Colbert on the Trevi fountain coin toss: ‘Global cooperation has reached the stage of … wish’
Late-night hosts recounted Biden’s first major international tour over the weekend, starting with the G20 summit in Rome, also the first major international conference since the Covid-19 pandemic. “The first time you see people in person post-pandemic is always awkward,” joked Stephen Colbert on Monday’s Late Show.
“Which explains the G20 itinerary: see another world leader approaching; wonder if they’re going for a handshake; notice they’re actually coming in for a hug; hug them, only to realize maybe they weren’t, and you just made it awkward; call out the fact that you made it awkward and joke about how you’ve forgotten how to interact with other humans; solve climate change?”
At the conference, G20 leaders pledged to achieve “global net zero greenhouse gas emissions … by or around mid-century”.
“That doesn’t sound very urgent,” Colbert mocked. “It’s like calling 911 and having the operator tell you the EMTs will be there sometime between the hours of noon and the funeral.”
The summit wrapped with a group of leaders symbolically tossing coins into Rome’s famed Trevi fountain. “Not a great sign when global cooperation has reached the stage of ‘wish!’” remarked Colbert.
Trevor Noah
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah recapped the president’s visit with Pope Francis before the G20 summit. Biden, a Catholic, ended the threehour meeting by saying “God love ya” and gifted the pope a sentimental “challenge coin”, historically collectible items which originated in the military.
According to Biden, the coin included insignia of the 261st Signal Brigade unit in the Delaware army national guard, in which his late son, Beau Biden, served as a captain.
“You’ve gotta give it to Joe Biden, because it took everything in his power as an old man to not make that coin appear behind the pope’s ear,” joked Noah.
“Also, the fact that he said ‘God love ya’ to the pope – that is the most unnecessary ‘God love ya’ in history,” he continued. “You don’t need to say ‘God love ya’ to the pope, he knows God loves him! He had dinner with him last night.
“But I do think that meeting was cool to see,” he concluded, “because it’s nice that even though these two men are some of the most powerful leaders in the world, when it comes down to it, they’re just a couple old guys hanging out, showing off their coin collection, talking about alcohol, making inappropriate ethnic jokes. I mean, forget the Vatican, these two should’ve been meeting in a sauna.”
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers highlighted a trove of documents from the Trump White House detailing the events of 6 January that the former president is trying to keep hidden from the investigating House committee
In a court filing on Saturday, the National Archives released a list of over 700 pages of documents from call logs to handwritten notes and schedules during and around the riot on 6 January
that stormed the Capitol.
“Personally, I’m shocked the Trump White House even had any records at all,” Meyers said. “I assumed that place was like a RadioShack in a zombie movie. Most of the call logs probably say ‘some guy called – sounded French’ or ‘Rudy Giuliani butt dial’ over and over again.
“And there’s an obvious reason Trump wants to keep those records hidden,” he continued. “Trump and cronies had a detailed plan for overturning election results, and they tried to execute that plan, and they almost succeeded. It wasn’t an impulse or a whim; it was a plot.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel mocked Donald Trump for attending a
World Series game in Atlanta despite repeated distancing of team ownership. Major League Baseball denied making an invitation to Trump and said in a statement: “He requested to attend the game.”
The former president and the Atlanta Braves have a one-sided, tumultuous history. Just months ago, when Major League Baseball pulled the AllStar game from Atlanta over Georgia’s new law restricting voting rights, Trump called on his followers to “boycott baseball”.
“That was in April of this year. Six months later, he’s guzzling Diet Coke and doing the ‘Tomahawk chop’ at a Braves game in Atlanta,” Kimmel said. “The only exercise he gets is if it’s something racist.
“People were wondering if he would do the ‘Tomahawk chop,’” Kimmel added of the gameday tradition dance which has come under scrutiny for racist appropriation from Native Americans. “Of course he would do the Tomahawk chop! I give him two days before he starts telling people he invented the Tomahawk chop.
“Trump has a lot of resentment toward Native Americans because they know how to run successful casinos,” he quipped.
Saturday’s game also marked Melania Trump’s first public appearance since July, and she did not seem enthused. While being introduced by an announcer with her husband, the former First Lady appeared to grimace. “If we could somehow harness the energy of Melania’s hatred for Donald Trump, we could power the world,” joked Kimmel.