Late-night comics discussed the GOP’s response to the fallout from the president’s comments in Helsinki

Late-night hosts on Wednesday discussed the continued fallout from Donald Trump’s comments in Helsinki and the White House’s attempt to walk them back.

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Samantha Bee

“Like many of you, I am shocked by President Trump’s press conference with Vladimir Putin this week,” began Samantha Bee, before showing footage from the summit in Helsinki. “I guess we’ll never know who to believe: Trump’s own intelligence agencies and his Department of Justice, or the guy who smiles like he can only orgasm when a journalist dies.

“Let me just say, as an American citizen and as a believer in a true and free world,” Bee continued, “seeing those two next to each other makes me think, how many phone books is Putin standing on? We do not talk enough about how Putin is tiny.”



The host went on to say that “there is not one part of that groveling display that Trump hasn’t said before”, showing video of the numerous occasions where he has called into question the validity of US intelligence agencies’ claim that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

“The most shocking thing on TV this week wasn’t Trump and Putin standing on a platform and roasting the United States like a geopolitical Statler and Waldorf,” Bee said. “What shocked me was the fact that Republicans seemed shocked.”



Bee then took aim at the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and House speaker, Paul Ryan: “Republicans could make sure that our next elections aren’t vulnerable to Russian hacks, which approximately no one is doing,” she said. “They could also pass a bill to protect the Mueller investigation, like the one Mitch McConnell killed in the Senate and Paul Ryan said wasn’t necessary.

“Republican leaders are every bit as compromised by Russia as Trump,” she concluded. “McConnell and Ryan have so far put up with whatever Putin wants and, as far as we know, they haven’t been peed on by anyone.”

Stephen Colbert

CBS’s Stephen Colbert also weighed in. “They say that time heals all wounds, and they are wrong,” the host began. “Time can also fester all wounds and then you have to start lopping stuff off before it spreads. I’m beginning to think it’s time to reach for the bone saw because anybody who still believes Donald Trump at this point is gangrene on the body politic.

“I’m about as shaky as I have felt since the night he won,” Colbert added. “Back then, my biggest fear was that we had elected an asset of the Russian government who would sell out America at every opportunity just to save his own hide. My biggest fear now is that I was right.

“After getting caught publicly betraying the country he’s the president of, Donald Trump cunningly fixed it,” said the host, in reference to Trump’s claim that he intended to say “wouldn’t” instead of “would” in Helsinki.

“Trump doesn’t even understand why people on all sides of the political spectrum are horrified,” Colbert said, reading aloud Trump’s tweet which stated: “So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.”

“That, I believe,” Colbert quipped. “I’m sure the highest ends of Russian intelligence loved it.”



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Seth Meyers

Finally, NBC’s Seth Meyers discussed the spectrum of the GOP’s reaction to Trump’s Helsinki comments.

He began: “It’s tough to judge exactly how bad any given moment is for Trump politically, but one of the best barometers we have is the reaction of his closest allies, like Fox & Friends, who’ve defended him relentlessly even in his worst moments.”



Meyers proceeded to show footage from the show, where host Brian Kilmeade said that Trump missed the “one moment you had to stand up for your own country”.

“But this actually captures the rift that Trump’s summit has opened up within the GOP,” Meyers said. “Because on that same show, after Fox & Friends criticized Trump, they also had on one of his staunchest defenders, Fox anchor Jeanine Pirro, who flipped out at the suggestion that Trump could’ve been tougher on Putin.”

In a clip from the interview with Pirro, the anchor suggests Trump was merely “recognizing” Russia as a nuclear power and is “doing what he’s supposed to be doing, and that is protecting us”.

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“Even when Republicans do criticize Trump, they seem much less interested in doing anything about it,” Meyers said. He then discussed the Republican senator Jeff Flake, who called Trump’s Helsinki performance “shameful” but demurred when asked on CNN what substantive legislation or action would come from it.



Meyers replied: “I feel like at least once a week Jeff Flake tweets something about Trump that ends with ‘This is shameful’ and then votes with him anyway.”