NEW YORK — Late night comedy hosts found themselves surprised by the news that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.
Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah had to swiftly respond to the breaking news.
For Colbert and “The Late Show,” the news broke during the afternoon taping of the CBS broadcast.
“That shows no gratitude at all,” Colbert said of the firing in his opening monologue. “Did Trump forget about the Hillary emails that Comey talked about?”
Then, in his best Trump voice, Colbert said, “Thanks for the presidency, Jimmy,” and added, “Don’t let the door hit ‘ya where the Electoral College split ‘ya.”
On “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah expressed a mixture of shock and confusion over the dismissal of Comey, the man who was responsible for the FBI’s investigation into whether members of Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in last year’s election.
“Wow, Trump fired the FBI director! Like, you can’t just fire the FBI director,” Noah said. “I mean if he’s gone, who’s going to investigate Russia’s ties to — Ohhhhhhhhhhh.”
As for Kimmel, he opened his ABC show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” trying to figure out the reasoning behind the firing.
“He fired James Comey, the director of the FBI, which is kind of like O.J. [Simpson] firing Judge Ito halfway through the trial,” Kimmel said at the top of the show Tuesday night.
Kimmel continued with his disbelief, but then jokingly came up with a possible explanation.
“This is the kind of thing reality TV hosts do. They fire someone every week. Maybe that’s what happened. He thinks he’s still on ‘The Celebrity Apprentice,'” the host said. “It was between James Comey and Meatloaf, and well, the Loaf won again.”
Kimmel also told his audience that he would now start selling “Comey Is My Homey” t-shirts to fight back against Trump’s decision.
“If you are one of the millions of Americans who are angry about this shameful and disgraceful move, send me $29.99 and I will use some of that money to send a very nasty letter directly to the Oval Office,” he said.
