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“Tonight Show” host pokes fun at Tim Ryan
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan was in bed with the TV off, responding to a couple of text messages when his cellphone went a little crazy.
That’s because “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon had a little fun during Tuesday night’s monologue at Ryan’s expense.
“Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan is making news by saying that if John McCain were president, we’d currently be in seven different wars [pause] as opposed to now when it’s only like [pause] six wars. Good point though, good point,” Fallon said.
Ryan, who wasn’t watching, but is a Fallon fan — “he’s as cool as it gets,” the congressman said — started getting more text messages and saw mentions of the joke on his Twitter feed.
“I said, ‘Holy cow, that’s hilarious,’” said Ryan, of Howland, D-13th.
Then his phone nearly blew up as Ryan has set up a Web search every time his name is mentioned on television.
“It started with every NBC affiliate on the East Coast at midnight,” a half-hour after the show started, he said. “Then it happened again at 3 a.m. from affiliates on the West Coast.”
The 15-second clip can be seen online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoRJp28GiQ8 — Ryan’s official YouTube channel.
“Pretty good, huh?” Ryan said.
“It was funny. I called my wife and said, ‘Man, I made it. It’s all downhill from here.’”
The original statement from Ryan was part of an interview conducted by Jennifer Brindisi that aired Sunday morning on 21 WFMJ-TV’s “Weekend Today” show.
During that interview, Ryan discussed ISIS and stated McCain would have used the terrorist group as a way to get the United States involved in wars.
“What I don’t want is people to start making this a bigger threat than it is to the United States, so that the John McCains of the world and the people who want to send more troops — if John McCain were in charge we’d be in seven different wars right now across the world,” Ryan said to Brindisi.
His comments were first picked up nationally by BuzzFeed, a popular news and gossip website, and Ryan was on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” with Ed Schultz earlier Tuesday to discuss ISIS, a terrorist group that occupies parts of Iraq and Syria and has beheaded two U.S. journalists.