US Representative Joe Kennedy III made a brief appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show Wednesday night, touching on everything from recreational marijuana to — you guessed it — chapstick.
Among the many answers given by the Democratic legislator, there was one question Kennedy didn’t answer.
“When are you going to run for president?” Kimmel asked the Massachusetts congressman.
Chuckling and not directly answering the question, Kennedy shot it back at Kimmel.
“I came here today to hope that you would announce that I could be your VP,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy, who delivered the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union in January, reflected with Kimmel on that televised speech.
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Kennedy said he was thrilled when Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked him to deliver the response about a week before the State of the Union, but he was also anxious about the responsibility.
“She pulled me off the . . . floor, cleared out her office, kicked . . . all of her staff out, and then I thought I was in trouble,” Kennedy said. “And then she asked me to do it, so I immediately obviously said yes and then walked out of her office and went, ‘Oh my god, my career might be over.’ Because everyone struggles with the speech.”
Aside from the content of his speech, his lips also caught quite a bit of attention that night, when excess chapstick had people wondering why his lips were so shiny.
“I have gotten tubes of chapstick from every damn corner of the country,” he said.
Kimmel asked Kennedy about his positions on both recreational marijuana and heath care, and also reminisced on Kennedy’s time in the Peace Corps.
And as for Trump, Kimmel wanted to know: Do Kennedy’s Republican colleagues react to Trump’s tweets the way some Democrats do?
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“Your Republican colleagues, do they also go like, ‘Oh no, what is this? What is happening here?’” Kimmel asked.
Kennedy answered shortly: “Yes.”
Felicia Gans can be reached at felicia.gans@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaGans.