President Obama Cancels Jimmy Kimmel Appearance Amid Growing Criticism

By Steven Hogg - 23 Jul '14 12:31PM

President Barack Obama has cancelled his appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show amid growing criticism of his three day tour to the West Coast in the midst of escalating world crises.

The President is on a three-day tour from July 22 to San Fancisco, Los Angeles and Seattle and will attend five fundraisers. This follows another visit to Delaware and New York in the wake of the crashing of the Malaysian jet over Ukraine, which had raised eyebrows,.

The White House made it clear that it was not a cancellation as nothing had been finalized although there had been talks of a possible appearance on the ABC show. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "We ultimately elected not to have the president do that interview over the course of this trip, and that is at least in part related to the challenges of doing a comedy show in the midst of some of these other, more serious matters that the president's dealing with in the international scene," reports McClatchy DC News.

The press secretary said defending the President's travel itinerary,

"I think what was demonstrated (last week)...that even in midst of some urgent international matters, the president was able to attend to American interests around the globe, while conducting the political functions that go along with the job," he said. "We anticipate that will be the case this week. That's why there have been no changes to the schedule announced thus far."

The President's bid to attract funds during such delicate times in the world arena is attracting comments from his detractors, who say that the President's second term has been distinctly lackluster.

The latest Gallup poll reveals that the President's approval rating has shown a very slight rise from the constant dip it has been facing the last one year following his health care plans. The latest average shows 43 percent ratings against the overall lowest of 39 percent.

During the Obamacare crisis the President had made an appearance on Zach Galifianakis parody show and it had seen an upsurge in people visiting the healthcare site and looking up the new insurance care.