James Patrick Anthony Dore (born July 26, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian and political commentator best known for hosting The Jimmy Dore Show.
Dore was born in southwest Chicago, Illinois on July 26, 1965, into a Catholic family of Polish and Irish descent. He has eleven siblings. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago[1] with a degree in marketing communications.[2] Dore started performing in 1989[3][4] and currently lives in Pasadena with his wife Stef Zamorano.
Dore has made appearances on late-night television on shows such as ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, and NBC's Late Friday. He was the lead performer in a Comedy Central Presents half-hour special on April 9, 2004, and Comedy Central's Citizen Jimmy, a one-hour stand-up special which was chosen "Best of 2008" by iTunes. He was a writer–performer for the off-Broadway hit The Marijuana-Logues. He has also performed at Just for Laughs in Montreal, the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Amsterdam Comedy Festival, and for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.[4] Dore had a role in the 2008 documentary film Super High Me and hosted the podcast Comedy And Everything Else with his wife Stefane Zamorano and previously with Todd Glass, who departed from the show in late 2009.
Much of his material is focused on the corporate news media, social criticism, and politics. He also hosts his monthly show, Left, Right & Ridiculous, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood. Dore's first book, Your Country Is Just Not That Into You, was published in 2014. A comedy special, Sentenced to Live, was released on October 6, 2015.
In June 2009, he began producing The Jimmy Dore Show, a weekly one-hour comedic look at the news, which originates at KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, airs nationally on the Pacifica Radio Network. It aired online on TYT Network from 2009 to 2019. Dore appeared as a frequent guest host on Current TV's political commentary show The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur. Dore continued working with Uygur on The Young Turks as it became an on-line network. In July 2017, Dore began hosting his own show on the network called "Aggressive Progressives."[5]
CNN describes Dore's show as "a far-left YouTube channel that peddles conspiracy theories, such as the idea that Syrian chemical weapons attacks are hoaxes".[6] Dore responded by saying of his show that, "We actually debunk conspiracy theories like the one that says Assad gassed his own people."[7] In September 2019, the investigative journalism site Bellingcat reported that Dore had received $2,500 from The Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees in 2017, a pro-Assad lobbying group.[8] That same year, Dore argued that the chemical weapons attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhun was likely to have been a "false flag," orchestrated by groups opposed to Assad.[8] The United Nations has confirmed that the Syrian government was responsible for the attack.[8][9]
Dore was supportive of the Bernie Sanders campaign in the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, being called "Sanders-obsessed" by The Washington Post.[10] He was critical of Senator Elizabeth Warren for not defending Sanders in the primaries.[11] Dore later asserted that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be worse for progressives and for the United States than a Donald Trump presidency, saying "don't freak out about a Donald Trump presidency! I think, in fact, my theory is that it's even better for progressives in the short-term, meaning in the two-year term, and in four years for sure."[12] A Washington Post article in January 2017 stated that since the presidential election, Dore had "lit into Democrats for blaming hackers for their loss, raised doubts about the credibility of intelligence agencies, and seen the heavy hand of war hawks hyping the Russia connection to destabilize Europe and the Middle East."[13]
In May 2017, Dore discussed conspiracy theories over the murder of Seth Rich and questioned statements by law enforcement and Rich's family.[14] Dore cited a retracted Fox News story to substantiate his claims, and continued to insist that there were “a lot of red flags” and there “is probably something more to this story” including after the Fox News retraction.[15]
On April 13, 2019 during a livestream, Dore officially announced his departure from The Young Turks Network, citing a desire to focus on his own show and his live performances.[16] Later that evening, his former boss, Cenk Uygur, confirmed his departure on Twitter.[17]
He has been a staunch critic of the Special Counsel investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.[18]