Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing across the U.S., "but don't worry, because the White House is working hard on an aggressive new plan — to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. White House officials said they're "concerned" at how often the nation's top infectious disease expert had been wrong about the new coronavirus, and Colbert had some bad news for them about President Trump's record.
"With coronavirus surging across the nation, parents are wondering how — and if — schools will be able to reopen in the fall," Colbert said. "Trump's behind in every national poll, so he is desperate for the schools to reopen," going so far as threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that don't completely reopen. "Understandably, there are some concerns about returning to school, such as, you know, the dying stuff," he said, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' answers on Sunday's talk shows were not reassuring.
The Late Show illustrated the DeVos school fight with a "Tragic School Bus" cartoon.
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.
At least "Trump finally put a mask on," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show, though for the Trump fans "who have been mocking face masks this whole time," this "must be like seeing Trump at a Black Lives Matter march with AOC." For everyone else, it's "positively insane" that "Donald Trump is spending more time trying to defeat Dr. Fauci than defeating the coronavirus," he said. "This is the same person who was thinking about bleaching his lungs, and now he's trying to point his tiny fingers at Dr. Fauci?"
"Well, if Trump is looking to discredit one of his top medical experts, he must be getting his coronavirus information from a source that's even more esteemed," Jimmy Fallon deadpanned on The Tonight Show, sighing the name "Chuck Woolery. For those of you who don't know him, he's a crazy ex-TV host with a bunch of ex-wives who loves conspiracy theories — and now he's retweeting Chuck Woolery. It's not good we're getting medical advice from the former host of The Apprentice, who's getting it from the former host of Love Connection."
Let's face it, "the U.S. is an object of horror and humiliation across the world as our coronavirus pandemic spins further out of control and a desperate president tries to force students and teachers back to school without a plan to keep them safe," Seth Meyers said at Late Night. He took a closer look at Trump's cognitive test, Mary Trump's tell-all, and much more. Watch below. Peter Weber
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed 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 illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed 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 viewSpeed 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 talkSpeed 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 ZürichThe Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
