Las Vegas Mayor Insists Casinos Reopen Now, Kimmel and Anderson Cooper Push Back

UPDATE at 8:15am PT on 4/23/20: On Wednesday's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the late night host -- who grew up in Vegas -- took a strong stance against Mayor Carolyn Goodman's comments on CNN (below).

"As ridiculous as this president is, he's not alone" began Kimmel in his monologue. "He got a run for his money today from the mayor of Las Vegas who, well, let's put it this way: R. Kelly was watching the interview and said, 'This woman is nuts.'"

"If you watch that back, you can see the moment where Anderson's soul leaves his body," said Kimmel, who said Goodman was like "that dizzy neighbor you try to pretend you don't see when you're pulling into the garage."

"Someone Las Vegas elected every lady you've ever seen at a Baywatch slot machine to be their mayor," he continued, also saying "none of [her thoughts] make any sense."

He also tweeted that she should resign, calling her interview "bonkers" and "dangerously misguided" before adding, "She is an embarrassment to my hometown."

Original story below video.

The Mayor of Las Vegas wants casinos open now.

In a wild interview with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Carolyn Goodman revealed she had suggested the city be a coronavirus "control group".

She argued that the 150 people who had died in Vegas, while tragic, was simply not a justification to shut down a city of 2.3million.

When the CNN host argued that it was because of social distancing that the numbers had remained so low, she came back with a rather alarming proposition.

"How do you know until we have a control group?" she said. "We offered to be a control group. I did offer but I was turned down."

"You're offering the citizens of Las Vegas to be a control group to see if your theory on social distancing works or doesn't work...?" a stunned Cooper asked.

An indignant Goodman said she wasn't -- but then only clarified that it wouldn't work because of commuting.

"What I said was I offered to be a control group, and I was told by our statistician we can't do that, because people from all parts of southern Nevada come in to work in the city," she replied. "And I said 'Oh that's too bad'."

"Because I know when you have a disease, you have a placebo, that gets the water and the sugar, and you get those that gets the actual shot. We would love to be that placebo so you have something to measure against."

Pointing out that the placebo group classically gets the short end of the stick, Cooper asked if she would put her life on the line and join them in the casino every night.

"What is the purpose of that?" she asked, explaining that she has a family to cook for every night.

When Cooper asked if hundreds of thousands of people smoking, drinking, touching slot machines, and breathing re-circulated air sounded "like a virus petri dish?", she accused him of being "an alarmist."

She argued it was possible to maintain social distancing in casinos -- she just didn't know how.

"That's up to them to figure out -- I don't own a casino!" she chuckled. "I don't know anything about building a casino!"

The beauty of competition and free enterprise, she argued, would force casinos to devise a safe way of reopening.

"Right now we're in a crisis health-wise, and so for a restaurant to be open or a small boutique to be open, they better figure it out," Goodman insisted. "That's their job, that's not the mayor's job."

The Mayor of Las Vegas does not -- "thankfully", as Cooper commented -- have the authority to reopen the casinos, although she is responsible for the safety of the city's citizens.

The interview even caught Jimmy Kimmel off guard: "Dear Las @Vegas. It would appear that your @mayoroflasvegas Carolyn Goodman is dangerously misguided," he tweeted.

"I am not easily shocked anymore, but the interview she is doing with @andersoncooper @cnn right now is bonkers."

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