Late-night hosts addressed the GOP’s stalled healthcare bill and the continuous revelations being unearthed about Donald Trump’s campaign and its connections to Russia.

Seth Meyers, returning from a hiatus, began by explaining Donald Trump Jr’s amorphous explanations for the meeting held at Trump Tower last summer between him, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and several Russian figures.

“The Russia scandal has engulfed the White House after last week’s bombshell revelations that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr met with a woman described as a Russian government attorney promising dirt on Hillary Clinton as ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump’,” he began. “One Trump ally called it a category 5 hurricane and another White House official said, ‘This is sum-of-all-fears stuff, it’s what we’ve all been dreading.’

“Maybe you’ve been dreading it,” Meyers quipped, “but the rest of us have been waiting for it like the new season of Game of Thrones.”



Meyers detailed the president’s son’s shifting explanations for the meeting: “First he said it had nothing to do with the campaign, it was just a short introductory meeting about the adoption of Russian children. The next day he admitted the lawyer promised dirt on Hillary but said her statements were ‘vague, ambiguous and made no sense’. The day after that he said the meeting was normal opposition research that ‘went nowhere, but had to listen’.

“And then finally,” Meyers said, “after releasing all the emails, he insisted the meeting was fine because it ‘occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue’.”

“Okay, first of all, ‘in vogue’?” Meyers asked. “It’s a criminal conspiracy to meddle in an election, not a ‘romp-him’.”

Meyers concluded: “He changed his story four times in four days. That’s like if your wife asks, ‘Where were you last night?’ and you said, ‘I was at work, I was working at a coworker’s house, at a friend’s house, at a female friend’s house, in a female friend’s bed, but nothing came of it.’”



Trevor Noah of Comedy Central took aim at the GOP’s attempts at healthcare reform, which have stalled after senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran expressed their opposition to it late Monday night.

“The Trump administration is allergic to facts,” he began, referring to their statements, in stark contrast to the projections of the Congressional Budget Office and insurance companies, that the Republican healthcare bill would not cause millions of Americans to lose insurance.

“Instead of focusing on the numbers, Trump’s team says we should focus on what we believe,” Noah said. “Yes, we believe everyone’s going to be covered. Some by insurance, some by the sheets that the coroners place over them because they can’t afford healthcare.”

He went on: “Now, the CBO clearly doesn’t believe in the power of dreams, because their numbers show that around 22 million fewer people will have insurance under this plan, and they’ve come to that prediction with data and statistical models, which are by far Trump’s least favorite type of model.



“On some level, you have to be impressed that Mitch McConnell and his friends have written a bill so bad that their own party hates it,” Noah joked. “The only question is when something is so deeply unpopular, how could you possible make it worse?”

He then aired news coverage of Ted Cruz’s proposed amendment to the plan, which would supposedly sell cheaper insurance plans with fewer benefits while increasing premiums. “My man,” Noah joked.

“So, to sum up, the CBO says millions fewer people would have insurance. Moderate Republicans hate it for not covering enough people. Conservative Republicans hate it for covering too many people. Insurance companies hate it. Republican governors hate it. The American people hate it,” Noah said, before explaining that, with John McCain’s temporary absence from Capitol Hill to get a blood clot removed, the GOP did not have the votes to pass the bill.

“The bill is looking so bad right now that even Republican senators are like: ‘I better get my procedures done now before we pass this thing.’”

Finally, Stephen Colbert began his show’s “Russia Week” by focusing on Trump Jr’s meeting, which has prompted calls for the removal of Jared Kushner’s security clearance.

“It’s Russia Week. And I just want to get out ahead of the story here. I recently met with a lot of Russians,” Colbert said of his reporting trip to St Petersburg a few weeks ago. “I can’t remember why. Maybe because I was in Russia. This week we’ll be showing you one Russian field piece. I meant to say two Russian – my lawyers are now telling me it’s five Russian field pieces.”

“Meanwhile, back in the United States: Russia,” he said.

“Folks, things are not looking good for president’s son and store-brand Billy Baldwin Donald Trump Jr,” Colbert joked. “Now we’ve learned that there was another Russian at the meeting, Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.”

The host went on: “Funny detail. He is reportedly a former Soviet counter-intelligence officer. Of course, when it comes to Don Jr, there’s not much intelligence to counter.”

“Last week, Don Jr did not mention this other Russian spy guy,” Colbert explained, airing a clip of the president’s son saying “this is everything” prior to the revelations that there were, in fact, other Russian officials at the meeting in June 2016. “This is everything? It must’ve slipped his mind. With all that hair gel, things just slide out.”

“So then we found out there was also a sixth person,” he said. “That’s more people than are currently working at Trump’s EPA. Now, no one is saying that there were seven people in the meeting. Because it turns out there were at least eight people in the room. Eight. That’s not even counting the other Russians that were nesting inside of them.”