Not even a national crisis which has shut down production of their shows has reduced the display of antipathy from two late night hosts toward President Trump. Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have checked in with home videos in which both amplify left-wing upset at Trump accurately noting the origin of the COVID-19 virus.
As noted in an earlier NewsBusters post, Colbert intoned on Tuesday: “Trump’s been tooting his dog whistle pretty hard by calling it ‘Chinese virus.’” The CBS host declared: “It’s a very racist term.”
The next night, Kimmel charged in a video recorded inside his Los Angeles-area home: “He now calls it the ‘Chinese virus’ every chance he gets because, you know, they say a great way to prevent a virus from spreading is to name it something racist.”
Kimmel, in a video released Thursday, complained “he’s really going all in with this ‘Chinese virus’ nonsense.” The ABC host soon ranted: “I’ve really had enough of this guy. You know what? Just shut up already and let the doctors take over. Seriously, you trumped the shark. Go away, hand it over to Mike Pence. Go sit in your room at Mar a Lago and scream at the television all day.”
(Meanwhile, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon has managed to keep it light, without digs at President Trump or anyone else, in videos from his in-law’s home in New Hampshire which have aired at the top of re-runs of The Tonight Show.)
> Jimmy Kimmel Live’s “Quarantine Minilogue” for Wednesday night, March 18, a video posted only online and not aired on ABC:
“Trump, meanwhile, has a catchy little nickname for the corona virus of ours. He now calls it the ‘Chinese virus’ every chance he gets because, you know, they say a great way to prevent a virus from spreading is to name it something racist. That way people keep it on the down low. I don’t know why he does this. Actually, I do know why does it, it’s to deflect blame away from him? It’s like when he started calling Eric and Don Jr. the Ivana kids. We are right now we are basically living through a disaster movie in which the president is being played by Gary Busey.”
> Kimmel in an online-only “Quarantine Minilogue” video posted Thursday:
“And he’s really going all in with this ‘Chinese virus’ nonsense. At his press briefing today, someone got a shot of his notes very close up. You can see he crossed out the word ‘Corona’ and wrote ‘Chinese’ instead. Which means even his speech writer was like, ‘I’m not writing that. You want it, you change it yourself.’ Somebody needs to take his Sharpie away. I’ve really had enough of this guy. You know what? Just shut up already and let the doctors take over. Seriously, you trumped the shark. Go away, hand it over to Mike Pence. Go sit in your room at Mar a Lago and scream at the television all day. We’re tired of all the winning.”
