Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel defended his jabs at newly-sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, saying that his intent had not been to insult plumbers, only to say that he didn’t believe Mullin was qualified to hold his current post.
Kimmel began by blaming President Donald Trump for the backlash he’d received, noting that Trump had complained about him while “The Five” on Fox News earlier that day.
“[The president’s] apple polishers are all in a tizzy because I made light of the fact that his new head of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, before he was a senator, was a plumber,” Kimmel said, and then he doubled down. “And now he’s the head of Homeland Security. Which is not necessarily the kind of resume you might hope for, for the person in charge of protecting us from terrorism.”
WATCH:
Jimmy Kimmel tried to clean up his comments about Markwayne Mullin being a former plumber, but he tried to have it both ways. First he doubled down ignoring Mullin’s management experience with his plumbing company “[Trump’s] apple polishers are all in a tizzy because I made light… pic.twitter.com/3zqd1AG6r9
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 27, 2026
“Listen, let me make this very clear: I’m not upset that the head of homeland security used to be a plumber,” Kimmel said on Thursday’s broadcast. “I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber.”
“Of course [conservatives] decided to twist that to say it was an insult to plumbers, which it was not,” Kimmel continued, saying that he had meant to draw attention to Mullin’s qualifications. “I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of homeland security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet … We all have our areas of expertise.”
Kimmel went even further, suggesting that what he was doing was no different from those who were critical of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — who previously worked as a bartender — and suggested that she was more qualified to serve drinks than to serve in Congress.
“Well, on behalf of bartenders everywhere, we anxiously await your apology,” he said.
What Kimmel left out — both in his initial comments about Mullin and the follow up — was that Mullin went to work at his family’s plumbing business at just 20 years old, leaving college to take over due to his father’s illness. He proceeded to take the small family business and expand it to a multi-million dollar enterprise.
