Like a lot of you, Stephen Colbert was preoccupied with the looming threat of a coronavirus outbreak and during his monologue on Wednesday’s “The Late Show,” what he saw from Donald Trump didn’t fill him with confidence at all.
First, Colbert looked at the report from last week that Trump is primarily worried that a coronavirus outbreak in the US could hurt his reelection chances.
“I look forward to that transcript,” Colbert joked, launching into an impression of Trump calling the president of Ukraine to get dirt on “Hunter Coronavirus.”
Colbert then noted that on Tuesday, Trump delivered an awkward attempt at reassuring Americans we don’t have to worry, but failed when he said “there’s a very good chance you’re not gonna die,” a glib response the Washington Post harshly criticized.
Colbert compared that to an airline pilot who tells passengers there’s a “60/40 chance” he’s able to land the plane successfully.
Next up, Colbert noted the disturbing news that Trump is also promoting false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, including the baseless claim he tweeted on Wednesday that that news networks and Democrats are lying in order to boost ratings and cause a stock market crash.
“Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action,” Trump, who we remind you is the president of the United States, tweeted. (Not the mispelling of Coronavirus.)
“The care-onavirus is totally contained,” Colbert said in his Trump impression. It will not become a pam-demic like smallpax, the swain flu, or Sears.”
Colbert also had some not-very-confident words for Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Trump’s acting Homeland Security Adviser, Chad Wolf. He ended by noting an amusing/scary graphic explaining which facial hair styles work with respirator masks and which don’t, joking “Oh my God, all of Brooklyn is dead!”
Watch it above.