--- ---  # Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back at Critics Calling Him a Health Care 'Puppet'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 26, 2017 3:28 PM UTC  ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 26, 2017 3:28 PM UTC In the wake of Republican backlash over his condemnation of the [Graham-Cassidy bill](http://time.com/4951982/graham-cassidy-cbo-score-obamacare/), [Jimmy Kimmel](http://time.com/4952957/jimmy-kimmel-donald-trump-graham-cassidy/) has called out critics of his participation in the [national health care debate](http://time.com/4953138/jimmy-kimmel-cassidy-health-care/). During Monday’s episode of _Live!_, the late night host hit back at pundits who suggested that his push against the repeal of Obamacare indicates he is a puppet for the Democratic party. “It would be easy for me to dismiss this as some kind of right-wing hysteria, but he does have a point,” Kimmel said after airing a Fox News clip in which contributor Pete Hegseth argued he was in bed with the Democrats. “I’d like to make a confession tonight. I need to come clean. Here’s what happened. So my wife and I were worried about health care — we didn’t like what the Republicans were doing. So we decided to have a [baby with congenital heart defects](http://time.com/4762882/jimmy-kimmel-baby-heart-surgery/). And then once we had that going for us, I went on TV, I spoke out and we may have stopped Cassidy-Graham. I still can’t believe we pulled it off but we did. It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Watch the full video above. Jimmy Kimmel Calls Out Republicans Over Health Care Debate ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4957089/jimmy-kimmel-republicans-health-care-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4957089/jimmy-kimmel-republicans-health-care-debate/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back at Critics Calling Him a Health Care 'Puppet'","datePublished":"2017-09-26T15:28:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:31.785Z","description":"\"It would be easy for me to dismiss this as some kind of right-wing hysteria\"","url":"https://time.com/4957089/jimmy-kimmel-republicans-health-care-debate/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Health Care","Television","politics","Jimmy Kimmel","TV","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f626ebe29c5d3dc/6988df5abc6cfc451b3e33c9/screen-shot-2017-09-26-at-10-18-43-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f626ebe29c5d3dc/6988df5abc6cfc451b3e33c9/screen-shot-2017-09-26-at-10-18-43-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Live","caption":"","creditText":"ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4957089/jimmy-kimmel-republicans-health-care-debate/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back at Critics Calling Him a Health Care 'Puppet'"}}]}] ```