Late-night hosts on Wednesday discussed this week’s special elections, Donald Trump Jr’s legal jeopardy and the Trump administration’s move to now crack down on legal immigration.

Samantha Bee

Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee discussed Paul Manafort’s trial and Donald Trump Jr’s various legal entanglements.

“Former Trump campaign chair and man-who-would-go-missing-in-a-Sopranos-episode Paul Manafort is the first member of Trump’s inner circle to go on trial in the Russia probe,” she began, detailing Manafort’s work for foreign interests and charges of money laundering and tax fraud.

“Unfortunately, besides being regular evil, Manafort might have also gotten in over his head,” she continued. “Right before he joined the Trump campaign he was in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17m.”

Manafort, she explained, placed his income in shell companies and tax shelters while laundering money through expenses purchases, like a $21,000 watch and an $15,000 ostrich jacket.

“Money laundering makes sense because the only other reason to own this jacket is if you’re doing a cocaine deal in 1987,” Bee quipped. “Weak defenses aside, Trump seems pretty comfortable letting Manafort twist in the wind, but would he do the same thing to his own flesh and blood? It kind of seems like it.”

Bee then mentioned Trump’s tweet last week about his “wonderful son Donald”, in which the president inadvertently confessed that the purpose of his son’s 2016 meeting in trump Tower with Russian nationals was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“It must’ve been a shocking moment for Don Jr when his father threw him under the bus,” Bee said. “He probably thought, ‘Oh my god, Dad knows I exist.’”

Invoking his trips to foreign countries, where deals have been inked for the Trump Organization, Bee went on: “Of all the Trump scandals that Don has bungled into, none is more important slash stupid than his interactions with Russia.”

She then aired a clip where Donald Trump Jr was asked about his contradictory defenses of the Trump Tower meeting by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, at which point the call seems to disconnect.

“Yeah, reception is kind of spotty when you’re calling from a fleeing Bronco,” Bee said.

Stephen Colbert

“You guys know elections?” asked Stephen Colbert. “We still have those and, in fact, we had a bunch of them yesterday around the country, some primaries, a special election.”



Colbert then mentioned Tuesday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th congressional district, which pitted Trump-endorsed Republican Troy Balderson against Democrat Danny O’Connor.



“The 12th has sent a Republican to Congress for the last 35 years, and in 2016 it went for Trump by 11 points, so it should’ve been a blowout,” explained Colbert. “But the race still hasn’t been called.”

“It was also an historic night because 11 women are now gubernatorial nominees,” the host added. “And in Kansas, a Democratic nomination for Congress went to Sharice Davids, a Native American, openly gay attorney and a first-time candidate.”

Colbert then moved onto Trump, who’s still on vacation at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “But he hasn’t forgotten about the Mueller investigation,” the host noted, referencing an NBC News report claiming that, while golfing with Republican senator Lindsey Graham, Trump “brought up ending the Russia probe about 20 times”.

“You know that they say,” Colbert quipped. “Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of a very stable genius.”

Trevor Noah

Finally, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed the administration’s plan to halt legal immigration.

“Immigrants,” he began. “They’re the one thing Donald Trump hates more than reading and suits that fit.”

“Since Trump began his campaign, he’s had it out for illegal immigrants, and it feels like every week the Trump administration rolls out a new policy aimed at drop-kicking immigrants out of America,” he continued. “But this week was a doozy.”

Noah then aired news coverage of the administration’s plan to implement a program making it more difficult for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards.

“Trump is now coming for legal immigrants,” he said. “And I just wanted to say, thank you so much for having me.”

Team Trump said they liked immigrants who played by the rules. Now they’re out to change those rules. pic.twitter.com/qU3hFCw3lT — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 9, 2018

Noah continued: “Really, it’s no surprise that this latest anti-immigrant policy is the brainchild of Stephen Miller, senior White House adviser and young Mr Burns. Although we don’t often hear from Miller, he’s the mastermind who shaped many of Trump’s cruelest policies, including the Muslim ban, overturning Daca and kids in cages.”

The program, Noah explained, could affect the fate of over 20 million legal immigrants, especially those who’ve used public programs like Obamacare, child health insurance or food stamps.

“They’re saying the US won’t allow legal immigrants to stay in the US if they’ve ever used what they call public assistance,” Noah said, noting that, during the campaign, Trump’s focus was on what he called “bad” immigrants and “hombres”.

“First it was bad hombres out,” he said. “Then, as time progressed, it moved to ‘I know there are good hombres, but they came here in a bad way’. Everyone else was cool because they came in legally.”

“Now, we also see that’s not true anymore,” Noah added. “If you came here legally, and you used certain services you were allowed to use legally, now the Trump administration is telling you to get the fuck out.”