![Jimmy Kimmel on Mitch McConnell’s speech post-acquitting Trump: “[He was] basically saying, ‘Donald Trump is guilty of all the things I just found him not guilty of.’”](https://media.guim.co.uk/57f6d0547937de180053befac69bf69015d6971e/96_123_2511_1507/1000.jpg)
Jimmy Kimmel
With the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump this weekend for his role in the siege of the US Capitol on 6 January, Republicans played, with the exception of seven senators, to Trump’s still-powerful party base. Yet some GOP members attempted to have their moral cake and eat it too; the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, “tried to have it both ways this weekend”, said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening. “After voting to acquit, McConnell gave a blistering speech condemning Trump’s actions and inaction.”
The address, in which McConnell cast Trump as responsible for the riot but acquitted him on the basis of Trump no longer being president (McConnell, as then Senate majority leader, delayed the trial until Trump left office) was “basically saying, ‘Donald Trump is guilty of all the things I just found him not guilty of,’” Kimmel explained. “It was the tortoise versus the crazy yellow hair.”
The former president, ever sensitive to a slight, blasted his longtime political ally with a harsh statement. “The Republican party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Senator Mitch McConnell at its helm,” he said, adding, “Mitch is a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”
“Yeah, unsmiling,” Kimmel laughed. “Has Donald Trump met his wife? Melania hasn’t smiled since like 2011.”
“I have to say, I think Mitch McConnell blew it,” Kimmel continued. “This was his party’s best chance to make sure Trump never ran again. Remember the end of Lord of the Rings, when Frodo brought the ring all the way to the volcano and then decided not to throw it in? This was the dumb version of that.”
Trevor Noah
On the Daily Show, Trevor Noah delved into the polar vortex which has paralyzed Texas and left millions without power, heat or access to food. Noah played footage showing the chaos in the storm’s wake – cars piled on the highway, one man dodging a vehicle felled by black ice just moments before it struck his own.
Infrastructure may be the least sexy thing to spend tax dollars on, but could it have helped save Texas from this snow storm? pic.twitter.com/XB4LyUneQh
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 17, 2021
“Trucks spinning around? Cars flying off the road? This storm has turned Texas into that ice level from MarioKart,” Noah joked. “If I was in Texas right now, I’d be carrying a green shell with me just to be safe.”
“This is especially tough for Texans because they’re not equipped for snow,” he continued. “They don’t have snow shovels out there! Their best bet is to grab their AR-15s and shoot each snowflake before it lands.”
The extreme cold in the southern state “just goes to show you that with climate change, everyone has to be prepared for every kind of condition, no matter where you live,” he added. “You live in Arizona? Well, you better get a parka. Minnesota? You need a big sun hat. New York? You start carrying around an anti-scorpion spray.”
Still, Noah acknowledged, the blackouts in the state are no laughing matter, especially as it was the predictable outcome from years of underinvestment in and neglect of the state’s power grid. “Look, guys, I get it: spending money on infrastructure is probably the least sexy thing that you can do with your tax dollars,” he said. “But it’s one of those things you’re going to take for granted until you’re in an emergency.
“It’s the same way how the people who built the Titanic didn’t focus on life boats. Instead, they were too focused on getting cars for their passengers to bang in.”
