Late-night hosts on Tuesday addressed the latest revelations regarding Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations general assembly, in which he touted his “America First” doctrine and threatened to “wipe out” North Korea. Stephen Colbert also hosted Hillary Clinton, who is promoting her new book What Happened.

“Of course, with everything else going on, Trump’s been preoccupied lately with the North Korean nuclear program,” Seth Meyers began. “And since it seems like threats and sanctions have not stopped Kim Jong-un so far, Trump is trying out a new tactic: nicknames.”

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Meyers then read Trump’s tweet from Sunday, in which he wrote: “I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!”

“Today he repeated the nickname not in a tweet, but in his first speech to the United Nations general assembly,” Meyers continued, showing a clip from Trump’s speech in which he says “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission.”

“Why are you calling him Rocket Man?” The host asked. “That’s not a diss. That’s a cool nickname.”





Meyers also suggested that special counsel Mueller may be close to indicting one of Trump’s closest associates, his former campaign chief Paul Manafort. He explained that investigators picked the lock of Manafort’s home in Virginia in a raid earlier in the summer.

“Now, the hard-nosed tactic being used by Mueller has been described by some as a shock-and-awe approach, with one former independent counsel saying Mueller’s approach is intended to scare people into telling him the truth,” the host explained. “And if there’s anyone who can strike terror in the hearts of people in Washington, it’s Robert Mueller.”

“Look at him,” Meyers quipped. “He looks like the door-knocker on a haunted castle.”

Trevor Noah of Comedy Central also addressed Trump’s speech to the UN.

“The big event today was President Trump’s first address to the general assembly, and expectations were high,” Noah said, adding that the White House amped up anticipation by saying the speech would be “deeply philosophical”.

“So, would the president be deeply philosophical or would he be Donald Trump?” Noah asked. “We found out when he got up to speak in front of his most diverse audience of all time. Now, President Trump’s address included many familiar themes: how great he’s doing as president, how great the country’s doing with him as president, how much he’s president, did I mention he’s president?”



“But the centerpiece for his speech was introducing the UN to the Trump doctrine,” Noah continued, showing the president touting his “America First” policy and encouraging other countries to think of themselves first as well.



“So, Trump’s policy, no interfering in how other countries are run, unless he doesn’t like how other countries are run,” Noah said, referring to Trump’s attack on Venezuela.

“Trump didn’t just threaten Venezuela,” Noah continued. “He also called for sanctions on Cuba, an alliance against Iran, and a new regime in Syria. But ever the showman, he saved the end of the world for last” by threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea.

Finally, Stephen Colbert interviewed Hillary Clinton. He began by asking Clinton about calls that she “go away”, pointing out that her presence on the media circuit rallies Republicans in opposition to her.

“Well, you know, if they’d take up a collection and send me somewhere really nice … I might consider it,” Clinton joked.

Colbert then pressed Clinton on her thoughts about Russian interference in the election.

“I don’t know what the special counsel investigation is going to find,” Clinton said, adding that new revelations about an operation to spread ads and fake news on Facebook bolster her claim that the Russians were successful. “I’m going to wait for that. But I don’t think anybody can, with a straight face, say that the Russians did not set out to influence our election. I feel like I’m a bit of a, you know, Paula Revere. I’m trying to sound the alarm about this. They will be back in 2018 and 2020 unless we stop them.”

Colbert then asked Clinton about her relationship with Vladimir Putin, who reportedly held a personal grudge against the former first lady for her statements, in 2011, about Russians deserving free and fair parliamentary elections. Clinton then recounted a meeting she had with Putin as secretary of state.

“Well, he demonstrated, as I write in the book, you know, there’s an expression – we certainly know it in New York – called “manspreading,” Clinton began, adding that Putin “does seem to get agitated” by her being a woman.

Clinton added that her attempts to engage Putin on topics such as human rights and the economy were unsuccessful, but that when she brought up his animal conversation efforts, he came alive.

“I’d go to meetings with him, one in particular we were in his dacha outside of Moscow,” Clinton explained. “So we went through the economy and human rights and he was, as President Obama once said, the bored guy in the back of the room who couldn’t care less. Then I said, I am really pleased to hear that you care about wildlife conservation and that you are trying to save species in Russia like Siberian tigers and polar bears. And then he came alive and we had an interesting conversation.”

“So he said come with me, and he takes me down the stairs, down this corridor, all of his security guys are jumping up because we weren’t expected, into this inner sanctum with this huge desk and the biggest map of Russia that I think exists,” Clinton continued. “And he started telling me he’s going here to tag polar bears. And then he said to me, ‘Would your husband like to come?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ll ask him, but if he’s busy I’ll go.’”



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Clinton also offered her thoughts on Trump’s UN speech.

“I thought it was very dark, dangerous, not the kind of message that the leader of the greatest nation in the world should be delivering,” she said.