To kick off the day’s Hot Topics, the women discussed how Homeland Security advisor Corey Lewandowski promised this week that ICE enforcement would be present at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, which Bad Bunny is headlining. The move drew mockery from Joy Behar — moderating in Whoopi Goldberg’s stead due to the latter being off on Fridays — who joked that the sentiment essentially boils down to “we will arrest you, but they hate America.”

“Well, and the whole idea that he hates America, put yourself in his shoes for a second,” host Sara Haines said. “These are his fans coming to his concerts. We have all watched, no matter whether you support it or don’t support it, what people are doing right now. They’re showing up in businesses. They’re showing up at games, in school, wherever it is, and we’re watching all of these clips from local news to national news.”

“It’s common sense that someone who loves their fans would not say, ‘Don’t let me be the bait and switch for you to be here and put yourselves in danger,'” she continued. “So that is not ‘I hate America,’ that is ‘I actually am caring about the people that support me and my music and I love them.'”

Meanwhile, hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro were overjoyed — to the point of actual whooping and hollering — about the show. Navarro in particular was thrilled about the “win” for the Latino community.

“There is no doubt that the Latino community is taking a victory lap on this,” Navarro explained. “Because listen, at a time when you see Latino immigrants being racially profiled, when you see immigrants being hunted down like animals, when it’s been a really hard nine months for the Latino community, most of us, many of us, to hear that Bad Bunny is going to be in that huge stage representing, gives us something to be happy about and to celebrate.”

“And you know what? The more mad they are, the more gleeful I am,” she continued.

You can watch the full discussion from “The View” in the video above.

The post ‘The View’ Host Sara Haines Defends Bad Bunny for Refusing to Tour in US Before Super Bowl: ‘It’s Common Sense’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Host Ronny Chieng noted how the Trump White House announced on Wednesday it would be withholding $18 billion in funding for New York transportation, saying, “Wait a minute right there. You’re telling me every New Yorker is going to suffer because of your beef with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries?”

“Hey, President Trump. Don’t forget, there are things in New York you care about too, alright?” the “Daily Show” host pleaded. “Like Wall Street, Fox News hosts, your current wife and the home she lives in by herself for some reason.” Moments later, Chieng rolled a clip of Trump saying that “a lot of good” can come from government shutdowns just like the one that is currently happening.

“That’s right. This guy is excited for the shutdown, and that’s the Democrats’ fatal mistake,” Chieng observed. “They assume that Donald Trump cares about the government he’s the president of. You think you’re playing a game of chicken, but he’s playing a game of let-me-crash-into-your-car.”

In the back half of Thursday’s “Daily Show” monologue, Chieng turned his attention to Russell Vought, the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, whom Republican Senator Mike Lee told Fox News viewers has been “dreaming about this moment, preparing for this moment since puberty.” In response, Chieng joked, “This is probably the only 13-year-old in history who hid a copy of the federal budget inside a Penthouse.”

The comedian then explained that the shutdown has been caused by Republicans’ apprehension over the possibility that Democrats’ health care funding propositions will benefit undocumented immigrants. Confused, Chieng asked “Daily Show” correspondent and fellow host Michael Kosta, “Isn’t that worth it if it helps give Americans health care?”

“Absolutely not, Ronny,” Kosta bluntly responded. “That is not the American way. Obviously, we’d all love medical treatments for our diseases. But is that worth risking an illegal immigrant getting free aspirin? No way, Jose.”

The post ‘The Daily Show’ Warns Democrats Trump Is Not Playing Chicken With the Shutdown | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Thursday, Edebiri dug in on everything from her favorite ice cream treat (the Cool Dog, of course), to M. Night Shyamalan’s film “Trap” and more. She and Meyers briefly did get serious though, as the NBC host congratulated Edebiri on her Emmy nominations for “The Bear” and for writing an episode and asked if she enjoys being able to flex various skills on the show.

“Yeah, it’s amazing. Job security! Next season, I don’t know, we’re operating the boom!” Edebiri joked.

Giving a more serious answer, the actress admitted that she is “a complete nerd in my heart of hearts,” and she appreciates the opportunity “The Bear” always gives her.

 “I just love learning and so, to be on a show that’s so supportive of that, that gives us that environment that fosters that, it’s really special,” Edebiri said sincerely.

Back in July, “The Bear” was renewed for a fifth season, less than a week after it returned for season 4 on Hulu. Season 5 will premiere in 2026. An exact date hasn’t been given, but the show has pretty consistently premiered in the last week of June throughout its run.

All four seasons of “The Bear” are currently available to stream on Hulu.

You can watch ayo Edebiri’s full appearance on “Late Night” in the video above.

