Watch: Jimmy Kimmel Gives Tearful Monologue About His Son’s Heart Surgery

Kimmel Still Managed To Squeeze In A Few Laughs, Though

The usual hilarious Jimmy Kimmel opened his show on a more somber note last night, describing to his audience an awful situation his family went through last week.

Kimmel missed taping his show last week, and he revealed that it was due to his son, who was less than a day old, being born with a congenital heart defect and having to undergo emergency heart surgery. Kimmel’s son thankfully is going to be OK. He thanked every single doctor and nurse who treated his son by name.

Jimmy used the experience to remind people that not everyone is as lucky as his family. He was clearly shaken by the ordeal and took the opportunity to call out the Trump administration for their proposed $6 billion cut to the National Institute of Health.

If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it should not matter how much money you make. I think that’s something, whether you’re Republican or a Democrat … we all agree on that, right?” he said. “We need to make sure people who are supposed to represent us, people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly.” He added, “I saw a lot of families there. And no parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life. It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.

 Kimmel will be off for the rest of the week on paternity leave, with Will Arnett, Anthony Anderson, Kristen Bell, and David Spade filling in as guest hosts.