Seth Meyers
Despite rising case numbers in numerous states – Florida, Arizona and Texas each reported their highest single-day case totals to date – the Trump administration “has decided to just move on from the coronavirus pandemic”, Seth Meyers noted on Wednesday’s Late Night. Donald Trump has blamed the uptick in case numbers on an increase in testing, a deflection Meyers found ludicrous. “I can’t believe I have to explain this,” Meyers said. “If we stopped testing, that wouldn’t mean the cases went away. That would just mean we don’t know about them. When you play peekaboo with a baby, the baby can’t see you but that doesn’t mean you actually disappeared.
“Now this is a sentiment Trump has repeated several times – if only we could stop testing, we’d look so much better – which is just insane. It’s like if you went to your optometrist, and they said, ‘I could give you an eye exam, but then you’d need glasses to drive.’ That doesn’t mean you don’t need glasses, it just means you’ll probably get in more car accidents.”
Meyers also noted that top US infectious disease experts such as Dr Anthony Fauci agree that recently rising case numbers are tied to loosened social restrictions in various states, and have openly contradicted the Trump administration. On Tuesday, Fauci said the increase in cases could not be explained by increased testing, “which is just obviously true”, Meyers said. “What do you think is more likely to be responsible for an increase in cases of infectious disease: increased testing, or reopening gyms, malls, barber shops, bowling alleys, massage parlors?
“And yet, the Trump administration is committed to the lie that the coronavirus has just disappeared, when in reality it never went away, and it is in fact getting worse.”
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert dug into the much-hyped book by Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. Several newspapers released excerpts from The Room Where It Happened on Wednesday, Colbert explained, and “I can’t believe I’m saying this: it’s worse than even I imagined.”
Bolton’s book, which the Trump administration has attempted to block from publication, features stories about the president and his administration which ranged, according to Colbert, from “amoral idiocy to just downright evil”.
“According to Bolton, Trump’s ignorance is near-bottomless. Apparently, Trump didn’t seem to know that Britain was a nuclear power and asked if Finland was part of Russia. Now, you can understand his confusion there, because under President Trump, it feels like we’re kind of part of Russia.”
Bolton, who is scheduled to appear on The Late Show next week to discuss the book, also claims that he was told on his first day of work in 2018 by then chief of staff John Kelly – who was reportedly “desperate” to leave – that the White House was a “bad place to work”.
“Sounds like working there was like the movie Get Out, except the characters were more hostile to black people,” Colbert said before turning his glare to Kelly. “While we’re on the subject, boo-fucking-hoo, General. It’s the White House, not Dairy Queen. If it’s this horrible of a place, you’re obliged to tell the world about the crimes and save the nation. Not privately bitch about it with your buddy until there’s an opening at Cold Stone Creamery.”
Colbert also condemned Bolton, who wrote that “obstruction of justice” seemed to be “a way of life” for Trump that “we couldn’t accept”.
“John Bolton knew it was wrong to stand idly by and accept the president repeatedly obstructing justice. He knew that the right thing was to stand idly by and wait on that book deal.”
“See you Tuesday, sir,” he added.
Trevor Noah
And on the Daily Show, Trevor Noah discussed the resurgence of coronavirus cases, which have very much not gone away. China, for example has enacted shutdown measures in Beijing after 100 new cases were reported in the capital.
“Wait a minute, China is shutting down Beijing because of 100 cases? Either China takes this way more seriously than everyone else or there’s something they’re not telling us again.”
Trump is right: If we stop testing, we’ll have fewer cases of corona. Just like if Black people stop recording cops, we’ll have fewer cases of police brutality. pic.twitter.com/JZXCTc7qdA
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 18, 2020
Meanwhile, cases are also on the rise in several US states, which Donald Trump has blamed not on reopening measures but on the increase in testing. Earlier this week, he told reporters that there would be fewer cases if fewer tests were conducted – logic which is “technically right”, Noah noted, because “if you don’t test anybody, then you don’t have any cases. The same way if black people stopped recording the cops, we would have zero cases of police brutality. Ignorance is bliss.”
In other coronavirus news, researchers have generally reached consensus that the most risky environment for the spread of virus is mass indoor gatherings in which people are talking – such as, for example, the political rally Trump plans to hold in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this weekend.
“Now, we know the total nightmare scenario for catching coronavirus would be like a big crowded indoor event where thousands of people are packed together, screaming and chanting about locking someone up,” Noah said. “But luckily, no one would do such a thing.”
