Speed Reads

Late Night Tackles 2017

Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers want you to meet Roy Moore, Trump's new best frenemy

Trevor Noah's top story on Wednesday's Daily Show was "the race that's been dominating Alabama — no, not white people, I mean the Senate race," he joked. President Trump campaigned for the incumbent GOP senator, Luther Strange, while in "a crazy twist," his entire team supported Strange's primary opponent, Roy Moore. Well, on Tuesday night, Alabama voters picked Moore.

Since Moore will probably win the general election, Noah took a look at the two-time former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice. "Moore has some interesting views on religion and race, but that's only the beginning," he said. "See, getting to know this man is like peeling an onion: The deeper you go, the more you want to cry." One memorable clip on race was from just last week, too. "I get saying we've got 'blacks and whites fighting,' but 'reds and yellow'?" Noah asked. "Is he running some kind of fight club for M&Ms?" Moore is very Trumpian, but Trump asked his voters to back Strange, and they didn't, he said. "For the first time we're seeing that Trumpism can exist without Trump, which is terrifying."

Trump backed Strange, but he admitted he may have made a mistake — at a Strange rally, Seth Meyers noted on Late Night. He might have, because Moore and Trump are "cut from the same cloth," relying on "open bigotry" to gin up support and caring little for policy, Meyers said, noting that Moore had no idea what DACA or DREAMers were until a "sassy" Alabama radio host told him recently.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert focused on Moore's views on homosexuality and took a stab at that recent quote about "reds and yellows": "I hope he's talking about Power Rangers or jelly beans." Peter Weber