Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Roast Trump Over Comments On Matt Lauer Firing
President Donald Trump’s recent statement on Today Show host Matt Lauer’s firing from NBC drew the attention of late-night hosts on Wednesday night, as Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel separately roasted the president over what they saw as an overemphasis on the fake news problem, rather on the sexual abuse allegations made against Lauer that led to his dismissal.
According to Variety, it was Trump’s comments about fake news on his tweet about Lauer that Stephen Colbert centered on in Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show. But before he got to the actual reference to Lauer’s firing, Colbert poked fun at how Trump used the word “wow” to start off his tweet.
“Wait a minute! I’m still not used to a President typing in the words ‘Wow’. That’s like if the first draft of the Gettysburg Address was ‘Holy guacamole! This war sucks!'”
With the audience laughing and cheering, Colbert addressed Donald Trump’s actual tweet about Matt Lauer, and how the president said that NBC and Comcast executives should also be fired for the “fake news” they put out.
“By ‘fake news’ do you mean ‘more than a dozen women have accused Trump of improper conduct or sexual assault’?”
Colbert continued his spiel by shouting that Trump shouldn’t “get to comment,” adding that the above tweet was akin to “the pot calling the kettle at 3 a.m. and asking what she is wearing.”
Meanwhile, Wednesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! featured the show’s eponymous host tackling the same issue, and suggesting that Trump’s comments on Matt Lauer were expected, given the president’s outspoken nature on social media.
“If anyone knows about inappropriate behavior in the workplace at NBC, it’s Donald J. Trump. Is he aware that he’s him? I don’t think he is! I think he sees Donald Trump on T.V. and goes, ‘I like that guy.'”
In addition to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah also discussed Lauer’s firing on the latest episode of his show, though he made no mention of Trump’s comments. Instead, Noah enumerated several male media personalities who recently lost their jobs over sexual abuse allegations, including Lauer, Bill O’Reilly, Charlie Rose, and Mark Halperin, before remarking that the men could form their own “Perv News Network,” as a CNN-inspired “PNN” logo was displayed, together with the accompanying slogan “The most busted name in news.”
While late-night hosts Colbert and Kimmel took the humorous route when criticizing Donald Trump for his tweet about Matt Lauer’s firing, CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza minced no words as he wrote an op-ed on the president’s social media activity, and how he appeared to take advantage of the Lauer controversy to hammer his point about fake news home to his followers. Cillizza opined that Trump has made no effort so far to address his combative behavior on social media and in other public statements, concluding that “taking the low road isn’t an option, [but] the only option” for the president when it comes to his reactions to controversial news events.
