Jimmy Kimmel "Hires" Federal Employees Affected by Shutdown

Jimmy Kimmel has done it again.

On Monday's show, Kimmel waded back into the political conversation in his very unique way once more by announcing that Jimmy Kimmel Live would be stepping up to help some of those who've been furloughed or sent home as a result of the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.

"Humpty Trumpty is very focused on his wall, this is Day 17 of the government shutdown. Nearly 800,000 federal employees are working without pay, and that is Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump does best: not paying the people who work for him. That is where he shines," Kimmel said in a scathing monologue. "This is the third-longest shutdown ever [and] the first for no reason," Kimmel continued. "The President doesn't like to call it a shutdown. He says he prefers the word 'strike'... it's the first-ever involuntary strike in American history."

Kimmel then said it was "unfortunate" that such a massive number of federal workers have been deprived of their paychecks, "especially right after the holidays," so he's taken it upon himself to help bridge the gap for some of them with work opportunities of his own.

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"Tonight and every night until the federal shutdown is over, we're going to put a federal employee to work here on the show," he said before introducing the first such recipient of his pseudo-work program: a law enforcement officer from a federal prison named John Kostelnik who isn't sure if he'll receive back-pay when the shutdown ends or not.

"Do you object to being used as a pawn for this fight over a wall?" Kimmel asked Kostelnik. "Absolutely," he answered.

There were no prisoners to guard on the show, of course, but Kimmel still found a place for him on the band playing the tambourine, since he had no other musical instrument experience to speak of.

"That's called solving problems, folks," Kimmel concluded.

Kimmel is not the only late-night host who's been unafraid to dip his toes into the waters of politics on a regular basis, of course. Seth Meyers frequently lambasts the Trump Administration -- most recently, the decision to deliver a broadcast address to the nation on the so-called border "crisis" -- and Stephen Colbert has been so routinely critical of Trump that he once even had the FCC sicced on him for his colorful choice of language.

However, his impact does seem to be more tenable.

For example, Kimmel's very personal plea for the U.S. Congress to keep the Affordable Care Act's protection for pre-existing conditions -- during which he revealed the harrowing journey his own family had faced in treating his then-newborn son's heart condition -- came at a time when an ACA repeal was absolutely on the table. The story spread like wildfire and even earned an official White House response and a policy approach to the issue called "the Jimmy Kimmel test" by at least one Senator. After the attempt to repeal such protections failed, some pundits pointed to Kimmel's impassioned speech as a potential reason for John McCain's surprise thumbs-down vote.

Perhaps it's Kimmel's signature approach to challenging decisions by the administration that make him all the more effective. Rather than just punning or griping about the ridiculousness of certain policy points and scandals -- although he's done plenty of that, too -- the host appears to lead with his heart on issues, like immigrants, DACA recipients, gun control and now the federal shutdown.

Could Kimmel's gesture tip the scales again and finally get these workers back on track -- outside of his show even? We shall see.