Late-night hosts continued to look at the fallout from the debate and Donald Trump’s attempts to spin his poor performance.
Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said that after the debate, Trump is “still trying to convince the Maga-verse that he didn’t blow it”.
The Republican presidential candidate had also showed cowardice after Kamala Harris suggested a rematch, refusing to agree to a second debate with her. “I guess when you eat as many buckets of chicken as Donald Trump does, eventually you turn into one,” he said.
Kimmel compared the rightwing refusal to admit it was a bad night for Trump to what happened “when Joe Biden slipped into a coma” during the previous debate. While Democrats “sent him to live on a farm upstate” and admitted defeat, Trump refuses and doubles down. “Not only does he lose the debate, but he embarrasses himself,” he said.
He added that it was also “very bad timing for Trump” as he is currently experiencing yet more business trouble so has decided to embark on “a brand new grift” called World Liberty Financial. Kimmel said it was “just generic enough that your grandparents will think they’re paying their insurance bill”.
Kimmel also showed a picture of Trump “defacing the American flag” with an autograph this week which “violates the official US flag code”.
If Harris has done this, “can you imagine the outrage?” Kimmel asked. “Sean Hannity would be in the hospital right now,” he said.
Melania has not been by Trump’s side this week but instead, he has brought “rightwing loony” Laura Loomer, who holds extreme far-right views including calling 9/11 an inside job. Earlier in the week, Trump had her accompany him to a memorial.
“Only Donald Trump would bring a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to the 9/11 memorial,” he said.
A racist tweet from Loomer this week also caused Marjorie Taylor Greene to express outrage. “You know what a vomit you have to be to be called out by Marjorie Taylor Greene?” he asked.
Stephen Colbert
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert said that during the debate Harris “shook Donald Trump’s hand then handed him his ass”, something that was watched by 67.1 million people, the most-watched TV show since the Super Bowl.
“That makes sense because the winner of the Super Bowl and the debate were both endorsed by Taylor Swift,” he joked.
A CNN poll has 63% of viewers believing that Harris won the night, which Colbert said must mean that “37% of Americans don’t own TVs”.
He played footage or Robert F Kennedy Jr praising Harris and criticising Trump’s performance, “surprisingly cogent analysis” for the ex-independent candidate. “Is it possible he ate a second smarter brain-worm?” he asked.
But RFK Jr did say that Trump wins “on substance”.
Colbert quipped: “Anyone who thinks Trump won that debate on substance is clearly … on a substance.”
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers said that “even the weirdos that support Donald Trump” had to “admit that Harris had a much better night”.
He also played footage of RFK Jr saying that Trump didn’t tell the story of his governance, which would have been beneficial. Meyers said it was “rare for him to tell the right story at the right time”.
Meyers also said it was strange for the Republicans to involve RFK Jr at a time when we are having “a national conversation about eating unusual animals”.
Trump has also claimed that the ABC coverage was rigged, with him being corrected and factchecked so many times, yet the same thing didn’t happen to Harris. “You’re so close to getting it,” he said.
Harris spoke to his previous opponents for advice, including Hillary Clinton, who said it was easy to rattle him. “Yeah, I’d say he was rattled,” Meyers said. “No one screams about eating dogs for chill reasons.”
