer, Lou [Wilson], went downtown today where all hell isn't breaking loose. And this is what he saw there.”
In the video, Wilson portrayed the situation as under control, “I’m down here at the heart of the LA protests. To my right, we've got about 50 to 60 protesters all out here chanting and singing together, holding up signs, enjoying the honks of drivers-by. Incredibly calm, incredibly peaceful. Just people together exercising their First Amendment right and their desire for justice.”
Nearby “We have an extreme display of military force. We have members of the National Guard and the LAPD who are armed and ready to dispense protesters, be it with rubber bullets or tear gas. A number of military vehicles and, soon, 700 Marines. Though, I'll tell you, the general vibe I get from them is boredom and a sense of, ‘What are we doing here?’”
Finally, Wilson turned to the “10, 15 news outlets all here not filming anything. And instead running the same, kind of, three images of burning Weymos from this weekend. So, this is America, baby. We're doing it. Happy Fourth of July. Somebody give me some ribs.”
The next day, Kimmel echoed the sentiment about burning cars but added, “Here in Los Angeles, every cable news network is still breathlessly waiting for something to happen downtown. They've been running the same video of the Waymos burning, the guys looting the weed store, and the guys busting the sidewalk with a hammer over and over and over in a loop for five days in a row.”
He also insisted that “It's been very strange to watch the president and his minions blatantly lying about what isn't happening in the city where we currently are. Telling us there are riots when that is not the case and also saying that the protestors aren’t even protestors. They’re actors being paid.”
Even if one accepts Kimmel’s framing that the examples he provided are not enough to justify Trump’s response or are part of a sensationalist media, the problem for Kimmel is that there was more to the violence than one video of burning Waymos or one weed store. It was his Democrat mayor that imposed a curfew and his local police department that has made dozens of arrests on everything from attempted murder to arson to looting, among others.
Here are transcripts for the June 12 and 13-taped shows:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
6/12/2025
11:40 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: You know, our announcer, Lou, went downtown today where all hell isn't breaking loose. And this is what he saw there.
LOU WILSON: Hey, it's Lou Wilson, I’m down here at the heart of the LA protests. To my right, we've got about 50 to 60 protesters all out here chanting and singing together, holding up signs, enjoying the honks of drivers-by. Incredibly calm, incredibly peaceful. Just people together exercising their First Amendment right and their desire for justice. To my left, we have an extreme display of military force. We have members of the National Guard and the LAPD who are armed and ready to dispense protesters, be it with rubber bullets or tear gas.
A number of military vehicles and soon, 700 Marines. Though, I'll tell you, the general vibe I get from them is boredom and a sense of, "what are we doing here?" And of course, we've also got about 10, 15 news outlets all here not filming anything. And instead running the same, kind of, three images of burning Weymos from this weekend. So, this is America, baby. We're doing it. Happy Fourth of July. Somebody give me some ribs.
***
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
6/14/2025
12:10 AM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: Here in Los Angeles, every cable news network is still breathlessly waiting for something to happen downtown. They've been running the same video of the Waymos burning, the guys looting the weed store, and the guys busting the sidewalk with a hammer over and over and over in a loop for five days in a row. It's been very strange to watch the president and his minions blatantly lying about what isn't happening in the city where we currently are. Telling us there are riots when that is not the case and also saying that the protestors aren’t even protestors. They’re actors being paid.