‘Embarrassment to my hometown’: Jimmy Kimmel calls for Las Vegas mayor to resign after jaw dropping coronavirus interview

City offered as ‘control group’ for virus to see what would happen without social distancing

Oliver O'Connell
New York
Wednesday 22 April 2020 21:07 BST
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Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman calls for businesses to reopen, while saying she won't provide social distancing guidelines on how to do so safely

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel is calling for the mayor of Las Vegas to resign, saying she is “dangerously misguided” about the coronavirus.

In a “bonkers” interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Mayor Carolyn Goodman continued to push for the reopening of the city’s casinos in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kimmel, a native of Las Vegas, said: “Carolyn Goodman should resign before lunch arrives today. She is an embarrassment to my hometown.”

In the interview, when questioned about the safety of those working on the casino floors during a highly contagious pandemic, she replied: “You’re talking about disease, I’m talking about life and living.”

Cooper responded: “OK, that makes no sense.”

Mayor Goodman offered the city as a “control group” for the virus to see what would happen without social distancing – an offer which she says was turned down because people from other parts of southern Nevada come in to work in the city.

At another point in the interview Mayor Goodman said that she won't provide social distancing guidelines to businesses on how to safely reopen.

"They better figure it out. That's their job. That's not the mayor's job"

Ultimately, Ms Goodman's position is that her role is to deal with the economic impact of the pandemic and not the public health implications.

Asked if she would be on the casino floors if they reopen putting her life on the line alongside those who work there, Mayor Goodman responded: "What is the purpose of that? First of all I have a family and I cook every meal every night."

Mayor Goodman had a similar interview with MSNBC's Katy Tur on Tuesday in which she said: "Let the businesses open and competition will destroy their business, if in fact [it becomes] evident that they have the disease, they are closed down. We inspect all the time. We license all the time. We have things in place to make sure that the hygiene is there."

The city of Las Vegas does not have control over the famed Strip casinos, which are located in unincorporated Clark County, but there are still many other casinos within city limits.

On Wednesday Nevada had more than 4,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and had recorded 172 deaths.

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