Trevor Noah, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O'Brien ponder if the Ukraine scandal might actually bring down Trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump on Tuesday, and The Late Show outlined the key allegations in a fake recording of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
At The Daily Show, Trevor Noah explained the allegation and called it "devastating: It's abuse of power, it's extortion, and maybe worst of all, it's asking a foreign country to meddle in America's election — which is the one thing that if you were Donald Trump, you should stay away from."
Trump denies any wrongdoing, "but the one silver lining of any Trump scandal is that if you just wait long enough, eventually he'll just spill the beans himself," Noah said, playing some clips. "We all heard that, right? Trump just said there was no pressure except for the pressure to get dirt on Biden — that's the only pressure we're talking about! That's not a defense, that's an admission!"
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Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng was skeptical "this is the scandal" that will bring down Trump. When Trump "paid hush money to a porn star," he noted, "Trump got away with it, his lawyer went to jail, and now I can't watch porn without thinking of campaign finance law." He listed some others. "Do you know how much effort it takes to follow all these scandals?" Chieng asked Noah. "And for what? Every one of these scandals was going to be 'the one,' and it never is. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if this scandal ends with Ukraine going to jail and Trump becoming president for life."
Still, Jimmy Fallon joked at The Tonight Show, "you can tell Trump's desperate to make this go away because tonight he was like, 'Hey, who wants to see my tax returns?'" Seriously, "the whole thing is moving very fast," he said. "We found out about the Ukraine scandal last week, the impeachment inquiry is starting this week, which means Trump will be on Dancing With the Stars next week."
Conan O'Brien had a similar thought. "We don't know who the whistleblower is yet, but we do know they'll end up on Dancing With the Stars," he said on Conan. When Trump learned about the impeachment inquiry, he "was furious and said, 'This is nuts — I've done way worse things,'" O'Brien said, while over at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow's head exploded. 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.
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