Late-night TV hosts on Trump's Russian contacts: 'Under the shirt, over the constitution'

Extract from The Guardian

Comics, including Samantha Bee and Stephen Colbert, took aim at Republican healthcare confusion and meetings with the Russian ambassador

‘It’ll be just like Game of Thrones’: TV hosts on Trump’s health bill

Aidan Mac Guill

Friday 10 March 2017 01.24 AEDT 

Late-night TV hosts discussed Republican disarray and continuing reports of meetings between Trump’s team and Russian officials, saying such contact was “strictly under the shirt and over the constitution”.

On Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, the comic took aim at the Republican’s newly released alternative to Obamacare. “On the list of terrible Bills, this one ranks right between Cosby and O’Reilly,” she joked, adding: “Cosby, of course, ranks No 1 because he’s the only Bill that provides free medication whether you want it or not.”

She also noted the positive reaction of pundits to Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last week, saying they rained “golden compliments down on him in the warmest shower he’s ever had outside of Moscow”.
Bee also ridiculed rightwing media claims that Barack Obama had attempted a “silent coup” against Trump. “Just one of those classic coups where a president uses the might of the government to spy on an opponent and then doesn’t release any of the information he found, lets the other guy win and then isn’t president any more,” she scoffed.
Trump’s staff members seem to be afraid to challenge him on basic facts, she worried, treating him like “a dangerously strong show chimp that you have to bribe with Diet Pepsi so he won’t tear your face off”.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert said the Republicans’ lengthy delay in releasing their alternative to Obamacare made them the “George RR Martin of healthcare”, adding that “just like in Game of Thrones, a lot of your favourite characters are going to die without warning”.
Colbert noted that Trump had urged Republican congressmen to support the new plan to avoid an electoral “bloodbath” in 2018. “Which would be terrible, because their healthcare plan does not cover bloodbath,” he joked.

Colbert then turned to reports that at least five members of Trump’s 2016 campaign team had made contact with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, during last year’s election. “But they insist that contact was strictly under the shirt, over the constitution,” he said.

Trump plans to pay for his immigration program by cutting funding to the coast guard as well airport and rail security, the comic told viewers. “Great, so we’re fine as long as nobody tries to get into America by land, sea or air,” he said.
He also questioned plans to carry out more invasive physical patdowns at airports – “More invasive? Did they find a new hole?” – before reminding airplane travelers to “make sure you have your ticket, your photo ID and your safe word”. But there could be a silver lining for people about to lose their healthcare, Colbert suggested, as they can visit an airport “to get a free prostate exam”.

Meanwhile, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host noted that Trump had devoted an hour to a private Oval Office meeting with the owner of the celebrity gossip site TMZ. “What could those two possibly need to talk about for an hour? Is there a terrorist plot against Taylor Swift we need to know about?”