Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers shred the Nunes memo and its enablers

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night)

last updated 2 February 2018

President Trump has reportedly approved the release of a controversial and classified memo that purports to show surveillance abuse by the FBI. This four-page "sticky note from Congress" was put together for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Trevor Noah said on Thursday's Daily Show. A member of Trump's transition team, "he's so loyal to Trump that he once snuck to the White House to show Trump secret evidence," Noah said. "But Republicans don't need 'credible' to advance their narrative. All Nunes has to do is say he has something important and damning, and the propaganda machine will do the rest."

Once Trump releases the memo, "essentially, Republicans are going to turn this into a Tarot card reading," Noah said. If it works the way Trump wants, "he can use it to justify purging federal law enforcement of anybody who isn't loyal to him," he added. "You don't need a fortune teller to know that this s--t's not going to end well."

"To call Devin Nunes Donald Trump's lapdog would be an insult to dogs and laps," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live. With his help, Trump is doing to the FBI what he's been doing to the news media — if he doesn't like the story or the investigation, it's fake, even if the newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch and the investigation is run by Republicans he appointed. "This is what happens when the only rule in your house is 'You don't like the butler? Well, we'll fire the butler,'" Kimmel said. "This is basically the same defense O.J. used, okay? And it worked. O.J. lives in Vegas now and plays a lot of golf."

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"So what does this memo actually say?" Seth Meyers asked at Late Night. It reportedly shows that "Trump's own Justice Department approved an extension of a warrant to surveil a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser named Carter Page," apparently due to ongoing concern he's a Russian agent. "So just how suspicious is Carter Page?" he asked. "I'll let Carter Page answer that." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.