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"I think you need to start yelling at people," Jimmy Kimmel told his guest, Joe Biden, during the president's appearance on Wednesday night's installment of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
In what was his first in-studio late-night interview since becoming president in January last year, Biden talked about gun violence, Donald Trump and he explained why he is so optimistic, to a somewhat confused Kimmel.
When the host advised his guest to "start yelling at people," Biden disagreed and said that the country is still suffering from the effects of the pandemic. Nevertheless, he added that he has "never been more optimistic in my life."
A frustrated Kimmel then interjected loudly with: "Why are you so optimistic? It makes no sense!"
This prompted laughter from the audience, but Biden hardly paused and talked further about his optimism and hopes for the "best-educated, least prejudiced and most giving generation in American history."
"This generation is going to change everything," Biden said. "We just have to make sure we don't give up. We just have to make sure we don't give up."
The issue of gun control came up unsurprisingly and Kimmel questioned why Biden hasn't used executive orders to tighten the laws and added that his predecessor "passed those out like Halloween candy."
Biden answered that he's not going to step beyond the limits of his authority and "emulate" Trump's behavior while in office.
"I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with everything having to do with guns, gun ownership... all of the things that are within my power," he said, adding: "But what I don't want to do, and I'm not being facetious, I don't want to emulate Trump's abuse of the constitution and constitutional authority."
Biden, who has been suffering low approval ratings, also lashed out at Republicans in the interview
"I also get asked, 'look the Republicans don't play it square, why do you play it square?'" Biden said. "Well guess what, if we do the same thing they do, our democracy would literally be in jeopardy and that is not a joke."
The president said that the GOP has undergone "a radical shift" since Trump was elected and that it had moved to the "hard right."
"This is not your father's Republican party," Biden said. "This is a MAGA party, a very different Republican party and you find people who are worried, I believe, that if they vote for rational gun policy, they're gonna be primaried and they're going to lose in a hard-right Republican primary."
