Late-night hosts gawk as Trump digs his impeachment hole all the way to China, yanks in Mike Pence


"The Constitution gives the accused the right to remain silent," Stephen Colbert noted on Thursday's Late Show. "And clearly, Donald Trump has never read the Constitution." Everything President Trump "has said for the last 48 hours just makes him guiltier," he added. On Wednesday, Trump "wisely dodged" a question about what he was asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about the Bidens, but "today, he took that ball straight in the face," admitting to "literally what they're impeaching you for." In fact, he asked a second country to investigate Joe Biden, too, Colbert said. "Just when you think Trump can't dig himself a deeper hole, he literally reaches China."
"It almost seems like he's trying to impeach himself," Jimmy Kimmel said at Kimmel Live. The Justice Department has ordered the Trump administration to preserve notes of his calls and meetings with foreign leaders, but "the House might not even need records" to impeach him anymore, he said. "Rarely during a witch hunt do you see the witch drown herself."
"Today we learned that the vice poodle, Mike Pence, may have got his little paws dirty, too," Kimmel said. Pence and his staff "really don't want to get mixed up in this," he added. "They say if Mike Pence distances himself from Trump any more, Trump might have to make him first lady."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Wow, so Mike Pence likely knew about the phone call, had access to the transcript, and personally told Zelensky that he wasn't getting his military aid," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. Yes, Pence "does whatever Trump tells him," but his excuse that "he was blissfully unaware of what Trump was really up to" is "weird," it "makes no sense" — and Pence has used it many times before.
"People close to Trump are worried he's becoming more and more unglued — at this point, the only glued parts of Trump are his teeth and his his hair," Jimmy Fallon joked at The Tonight Show. "It's true, he may be losing it. Today he tweeted in all-caps: 'Election interference!' It wasn't a complaint, he just accidentally tweeted his to-do list. He was like, 'My bad, that was supposed to be a DM to Ukraine, China, Australia, and Russia.'" Watch below. Peter Weber
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle