Late night hosts game out if Trump's Bob Woodward scandal will end any differently that his other scandals
We learned Wednesday that President Trump admitted to Bob Woodward back in February and March "he purposefully downplayed the risk of coronavirus," Trevor Noah said on Thursday's Daily Show. "Now, when normal people get caught on tape admitting that they lied to an entire country, they usually apologize. But Donald Trump didn't become president by being normal, so yesterday he doubled down."
"The one upside of being stuck in this psychotic relationship with Trump for the last four years is that by now, we've pretty much learned every pattern that every Trump scandal takes," Noah said: "Trump steps into sh-t, and then Trumpworld comes out and explains that he didn't actually step in sh-t," and right on cue, Fox News "quickly rallied to Trump's corner to explain why lying to America about a deadly pandemic was the right move all along."
Well, all except Tucker Carlson, who "seemed to realize that Donald Trump's lie had done some real damage" and "took the bold step of placing the blame squarely on" ... Lindsey Graham, Noah said. "This is the problem with defending Trump at all costs: Eventually, you're forced to invent the most ridiculous conspiracy theories."
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"Even the Fox News reality-distortion machine couldn't hide the damning truth, because it was in the president's own words," Late Night's Seth Meyers said. So Republican lawmakers used a different, time-tested strategy: "They're pretending they haven't heard about it."
Trump's options weren't "'lie' or 'panic,'" Meyers noted. "There's a third option, where you tell people the truth and then do something about it, which would reassure everyone. But no, we elected the guy who puts a piece of duct tape over the Check Engine light," and in this case "he was dumb enough to confess something so cartoonishly evil to a reporter who is recording him."
"Trump complained about the fallout on Twitter and described it as 'the political hit job by rapidly fading Bob Woodward and his boring book,'" Jimmy Fallon said at The Tonight Show. "Trump was like, 'Total hit job. I spoke to a reporter 18 times, and he recorded it and wrote down my exact words — fake!'"
"My 4-year-old daughter is better at keeping secrets than the president," guest host John Legend said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "She knew we were pregnant for weeks before we announced it, and she didn't say a word to Bob Woodward." 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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