Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah count the ways Vindman undercut Trump's Ukraine defenses

Late night hosts on Trump&#039;s doctored Ukraine transcript

published 31 October 2019

The House will vote Thursday to set up rules governing its impeachment of President Trump, and meanwhile the impeachment inquiry "keeps chugging along," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. House impeachment investigators heard testimony Tuesday from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, their first witness who actually listened in on Trump's infamous call with Ukraine's president, he noted, and Vindman's deposition lasted 10 hours, "way too long for it to be for a good reason."

And in fact, Vindman "dropped a bombshell," Colbert said: "The official White House transcript of Trump's Ukraine call omitted crucial words and phrases. This is huge! The White House intentionally left things out. It's like the infamous 18 1/2-minute gap on Nixon's Watergate tapes — if Nixon had left in all the bad stuff. I mean, for Pete's sake, how do you edit the transcript and leave in 'I'd like you to do us a favor, though'?"

Yeah, "you know how Trump keeps claiming the White House released an 'exact' transcript of his call with the president of Ukraine? Well, not exactly exact," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live. Vindman "also told Congress that he believed there was a quid pro quo and the president was personally blocking military aid to Ukraine to force them to investigate the Bidens," and there are some amazing details about a Ukrainian delegation's White House experience in July, he added.

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Wednesday was "another day of testimony and turmoil in Washington, D.C., with more witnesses on the way," Kimmel said. "But the president is still blaming everyone else for everything" — including Kimmel himself, he explained in detail.

"So this development looks bad for Trump, and he's really gotta hate that Col. Vindman wore his military uniform when he testified," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. "I wouldn't be surprised if next time, Trump shows up decorated with his own achievements" — or achievement, perhaps.

In the commercial break, Noah tried to take the attacks on Vindman from Trump and his allies to their logical conclusion — and found very little logic there. 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.