Late-Night Hosts Mock Trump for School Shooting Comments
by EG
The late-night talk shows, including Late Night with Seth Meyers, took turns mocking Donald Trump after he said in a speech that he would have "run in" to the scene of the recent school shooting in Florida. Given Trump's history of avoiding armed conflict via draft deferrments, the show hosts were skeptical that he has much of a heroic instinct in him.
Late-night hosts across the dial teed off on President Donald Trump's comments Monday that even if he didn't have a weapon, he would have run into Stoneman Douglas High School while a gunman was attacking in order to protect students. Trump made the comment to governors meeting at the White House to discuss school safety.
"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon," Trump said after criticizing local authorities for, in his opinion, not acting quickly enough during the shooting.
The president also made comments that slightly walked back his previous proposition to "arm" school teachers, saying, "I don't want teachers to have guns. I want highly trained people that have a natural talent, like hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball or putting."
After reading Trump’s comments, NBC's Late Night host Seth Meyers introduced a new portion of his program: “This brings us to a new segment entitled, ‘It slowly dawns on Seth that this man is our president.’ "
Later, in his "Closer Look" segment, Meyers said he didn't "believe Trump would run anywhere, let alone into a school shooting." Meyers said Trump is "not exactly Liam Neeson," and if he was in the Taken film series they would have had to change the name to My Daughter's Gone, Let's Move On.
Over on the Late Show, host Stephen Colbert similarly noted, “At this point I go to bed every night believing there is nothing [Trump] could say or do that would possibly surprise me — then the sun comes up.”
Addressing Trump’s comments about arming teachers, Colbert said, “Everybody knows shooting a gun is a natural talent. Not everybody's got it. You have to be born with at least one finger, and sometimes it's the only way out of the neighborhood, playing 'gun ball.' You guys know gun ball? You give one guy a gun and then you shoot him."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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