Seth Meyers
Color Seth Meyers shocked that Fox News decided to not air coverage of the January 6 committee’s primetime hearings, which begin on Thursday evening. “Fox is news the same way the Kardashians is reality,” Meyers said on Wednesday’s Late Night. While every other major network plans to air the hearings live, Fox will stick to its regular programming – Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson – because “Fox constantly says the opposite of what the hearings will say”.
“The committee will lay out the truth of what happened, and Fox will lie. It’s that simple,” Meyers continued. “The hearings will say January 6 was a violent insurrection fomented by an outgoing president who nearly pulled off a detailed plan for an attempted coup to unlawfully claim the power that would’ve installed him as an unelected autocrat and destroyed American democracy.
“And Fox will say it was just a pro-freedom patriot party where everyone peacefully toured the Capitol like they were on a school field trip having to find items their teachers gave them on a worksheet.”
As a distraction, pundits on Fox News have instead called for Congress to focus on gas prices. “Today it has now doubled since the gasoline price, since President Biden has taken office. Are they going to have any hearings on that?” House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday.
“Look, we’d all rather be talking about other stuff, but you guys are the ones trying to destroy American democracy,” Meyers responded. “You’re like a bunch of arsonists who burn down a house, and when the fire department shows up, you’re like, ‘Um … shouldn’t you guys be working on this year’s sexy calendar? Get your priorities straight!’”
Trevor Noah
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah also anticipated the start of primetime January 6 hearings on Thursday. “You know who’s going to be torn about this? Donald Trump,” he said. “Because on the one hand, he doesn’t want anyone to know what he did on January 6. But on the other hand, you know he would love his hearings to get the highest ratings of all time.”
Trevor knows exactly how to make sure the January 6th hearings bring in the big ratings… pic.twitter.com/CpZQHbuX39
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 9, 2022
“He’s going to be out there like ‘don’t watch the hearings, folks, the fake news is saying I overturned the government, which I didn’t do! But it was the biggest overthrow of all time. But I didn’t do it!’”
On the ratings point, Noah noted that the committee is going to have to get inventive to get eyeballs. “If the Democrats want everyone to watch, if they want Americans to pay attention, they can’t just have their regular boring-ass hearings,” he said. “What they need to do if you want people to watch in America is you need to spice things up. Have a kiss cam going for the witnesses. Get Shakira to do a halftime show.”
Jimmy Kimmel
In Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel responded to Fox News outrage over his interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday night, the president’s first late-night sit-down since taking office. Outrage such as: “We’re going to put Joe on a comedy show so we can have lots of people laughing when they can’t afford the gasoline, they’re worried about getting mugged, raped or killed,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich to Fox host Jesse Watters. “Jimmy Kimmel is going to let him skate – the softest of softball interviews,” said Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Friends.
“I get what they’re saying – the president needs to be held accountable,” Kimmel said. “He can’t just hide from the people who criticize you. The president needs to get in the box and take the heat and field tough questions from real, hard-hitting journalists like these.”
He then played a dozen clips of Fox News hosts buttering up Trump, such as Jeanine Pirro saying: “You have to be very, very excited about what you accomplished, and you accomplished it.”
“To all of my colleagues who are outraged, I’m sending you my thoughts and prayers to get you through this difficult time,” Kimmel deadpanned.
The host also noted Fox News’s decision to not air the primetime hearings. “Instead, they will show their new special – Tucker Carlson presents: a racist cow meows Confederate battle hymns – at 8pm.”
Stephen Colbert
And on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert noted that the hearings offer “a crucial opportunity for the American people to learn the full depth and breadth of the former president’s months-long, violent conspiracy to overthrow a free election and remain in power. Hanging over the hearings is one question that could define the future of our republic: who cares?”
The host played several cable news clips of commentators arguing that the hearings will have to be compelling to capture Americans’ attention. “It doesn’t have to look like Top Gun,” said one analyst on CNN. “You want to find that sweet spot in the middle.”
“It doesn’t have to look like Top Gun, but just in case, they’re going to have Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin play hot shirtless volleyball,” Colbert joked.
“Remember, the president’s cronies have claimed over and over again for the past 17 months that they could never have predicted what was going to happen, that the crowd marching on the Capitol was just a spontaneous outburst of patriotic zip ties and body armor,” Colbert reminded. “But we just learned that this is just as big a lie as his oath of office,” as the January 6 committee found that the former president put two weeks worth of pressure on the Secret Service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on the march to the Capitol.
“Two weeks!” Colbert exclaimed. “So he knew exactly what he was doing … is a sentence I never thought I would say about the former president.”
