DHS Slams ‘Failed Comedian’ Jimmy Kimmel Over Joke About Secretary Mullin’s Plumbing Credentials

Screenshot via ABC.

The Department of Homeland Security took a jab at comedian Jimmy Kimmel over a joke aimed at DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s plumbing past.

“Secretary Mullin represents the best of blue-collar America, and failed comedian Jimmy Kimmel chooses to ridicule him for it,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement.

On Kimmel’s late night show last week, the comedian mocked Mullin’s past as a plumber to argue he’s unqualified for the position he recently moved into. Mullin had served in the Senate since 2023 before his nomination to head DHS.

“He’s the now-former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?” Kimmel joked.

Later in the week, Kimmel doubled down on the joke after backlash from President Donald Trump and others.

He said:

The president and his pals in the MAGA media are not happy with me right now. Trump even called in to Fox to complain about me tonight. His 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. 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. Of course, they decided to twist that to say it was an insult to plumbers, which it was not. 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, okay? We all have our areas of expertise.

In a phone interview with Fox News’ The Five, Trump called for Kimmel to be “canned” over the Mullin joke. The president has long been calling for Kimmel, a vocal critic, to be taken off the air.

The DHS spokesperson said Mullin’s blue-collar past should be celebrated rather than mocked. Notably, Mullin’s net worth is believed to have ballooned to well over $60 million after inheriting the plumbing business from his father. He was a prolific stock trader while in Congress.

“In what other country could a young plumber from rural Oklahoma get fed up one day, run for Congress, serve his community in the House and Senate, and then be called to serve in the president’s Cabinet to protect the homeland?” the spox said.

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