Late-night hosts spoke about division within the Republican party and the latest George Santos controversy.
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers spoke about how Republicans remain confident for the midterms despite early indicators suggesting they might be in trouble.
Senator Ted Cruz was interviewed this week and said he thought voters would care enough about supporting the war in Iran to forget both rising inflation and rising gas prices.
“You don’t think people care about high gas prices?” Meyers asked. “Do you not have a dad?”
Donald Trump’s approval rating is at a new low and is now worse than it was when he left office the first time. “Dude has changed so little he can’t even admit he lost in 2020,” Meyers said.
Even among his core base of white working-class men, his rating is down, leaving just “Maha moms who love UFC and crypto”.
Meyers said this was because he was still “focused on the wrong stuff” such as the controversial “slush fund for January 6 insurrectionists” which has divided Republicans leading to reports of open revolt.
In “a rare admission of defeat” it was then scrapped although Trump and his family still have permanent immunity for tax crimes, which is “especially insane considering what we already know” about the president barely paying income tax.
Reports suggest he may owe more than $100m in back taxes but “if he doesn’t wanna do something, he just doesn’t do it”.
Meyers said that “even Republicans disapprove of Trump’s priorities”, which all go back to “enriching himself”.
Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host spoke about this week’s LA mayoral primaries which will now see Karen Bass contest a run-off election with “former reality show villain” Spencer Pratt.
“This is insane,” Kimmel said, adding that “we should be very embarrassed”.
The host said that rather than being in politics, Pratt “should be DJ-ing the worst New Year’s Eve party in Reno right now”.
Reportedly, Pratt is already filming a reality show about his run for mayor, so he “definitely has his priorities in order”.
Kimmel moved on to George Santos, whose sentence was commuted by Trump but might be heading back to prison over alleged insider trading on the prediction market Kalshi.
The controversial criminal ex-politician told his followers he would be attending the State of the Union address, leading to a rise in bets over his attendance but then didn’t go and made money from betting against himself.
Kimmel has said this means “we can bet on whether he’s going to prison again” but “in his defense, lip-fillers are very expensive”.
This week has also seen Trump bragging again about passing his physical and cognitive tests, saying that the latter is “actually a very tough test”.
“No, it is not!” Kimmel said, adding that it’s “a test to find out if grandpa needs someone to wipe him”.
He has also been bragging about the size of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool which he is having repainted, even though it’s the same size as before.
“I want to see him swim the length of that pool or even just the width,” Kimmel said.
