Late-night hosts took apart Donald Trump’s Twitter attack on Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, calling his behaviour unashamedly racist.
Stephen Colbert: ‘He’s the leader of a rival gang: the Klan’
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert returned after a two-week break. “There were some big stories while we were gone: the sun rose in the east, a bear relieved himself in the woods, Donald Trump was racist,” he said.
Trump attacked the four women on Twitter and told them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”.
Colbert referred to Trump’s tweets as “a new personal best in being the worst”.
The women have been termed “the squad”, to which Colbert joked about Trump: “He is the leader of the rival gang: the Klan.” After Colbert read the tweets to his audience, he said: “If that strikes you as a little racist, you do not know the meaning of the word little.”
He also called the string of tweets “a burrito of wrongness” before explaining the inaccuracy of the statement in the first place. “It is insulting to these women to even have to defend them from these racist accusations,” he said.
Trevor Noah: ‘Yes, he’s racist’
On the Daily Show, Trevor Noah also spoke about the racist tweets. “I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that the president thought it was acceptable to say go back to where you came from or the fact that he said it to people who are already where they came from,” he said, also highlighting the inaccuracy of the attack.
Everyone says Trump’s tweets are racist. Trump says they’re not. Sounds like a case for Trevor Noah, Racism Detective. pic.twitter.com/6H9Dlc7K1y
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 16, 2019
Noah continued: “It’s almost like in Trump’s head you can’t be a person of colour and an American which is strange because he of all people should know you can be two things at the same time. He’s bald but has a full head of hair at the same time”
He then dressed up as Trevor Noah: Racism Detective for a brief section which has him speculating over whether or not the tweets were racist. His simple conclusion? “Yes, he’s racist,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Out of his mind again’
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host also brought up Trump’s offensive online language. “Without Twitter we would just have to wonder whether our president has racist thoughts on every subject,” he said.
Kimmel said the president was clearly “out of his mind again” and played footage of Trump doubling down, saying that the congresswomen were happy to leave whenever they wanted. “As soon as he said that, Melania started running to the airport,” Kimmel joked.
A very small portion of Republicans have openly denounced Trump’s words, but most have remained silent. While Lindsey Graham openly called Trump a racist when they were running against each other back in 2015, this time he has only spoken about Trump’s prowess as a golfer. “Lindsey Graham is probably the closest Donald Trump will ever get to owning a dog,” he said.
