Comics, including Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah, weighed in on the damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the latest in the Russia investigation

Late-night on Trump and Russia: 'Why can't Don Jr pick one lie and stick to it?'

Late-night hosts on Wednesday addressed the fallout from Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, the latest developments in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and the violence against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.

“Last week, members of congress returned from their summer vacations, which were awesome,” Samantha Bee began. “Paul Ryan blew off some steam in Venice while Mitch McConnell made his annual trip to Melbourne beach. But now Congress is back and demanding answers: why didn’t Equifax tell us they’d been hacked? Why can’t Don Jr pick one lie and stick with it?”

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Bee mentioned Ted Cruz’s Twitter gaffe, in which the senator “liked” a pornographic video on social media website.

“The Texas chugger gave Twitter its most joyful night since covfefe, but he isn’t the only Republican having a bad week,” Bee continued, referring to the many members of the GOP who were shocked by Trump’s decision to strike a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling for three months.

The host then showed several Fox News clips describing the GOP response to the deal, each of which characterized Republican politicians as “blindsided” by the news.

“Woah, knock it off with the incendiary language, Fox,” Bee said. “If you say ‘blindside’ one more time, Sandra Bullock will magically appear and force you to move in with her until you become a football star.”

Bee continued: “But of course, the big news is Mother Earth’s quest to murder us all. Did you know that everything west of the Rockies is on fire? Maybe not – it’s hard to go full CNN on an inferno – but a solid month of hurricanes? That, they got.”

Bee showed footage of the CNN broadcaster Chris Cuomo, which saw him braving the storm and talking to residents of affected areas.

“Is this really necessary?” Bee asked. “We’re not all Rush Limbaugh. We will believe you if you report on the storm from indoors.

“I make fun of Chris for caring about people’s safety because I am an asshole, but preparedness and good information saves lives, whether it was Governor Scott and his army of sign language interpreters, or firefighters checking in on vulnerable residents, or police reminding folks not to fire guns at the hurricane,” Bee quipped.

“State officials did everything they could to keep people safe, and that includes something they did way back in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew: Florida enacted six building codes to make sure that every marine theme park, strip joint, and combination thereof was built to withstand extreme weather.

“As our EPA chief keeps telling desperate coastal mayors, this is not the appropriate time to talk about climate change,” Bee said. “The appropriate time will be when we’re on all on a space station trying to figure out how to turn our poop into protein bars.”

Seth Meyers of NBC weighed in on the latest in the Russia investigation, which the special counsel Robert Mueller has escalated in recent weeks.

“Now after a long summer of bizarre missteps and scandals, Trump is dealing with everything from hurricane clean-up to keeping the government funded,” he said. “And on top of that, there are new details in the rapidly escalating Russia investigation. The special counsel in that investigation, Robert Mueller, is now reportedly focused specifically on Trump’s decision to fire former FBI director James Comey.

“According to Axios, Mueller is burrowing in hard on the obstruction of justice angle,” the host explained. “Republicans close to the White House say every sign by Mueller is that he’s going for the kill.”

Meyers then showed an image of Mueller, adding that “he looks like the police chief from every 1950s noir film”.

“Mueller’s investigation seems to be moving very quickly, and has ensnared not only Trump but some of his closest aides, such as his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner,” Meyers continued. “Kushner repeatedly failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials and now it looks like even some of Trump’s own lawyers knew Kushner would be a liability.”

The host then showed news reports claiming that the president’s lawyers, expecting Kushner to find himself in legal jeopardy, had begun drafting Kushner’s resignation letter.

“Jared Kushner resign?” Meyers asked. “But then who would be in charge of US-China relations, US-Mexico relations, criminal justice reform, opioid crisis management, veteran care reform, the White House Office of American Innovation, revamping the entire federal government, painting the Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt, and peace in the Middle East?”

Trevor Noah talked about Myanmar, and what the UN’s top human rights official has called “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

“Let’s take a moment and talk about the Nobel peace prize,” Noah began. “There’s nothing more prestigious that you can win. It’s like getting an Oscar for being a good person instead of acting like a good person. But the peace prize is on my mind because, recently, Myanmar has been popping up on our news feeds.

“It’s a country of 50 million people situated between India, China, and Thailand. And right now they’re having issues with their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel peace prize winner. But lately, there are people saying that she should be forced to give her prize back because, well, there’s no peace.”

Noah then went on to detail the Myanmar military’s crackdown on the minority Rohingya Muslims, who say they have been tortured, executed and raped as their villages were burned. At least 370,000 Rohingya have scrambled across the border to Bangladesh.

“Yes, Myanmar’s army is systematically targeting the country’s minority Rohingya population, which is a horror beyond belief. What’s even more unbelievable is finding out who the villains are,” Noah added, expressing disbelief that a Buddhist regime could be a violent one given Buddhism’s core principles.

Trevor Noah on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

“Now, already the idea of a violent Buddhist is a mind-fuck,” he said. “What’s just as twisted is a peace prize winner watching the violence and going, ‘shrug emoji’.”



Noah showed footage of a recent interview in which Aung San Suu Kyi said “ethnic cleansing is too strong a word” to describe the events taking place in Myanmar.

“I feel like you’ve already lost the argument when you’re saying, ‘Hey, we haven’t killed enough people yet for it to be called ethnic cleansing. Think of this as more of a light ethnic dusting,’” Noah added. “Myanmar is the kind of country where the president doesn’t control the military. So some people would say there’s nothing she can really do about it. But a leader with this kind of moral standing, I think New York subway rules should apply: if you see something, say something.”

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“And I will add this: if you do say something, try not to sound like Donald Trump,” Noah added, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi’s claim that there was fear “on both sides”.

“Did you hear that? She just both-sided ethnic cleansing,” the host said. “I bet Trump was watching that like, ‘This woman is disgusting.’ Because of her views? ‘No, she stole my lines.’”