Late-night TV hosts on Donald Trump Jr: 'He's his own Deep Throat'

Extract from The Guardian

Late-night TV roundup

Comics, including Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah, addressed the emails detailing a secret meeting between the president’s son and Russian affiliates

Stephen Colbert: ‘Just a reminder, these emails were leaked by Donald Trump Jr himself. He’s his own Deep Throat.’ Photograph: Youtube

Jake Nevins

Thursday 13 July 2017 01.29 AEST Last modified on Thursday 13 July 2017 01.52 AEST

Late-night hosts took aim at Donald Trump Jr after the president’s son was forced to release an email chain that showed he welcomed Russian aid in last year’s presidential election.
“What do you get when you cross a Russian, an email, and an idiot?” asked Trevor Noah at the top of his show. “Oh, cursed irony. The emails giveth the presidency, and the emails shall taketh it away.”

“Do you guys realize how bigly this is?” Noah continued. “For a whole year we’ve been wondering: did the Trump campaign collude with the Russians to affect the US presidential election? Finally, we have an answer.”
Noah went on to dissect the story, which originated with a New York Times report that Trump Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, then the Trump campaign manager, had a secret meeting in Trump Tower last summer with a Russian lawyer offering damning information about Hillary Clinton.

“Today, we got more of the story,” Noah said, referring to messages exchanged between Trump Jr and music publicist Rob Goldstone, released on Twitter by the president’s son to pre-empt the Times publication of the emails.
Noah continued: “I’m not even waiting for Curb Your Enthusiasm to come back now. This is the best comedy show ever. This two-legged brain foreclosure thought the best way to get out of this mess would be to jump into it himself. Trump Jr thought if he could be transparent, unlike ‘Crooked Hillary’, and share his email, people would be, like, ‘Huh, what an honest guy.’ The only problem is once you read the emails, they prove the collusion that Junior’s been denying all along.”
Noah then read parts of the email chain, which begins with Goldstone’s offer to arrange a meeting between Trump campaign officials and those affiliated with Russian government efforts to inflict damage on Clinton.
“You could not write a clearer, more narc-y email than that,” Noah joked. “It’s like getting an email that says, ‘Would you like, by your own choice, to smoke some illegal weed marijuana drugs in violation of local statute 22, section 3.’”

“To be fair to Don Jr, just getting that email is no proof of collusion,” Noah explained. “You’re not responsible for the emails you get. You’re only responsible for the emails you send.”
He then detailed Trump Jr’s response, in which he said “I love it” to Goldstone’s offer just 17 minutes later.
“Don Jr is now the first thing Trump regrets putting his name on.”
Stephen Colbert also addressed the revelations, which provide some of the first potential evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
“It has been an exciting day,” he began. “Last night, I told y’all about how Don Jr met with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. Seemed pretty bad, but it turned out much worse.”
Colbert went on: “Yesterday, Reince Priebus said this whole story is a nothing-burger. But these emails have turned it into all-you-can-prosecute buffet. Don Jr’s emails were with British music publicist and guy who Tony Soprano whacked in season three, Rob Goldstone. This Brit met the Trumps at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, and I believe his job was to remove all the locks from the dressing-room doors.

“It is going to take careful parsing to prove that the Trump campaign was privately colluding with Russia to get damaging confidential information about Hillary Clinton,” the host explained, before analyzing the correspondence. “This is the first email. Subject: Russia – Clinton – private & confidential.”
“The only word that’s innocent is ‘and’,” he joked.
Colbert then took viewers through the email chain, in which Goldstone plainly states that the information offered is part of a broader Russian effort.
“Goldstone could not have been clearer that this was going to be shady stuff,” he said. “That’s why he encrypted his communique with an algorithm that cyber-security experts call ‘email.’ And just a reminder, these emails were leaked by Donald Trump Jr himself. He’s his own Deep Throat. He’s deep-throating himself.”
“Just to make sure that there’s no doubt about the radioactive criminality about the proposed meeting, Goldstone spells out that it’s part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump,” Colbert explained.

The host then mocked Trump Jr’s response to the offer: “I love it, especially later in the summer.”
“That’s a weird way to say it. You’re not talking about a sparkling rosé with some toasted figs and a soft brie, you flaming douchebag!”
“At this point, I would like to issue a formal apology,” Colbert joked. “I’d like to apologize to Eric Trump. We always thought you were the dumb one. We were wrong.”