This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Late-night hosts on Monday discussed Trump’s State of the Union address, Sean Hannity’s attempts not to cover unflattering news about the president, and a report about Hillary Clinton’s failure to fire a staffer accused of sexual harassment.

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“Since we all last met, we learned that Trump tried to fire Robert Mueller last June,” Stephen Colbert began. “Ultimately, Trump did not fire Mueller because White House counsel Don McGahn refused to ask the justice department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead.”

“There was a time when I thought nobody in the White House had scruples,” the host continued. “But we found a scruple. A scrap of scruple.”



Colbert then explained the significance of Trump’s desire to fire Mueller, most notably its historical parallels to Richard Nixon’s attempt to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

“Luckily, Trump could count on backup from his friend on TV, Fox News commentator and final hole at the world’s worst putt-putt course, Sean Hannity,” Colbert said.



Colbert then showed footage from a recent Hannity broadcast when he claimed his sources were not confirming reports that Trump tried to fire Mueller. Hannity then returned from a commercial break and begans: “We have sources confirming that, yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. Does he not have the right to raise those questions? You know, we’ll deal with this tomorrow night.”

Hannity then quickly moved on to cover a high-speed car chase ending in a violent collision.

Colbert concluded: “Sean, one broadcaster to another, if you want to change the subject away from Donald Trump, don’t go to footage that is so clearly a metaphor for his administration.”

Jimmy Kimmel previewed Trump’s state of the union address, to be given at 9.10pm Tuesday night.

Kimmel began: “The state of the union is the one day of the year presidents are supposed to brag about their accomplishments, so he’s been training for this really for his whole life.”

“The theme of this speech is safe, strong, proud, based on the three words he never heard form his father,” Kimmel quipped, before explaining that the hard tickets sold for the event misspelled union as “uniom.”

“If I’m not mistaken, the Uniom was the side that won the civil war,” Kimmel joked, before imagining the White House response to the gaffe. “We’re real Americans, not some pansy-ass spellers.”

“There’s a good chance Trump thinks the state of the union means he gets to present the award for his favorite state tomorrow,” the host continued. “And the state of the union is: Florida.”

Finally, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed Hillary Clinton’s appearance at the 2018 Grammys, which came just days after reports surfaced that she declined to fire a staffer accused of sexual harassment during the 2008 democratic primaries.

“This year’s Grammys were very political, and the bit that got most people talking was a set where James Corden got celebrities to ‘audition’ to read the audiobook for Fire and Fury, the tell-all book about Trump,” Noah explained.

The host then showed Clinton’s Grammys cameo, alongside John Legend and Cardi B, and UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s disapproving response to the broadcast’s “politics”.

“Hillary’s Grammy cameo came at a weird moment for her,” said Noah. “Because last night’s theme was #MeToo and Time’s Up, which is a message Hillary found herself on the wrong side of over the weekend.”

Trevor Noah on Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of a sexual harassment scandal with a former advisor.

Noah then showed news coverage of the New York Times report detailing how Burns Strider, a 2008 campaign adviser, was accused by a young staffer of sexual harassment. Rather than firing him, Clinton docked Strider’s pay and reassigned his accuser to a new job.

“There are a few areas where I don’t necessarily expect Hillary Clinton to nail it: managing emails, visiting Wisconsin,” Noah joked. “But I expected standing up for a woman on her staff to be one of her strengths.”

Noah then showed Clinton’s tweet about the matter, in which she stopped short of apologizing and praised the woman for making her voice heard.

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Noah went on to chastise Clinton for not admitting culpability, asking: “Women deserve to be heard, and then quietly reassigned?”

“It feels like Hillary’s not only trying to dodge the blame, she wants to present herself as having always been on this woman’s side, which doesn’t fly,” the host continued. “Because not only did the woman get reassigned, but this guy, Burns Strider, went on to get another job in Democratic politics, where he got fired for doing the same thing to other women.

“So you could argue that if Hillary had fired him, she would’ve been protecting many women, instead of just herself.”