Late night hosts take aim at Trump, GOP for failed healthcare bill
The Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act may have been dead in the water last week, but it certainly gave life to late night hosts on Monday.
The bill was pulled on Friday when it became clear that it wouldn't garner enough votes to pass, a fact that Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah found very amusing as they pulled no punches on their respective shows. Here are the best quips.
Seth Meyers
Meyers poked at Trump for the failure to pass the law, calling him a 90s sitcom dad and citing numerous clips from the campaign trail when the president bragged about his deal-making abilities and promised to repeal and replace Obamacare on Day 1.
"Health care was the first test of Trump's supposed dealmaking skills, and it went up in flames," Meyers said. "So now that the dealmaking skills Trump spent the entire campaign bragging about have turned out to be a complete sham, is the president at least willing to admit that he failed to deliver on a key campaign promise? Of course not."
The Late Night host also pointed to a tweet from Trump over the weekend where he told followers to tune into a certain Fox News show, which opened by suggesting Speaker of the House Paul Ryan step aside. "Trump's team is now defending him by saying he likes to recommend TV shows," Meyers said, then took that concept one step further. "'Mr. Trump, tell us about your health care plan.' 'Well, just check out tonight's episode of The Walking Dead.'"
Stephen Colbert
Colbert, too, noted Trump's promise to take care of Obamacare "immediately," but he also spread his jokes around to the Republican party at large.
“They folded the Obamacare repeal and placed it in the cabinet of broken Republican dreams,” The Late Show host said. “Next to trickle down economics and a Jesus-shaped fighter jet that drops gay people on ISIS.”
He also commented that a conservative PAC ran an ad supporting the failed AHCA after the bill was pulled during NCAA basketball. Colbert joked that they should have also run ads “congratulating Kansas for making it to the Final Four and printed a newspaper declaring, ‘Dewey Defeats Health Care Reform.'"
Trevor Noah
"As everyone knows by now, girls in leggings weren't the only thing that failed to get off the ground," Noah said by way of opening his Daily Show segment on the bill. Noah went on to compare the GOP's long game with healthcare to what he called the "playa/hata" phenomenon from R&B.
"You know those songs where a guy is hating throughout the song? He's like, 'girl you deserve so much better, he doesn't treat you right...' that was the Republicans." Noah joked. "And this time America was the girl who was like "OK I'm going to give you a shot.' And the Republicans were like, 'Wait what? Actually right now I'm living with my mom... Maybe just give me a few weeks to get my life together..."