Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers dig for the roots of Trump's legal perils, find Trump
"Donald Trump is in trouble," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show, "thanks to two phone calls, one with the president of Ukraine in which he asked for dirt on Joe Biden, another call with the president of Turkey in which he sold out our allies the Kurds — I assume, for dirt on Joe Biden. In the end, Trump may be defeated by his greatest weakness, his Achilles' mouth. It's all detailed in the epic poem The Idiod. Yeah, it's a Homer joke," he explained.
Trump's calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, who described them as "fawning," "obsequious," horrifying, and bizarre, Colbert said. But "Trump might be in trouble over more than just the phone calls because he just lost a big court ruling here in New York City. On Monday, the president was ordered to turn over his tax returns to the Manhattan D.A." Colbert dampened his audience's "simultaneous W-4gasm" by noting that the ruling is under appeal.
"We've had corrupt, lawless presidents before, but Trump is the top," Seth Meyers said at Late Night. He focused on Trump's letter explaining why the House impeachment inquiry "illegitimate" and unlawful. "That's right, Trump is literally calling impeachment — a process which is laid out in the Constitution — unconstitutional. He's going to be so shocked if he ever reads the Constitution one day," Meyers said. "This idea that impeachment is somehow unconstitutional is an insane theory that has been percolating on the right for a few weeks now," and "not only is this argument a threat to the very foundations of democracy, it's also incredibly dumb."
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Trump keeps claiming he has magical "absolute powers" from Article II of the Constitution, Meyers said, laying out evidence that Trump has no idea what the Constitution actually says. He also got a lot of mileage out of a Trump aide calling the president a "master baker." 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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