Late night hosts talk up Michelle Obama's DNC speech, mock Trump's comeback, laugh at Bernie's wood pile
"The Democratic National Convention continued tonight, but everyone's still talking about Michelle Obama's speech," Jimmy Fallon said on Tuesday's Tonight Show. "She really brought the heat, especially when she used President Trump's own words against him." When President Trump heard her "it is what it is" line, he added, "he squeezed his Diet Coke can so hard, it turned into a diamond."
"Everyone is saying the former first lady stole the night," Fallon said. Well, except Trump, who tried to turn Obama's insult back on her at an event Tuesday morning, where he also announced he will pardon suffragette Susan B. Anthony. Yes, "there's no bigger champion for women than the man who spent his morning rage-tweeting about Michelle Obama," he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also gave a big speech Monday night, though his backdrop of stacked wood nearly stole the show. "Man, when they told Bernie to log on to the event, he took it literally," Fallon joked.
Sanders may have given his speech "in a cabin where he clearly murdered Groot's entire family and stacked them in the background," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show, but it was important he remind "his base that progressives cannot afford to cast protest votes like they did in 2016, because this s--t we live through? This was four years of Trump still caring about being re-elected."
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Michelle Obama's "brilliant" speech is "all anybody was talking about today," Noah said. Her takedown of Trump "was ice cold. And what made it even more devastating was that Michelle Obama wasn't angry, she wasn't yelling, she just stated Trump's complete failures as a president as an obvious fact," without shaming people who disagree with her. Trump, unsurprisingly, "wasn't as impressed by Michelle's speech," he noted, though his critique — that she undercounted his COVID-19 deaths — "was one of the biggest self-owns I have ever seen."
During her speech, "Michelle Obama wore a necklace that said 'Vote' — and of course it's already been plagiarized," Seth Meyers joked at Late Night, showing a photo of the current first lady. "Be Vote." He was underwhelmed by the large number of Republican invited to speak.
Tooning Out the News specifically questioned, archly but fairly, whether Gov. John Kasich's crossroads speech would sway any Trump voters. 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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