Colbert on family separation: 'either you're horrified, or you work for Trump'

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jun/20/stephen-colbert-trevor-noah-trump-family-separation

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Late-night hosts on Tuesday discussed the continued backlash to the Trump administration’s policy of forcibly separation children from their families at the southern border.

Stephen Colbert

“Once again, the big story is Trump’s policy of taking immigrant children from their parents at the border,” began Stephen Colbert. “Now, there are two ways to look at this story. Either you can be horrified, or you can work for Donald Trump.”

Colbert was referring to Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, who filled in for Sarah Sanders to defend the policy at the daily briefing. “Sarah, you think you don’t want to talk about child separation policy? Try doing it on a comedy show,” said the host.

He continued: “Your administration owns locking up children, but if kids in cages is too much for you to defend, there is one option: you could resign. This is the White House, not an abandoned Walmart. You’re allowed to leave.”

“Anyway, the press conference was no picnic for Kirstjen Nielsen,” said Colbert, “because, according to Politico, last month Nielsen had concerns about the monitoring of unaccompanied children but changed her tune after senior administration officials pushed her to get on message over the weekend.

“There are some people who have no reservations about publicly defending Trump’s monstrous policy, for instance, the monster-in-chief,” Colbert said, showing Trump, at an event for the National Federation of Independent Businessmen, falsely claiming that “those who apply for asylum at port of entry are not prosecuted”.

The president went on to accuse the “fake news media” of “helping smugglers and traffickers like nobody would believe”.

“You’re right,” said Colbert. “I don’t believe you.”

Trevor Noah

Meanwhile, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed the bipartisan condemnation of Trump’s policy and the president’s persistent backers on Fox News.

“Over the past few days, outrage has been growing over the Trump administration’s new policy of taking kids from their parents at the border,” he began. “With a lot of Trump’s other unpopular policies, Republican lawmakers have kept quiet and done nothing. This time may be different.”

The host then showed video footage of Republican senators denouncing the policy. Senator Lindsey Graham said Trump “can stop this if he’d like” while Jeff Flake called the president’s claim that the policy was the Democrats’ fault “not true”.

“Lawmakers in both parties are against Trump separating kids from their parents,” Noah added. “More surprising, even Trump is against Trump separating kids from their parents.”

In a clip from Trump’s NFIB speech, he said “I don’t want children taken away from parents.”

“Get on the phone and call the people who can do something about this. I’m not talking about Congress. I’m talking about the policy makers at Fox News.”Trevor issues a call to action as Trump’s border crisis continues:https://t.co/wpNy35nDvS pic.twitter.com/NmPpHyA8QA

“The president can’t just change this policy. Well, he can, but not without the approval of his most trusted advisers,” Noah said, showing photos of Fox News anchors. “And the problem is, the members of Trump’s TV cabinet team seem to be fine with everything that’s happening.”

Noah proceeded to air news segments from the network, in which anchor Laura Ingraham called the children’s detention facilities “essentially summer camps”.

Noah replied: “Yo, what kind of freaky-ass summer camps did she go to? Was her family just dropping her off every June at state prison?”

In another clip, Tucker Carlson accused the left of caring “more about foreigners than their own people”, adding that many opposed to the policy don’t have children themselves.

“This angry McNugget seriously just said you can’t care about kids unless you have kids,” Noah said. “That is the dumbest logic I have ever heard.

“I’m just glad he’s a TV pundit and not a doctor,” the host joked. “Dr Carlson, what should I do about my cancer? Well, I don’t have cancer, so I don’t give a shit.”