Late-night hosts on Monday addressed the violent events that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend, as well as Donald Trump’s eventual denouncement, two days later, of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who gathered there.

“After two days of intense public pressure, today the president was finally willing to say that Nazis are bad,” Seth Meyers of NBC began. “Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville was preceded on Friday by white supremacists marching on the UVA grounds using Nazi slogans and salutes and, in a photo you’ve probably seen by now, holding tiki torches.”

“It’s really hard to come off as an intimidating mob when you got torches from your mom’s patio,” he joked. “In fact, this display was so vile that even the makers of tiki torches came out and condemned the white supremacists, issuing a statement yesterday that read: ‘TIKI brand is not associated with the events that took place in Charlottesville. We do not support their message.’”

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Meyers said of those marching: “There should be no doubt about who these people were or what they believed in. They told us in their own words and actions with Confederate flags, Nazi flags, Nazi slogans and Nazi salutes. And just to make it perfectly clear who these vile bigots think their allies are, here’s former KKK leader David Duke, who also showed up in Charlottesville. Remember, Trump at first refused to reject Duke’s endorsement during the campaign and Duke picked up what Trump was putting down loud and clear.”

Meyers then showed a clip of Duke claiming to have marched in Trump’s name.

“Just a reminder, this guy thinks he’s a member of a master race when in fact he’s Beavis’s rotting corpse,” Meyers quipped. “So, you’ve got the former leader of the KKK saying explicitly that the Nazis and white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville were doing so in Donald Trump’s name. Normally, you might think any president or any decent human being would want to swiftly and unequivocally disavow him. In this case, we also happen to have a president who has no problem quickly condemning things when he feels like it.”

Meyers went on to detail just a few of the fights Trump has picked over Twitter, including ones with his own party’s Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, as well as Jeb Bush, Meryl Streep, North Korea and “people who drink Diet Coke”.

Meyers continued: “Trump has a permanent hard-on for condemnation, and yet when it came time to condemn white supremacists and Nazis, it was limp-dick city. After two days of relentless public pressure, the president finally got around to saying specifically: Nazis are bad.”

Meyers showed footage of the president’s statement on Monday, in which he called out white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups by name.

“It took two days for Turmp to say that,” Meyers said. “In fact, it would’ve taken less time to literally order a DVD copy of Do the Right Thing.”

In a much-anticipated interview, Stephen Colbert hosted the former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days in the administration and graphically his criticized former colleagues Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon in an interview with the New Yorker.

In a tough but relatively friendly interview, Colbert pressed Scaramucci on the atmosphere in the White House, saying: “From the outside, it looks like a dumpster fire.” Scaramucci responded: “It’s a tough place. There was a lot of infighting.”

Colbert asked Scaramucci why it took Trump two days to give a more full-throated condemnation of white supremacy, adding: “Two days later? Does he order his spine on Amazon Prime?” Colbert also repeatedly asked if there were “elements of white supremacy within the White House”.

“It was late, I’m not going to say that it wasn’t, but he did go to the White House today and he did make a statement,” Scaramucci said. When asked if he would fire Steve Bannon if he had the choice, “the Mooch” said he would; additionally, he added that he thought both Bannon and Priebus were among the White House staffers leaking to the press, adding that there was “no love lost” between him and Priebus.



The former hedge-fund manager also said that Trump was a “compassionate person”, prompting boos from the crowd.

“In what way is he a compassionate person? What is the evidence of that?” the host asked. “It’s a super tough job,” Scaramucci responded. “He made a step to give up what was a luxurious lifestyle.”

“Who cares?” Colbert shot back. “Really, we’re supposed to feel bad for a guy because he gave up his million-dollar lifestyle and he’s the most powerful man in the world?”

Colbert also asked Scaramucci how he sees his short tenure in the administration now. “When you take a job like that, you know your expiration is coming,” Scaramucci replied. “I didn’t think I’d last too long. But I thought I’d last longer than a carton of milk.”

The Tonight Show host, Jimmy Fallon, who generally shies away from addressing politics directly, took a break to discuss the events in Charlottesville as well.

“Even though The Tonight Show isn’t a political show, it’s my responsibility to stand up against intolerance and extremism as a human being,” Fallon began. “What happened over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, was just disgusting. I was watching the news like everyone else, and you’re seeing Nazi flags and torches and white supremacists and I was sick to my stomach.”

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“My daughters are in the next room playing and I’m thinking, ‘How can I explain to them that there’s so much hatred in this this world?,” he continued. “They are two years old and four years old. They don’t know what hate is. They go to the playground and they have friends of all races and backgrounds. They just play and they laugh and they have fun.”

The host continued: “But as kids grow up, they need people to look up to, to show them what’s right and good. They need parents and teachers and they need leaders who appeal to the best in us. The fact that it took the president two days to come out and clearly denounce racists and white supremacists is shameful. And I think he finally spoke out because people everywhere stood up and said something.”

“It’s important for everyone, especially white people in this country, to speak out against this,” Fallon proceeded. “Ignoring it is just as bad as supporting it. And remember, there are people who have given their lives to make sure this kind of hate doesn’t spread. They’ve fought and died on the right side of history.

“One brave woman in Charlottesville, Heather Heyer, died standing up for what’s right at the age of 32. I can’t look at my beautiful, growing, curious daughters and say nothing when this kind of thing is happening. We all need to stand against what is wrong, acknowledge that racism exists, and stand up for what is right and civil and kind.”