Late-night hosts on Monday discussed John Kelly’s comments on undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump’s support for down-ballot Republican candidates, and the president’s remarks on Mother’s Day.

Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers discussed Trump’s efforts to elect a Republican to the Senate in Indiana.

“On Thursday, Trump was in Indiana campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun,” Meyers said. “Now, Trump doesn’t exactly have a great track record campaigning for Republicans down-ballot, mainly because Trump’s schtick only works for him.”

Meyers then explained that, after Trump campaigned for GOP candidate Rick Saccone in the congressional race for Pennsylvania’s 18th district, Democrat Conor Lamb won in a seat that had been a Republican stronghold.

Meyers went on: “Trump was apparently not deterred by Saccone’s loss because he was right back at it in Indiana, campaigning against Democratic senator Joe Donnelly.”



“You can send a really incredible swamp person back to the Senate, like Joe Donnelly, or you can send us a Republican like Mike Braun to drain the swamp,” Trump said in Indiana.



“After all your scandals, the phrase ‘drain the swamp’ is now devoid of all meaning,” Meyers shot back. “Trump’s cabinet has had one corruption scandal after another. And his personal fixer was literally selling access to the president. Trump didn’t drain the swamp. He bottled it and sold it as Dr Trump’s miracle healing elixir.”



At the rally, Trump said his administration is “fighting lobbyists, special interests and corrupt Washington politics”.

“He fought corrupt Washington politics and replaced it with the only thing that’s worse: corrupt New York politics,” Meyers said, showing photos of Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen. “Look at these guys: if they weren’t aides to the president, they’d have competing strip clubs outside of Secaucus.”

Stephen Colbert

“The president celebrated Mother’s Day by delivering this video message,” began Stephen Colbert, who played a video clip released by the White House on Sunday. In it, Trump says Mother’s Day is “a special opportunity to thank all of the mothers and grandmothers in our lives”.

“Especially the ones Michael Cohen paid to shut up,” the host joked. “Trump seems to have a peculiar understanding of what mothers exactly do.”

In the video, Trump continued to extol the virtues of mothers, saying that “through their grit, determination and incredible spirit, they pioneered the west and settled the frontier”.

“Their houses were little and on the prairie,” Colbert went on, mocking Trump. “When they got sick, they called Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. Then, sadly, their oxen drowned while fording the river and they had to reboot the game.”



Colbert continued: “Here’s the thing: in this whole video, Donald Trump doesn’t once mention any of the mothers of his own children, and there are a lot to choose from: Melania, Marla, Ivana, that one housekeeper, allegedly.



“Trump continued to celebrate Mother’s Day in the traditional way: with a trade war with China,” the host said. “Officials from the two countries have been negotiating furiously to avoid the worst-case scenario and, yesterday, Trump tweeted out this update.”



In his tweet, Trump said that “past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries”. He added: “But be cool, it will all work out!”

Responding to Trump’s using the phrase “be cool”, Colbert asked: “Since when does Donald Trump talk like a Jet from West Side Story?”

Trevor Noah

Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah addressed the chief of staff John Kelly’s recent comments on irregular immigration.

“Last week, the Trump administration announced a new policy to deter illegal immigration,” Noah began. “If any families are caught entering illegally from Mexico, border patrol will take the children away from their parents indefinitely.”



Noah continued: “Over the weekend, Trump’s chief of staff and Caucasian Grinch John Kelly went on NPR and immigration policy came up, and this is what he had to say.”



In his comments on NPR, Kelly said that “the vast majority of the people who move illegally into the United States are not bad people”.

“I’m not going to lie,” Noah said, “it’s nice to hear someone in the administration, especially Trump’s top guy, say Mexicans aren’t all criminals. But any compliment that weak is always a little suspicious.”



"'Overwhelmingly rural' is fine as a title for a Kenny Chesney album, but not as criteria for immigrants."



Trevor weighs in on John Kelly’s description of illegal immigrants: https://t.co/l9xKTbZmsy pic.twitter.com/6pD1BakjbX — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 15, 2018

Kelly continued, claiming that undocumented immigrants are “not people that would easily assimilate into the US”. He noted: “They’re overwhelmingly rural people. They’re coming here for a reason. And I sympathize with the reason. But the laws are the laws.”

“OK, so they’re not bad people, they’re just not the right people?” the host asked in response. “Don’t get me wrong: ‘overwhelmingly rural’ is fine as a title for a Kenny Chesney album, but not as criteria for immigrants.



“Look, anti-immigration rhetoric is nothing new,” Noah said, pointing out the hypocrisy of Kelly’s immigration double standard. “If you know anything about the story of America, this is it: the story of America is immigrants coming to a new land and then, once they arrive, trying to stop more immigrants from coming to that same land.”