Late night hosts aren't buying Trump's coronavirus 'cheerleader' excuse

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out of the presidential race, saying he has no path to victory, Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. "Bernie Sanders is saying Bernie Sanders can't win? Man, he is going to catch hell from Bernie Sanders supporters."

"The president has caught a bunch of blame for his late response to the coronavirus, but at yesterday's daily shout-fest he addressed that criticism head-on by saying, 'Look over there!'" Colbert said. Contrary to Trump's "projection," the World Health Organization "did not ignore early warnings about COVID-19, Donald Trump did, but yesterday Donald Trump explained why he didn't act on the warnings" — he's a "cheerleader for this country," he said, suggesting that if Trump acted like a quarterback, we'd be in much better shape.

Downplaying pandemics is "not what a cheerleader does," Late Night's Seth Meyers agreed. "They cheer. It's in their name. I swear, Trump probably has no idea what an anteater eats."

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"Gimme a B! Gimme an S!" Jimmy Kimmel cheered. Trump's "more of a fearleader than a cheerleader. He is so ready to move on from this," tweeting Wednesday that the pandemic "must quickly be forgotten." Kimmel disagreed: "No, it should not be forgotten! We need to remember so the next time it happens, we're prepared for it. Also, is this how we handle tragedies now? We forget?"

"When this whole pandemic was just kicking off, many people thought coronavirus was something that just didn't involve black people, sort of like tennis elbow and Tiger King," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Social Distancing Show. But "it turns out that black people are being hit harder than anyone else in American right now." There are lots of reasons — more health problems, less health insurance, racism — but the bottom line, he said, is that "any widespread crisis in America is bound to hit the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups the hardest."

"While we're all distracted by this pandemic," the Trump administration has been working overtime "abusing their power and pulling some truly shady s--t," Samantha Bee said on Full Frontal. Instead of responding effectively to the crisis, Trump is boosting pollution, eroding civil liberties, sneaking in immigration crackdowns, and even taking belated revenge on the inspector general who flagged the Ukraine whistleblower complaint — sadly, she said, this is "the most work he's ever done." Watch below. Peter Weber