Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah see guilt, grift, acceptance in Trump's coming pardons
"Yesterday it came out that President Trump might give Rudy Giuliani a pre-emptive pardon — well now he's thinking about the same thing for his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his kids Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr.," Jimmy Fallon said on Wednesday's Tonight Show. "It's not a great look for your presidency when your biggest accomplishment is 'most family members pardoned.' It's pretty crazy. The last person who needed pardons for their whole family was Charles Manson."
"Usually presidents grant pardons after they've been vetted very carefully by the Justice Department," Jimmy Kimmel said at Kimmel Live. "Trump is shooting them out of a T-shirt cannon right now." Still, "Trump has a real opportunity here," he added. "He could pardon Joe Exotic, Rudy Giuliani, Jared from Subway, Suge Knight, Aunt Becky, put them all in a house, and boom! Donald Trump's Celebrity A-penitentiary, this summer on ABC."
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.
Seriously, "Tiger King" Joe Exotic thinks he has a real shot at a lame-duck pardon from Trump, Stephen Colbert noted at The Late Show. "Oh come on! A ridiculous, washed-up, paranoid, obviously guilty reality star might pardon Joe Exotic?" Trump won't admit he lost, but the pardon talk gives the game away. It's not clear what crimes Trump thinks his kids might have committed, but "a pre-emptive blanket pardon for everything you might have done seems a little excessive," he said. "Crime-ing is like drinking: It's a red flag if you don't know exactly how many drinks you've had or how many crimes you've done."
"Trump is just handing out pardons like they're gift cards: 'I figured I'd let you pick your own crimes. So enjoy!'" Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. In fact, "it turns out anyone may be able to get a pardon from Trump — for the right price." Trump isn't publicly implicated in a newly revealed "bribery-for-pardon" scheme, he noted, but "after knowing him for this long, I think we can assume that my man is not going to turn down some pardon cash. If anything, I think we should be impressed that he hasn't started targeting Instagram ads to former felons." Watch below. Peter Weber
-
Political cartoons for January 24Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include 3D chess, political distractions, and more
-
Ryanair/SpaceX: could Musk really buy the airline?Talking Point Irish budget carrier has become embroiled in unlikely feud with the world’s wealthiest man
-
Claudette Colvin: teenage activist who paved the way for Rosa ParksIn The Spotlight Inspired by the example of 19th century abolitionists, 15-year-old Colvin refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
A peek inside Europe’s luxury new sleeper busThe Week Recommends Overnight service with stops across Switzerland and the Netherlands promises a comfortable no-fly adventure
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
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'