The post Ayo Edebiri Jokes She’ll Be Operating the Boom on ‘The Bear’ Next Season for Additional Job Security | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

To kick off his monologue, Colbert joked that President Trump “has tried every possible option to end the shutdown,” beginning and ending with blaming Democrats. The CBS host took particular issue with Republicans characterizing Democrats’ desire to restore some of the Affordable Care Act as “demanding free health care for illegal aliens.”

“No one’s proposing that!” Colbert retorted. “That’s not true, right TV peoples?”

At that, a montage began playing featuring clips of various journalists debunking the claim on-air, explaining that undocumented migrants cannot even sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

“Yeah!” Colbert added. “And if you’re just going to completely make up stupid fear-mongering arguments, at least make them fun!”

Naturally, the late night host had a suggestion at the ready.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Democrats are spending trillions of dollars so they can ‘Jurassic Park’ your children,” he joked. “It’s shocking. They’re going to trap your child in amber! Suck out the baby blood, and then turn your child into little T rexes. The worst part is, the worst part, ladies and gentlemen, they’ll never be able to hug you.”

You can watch Stephen Colbert’s full monologue in the video above.

The post Stephen Colbert Suggests a More ‘Fun’ Lie for Republicans to Tell About Democrats During Shutdown | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

During his “A Closer Look” segment on Thursday night, Meyers zeroed in on the fact that House Speaker Mike Johnson has been expressing concerns about FEMA amid the third government shutdown under a Trump administration. It was an odd choice to the late night host, considering Trump has previously said he wants to get rid of FEMA.

When Mike Johnson was reminded of that by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the speaker pushed back, saying “he wants to reform FEMA.”

“That’s not what he said. Why do Republicans talk about Trump the way a dog owner talks about a growling Chihuahua?” Meyers retorted. “‘Oh, he doesn’t mean it. He’s just nervous, and this is how he expresses anxiety. Down, Pebble, down! Do not hump the flag again!'”

The late night host then called Johnson a “translator” for Trump — one who “very well knows that this is his job to launder Trump’s insanity.” Proof of that came for Meyers when Johnson was confronted this week about Trump by Democratic Congresswoman Madeline Dean.

Dean specifically called out Trump’s “performance” at a meeting of military generals earlier this week, which Johnson brushed off by saying he didn’t see it.

“First of all, I didn’t see it? The President spoke to not one, but all of our nation’s generals, and you didn’t see it?” Meyers said incredulously. “It was an unprecedented departure from established norms, and you’re talking about it like the new season of ‘Reacher’ on Prime.

“Second of all, you can just see in Johnson’s eyes that he knows the product he’s selling sucks,” Meyers added. “He looks like the guy at the Hertz reservation desk trying to convince you a Chrysler Pacifica is, in fact, the luxury SUV from your reservation. And you’re like, ‘Dude, it’s a minivan.'”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” in the video above.

The post Seth Meyers Questions Why GOP Talks About Trump Like a ‘Dog Owner Talks About a Growling Chihuahua’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“How many flashes of insanity from a president should we tolerate?” O’Donnell asked. “That sounds like something that deserves a zero tolerance policy, and we have never seen public flashes of insanity from any president other than Donald Trump. We now see them every day.” The “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” host went on to call out Trump’s recent social media attacks on U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“The president gives every indication that you could possibly ask for that he has lost his mind, and every single elected Republican official in Washington excuses it,” O’Donnell observed. “Most of them run away from it. They don’t even want to talk about it.” The MSNBC host then turned his attention to Vance, who addressed the media in Trump’s place Wednesday and excused the president’s AI-generated videos mocking Jeffries and Schumer as harmless “fun.”

“Of course he thinks it’s okay. James David Vance wants to start publicly acting as president as soon as possible, as he did today when Donald Trump was totally invisible,” O’Donnell remarked. “Perhaps [Trump was] slumped over in exhaustion, too weak from yesterday’s exertion of giving a speech, to slather on his homemade orange makeup and to think of something to say to the American people about why he shut down the government.”

You can watch the full “Last Word” segment yourself in the video below.

O’Donnell noted that Trump himself did not bother to continue publicly blaming the shutdown on Democrats’ federal health care goals. “Donald Trump didn’t even have the energy today to lie again about Democrats trying to provide health insurance for undocumented immigrants. That is a lie,” O’Donnell told MSNBC viewers. “Donald Trump thinks that lie is brilliantly underlined by him tacking mariachi music and sombreros onto videos of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, and the vice president thinks it’s funny.”

The “Last Word” anchor shifted his focus back to Vance, slamming the vice president for trying to excuse and explain away Trump’s social media antics. “JD Vance could not explain the joke. Jokes never have to be explained. JD Vance had to explain that one and couldn’t, because it’s not a joke,” O’Donnell explained. “There’s nothing funny about it. The president has lost his mind. That is the clearest explanation for what Donald Trump is doing.”

While Americans’ ability to compromise and come together over shared goals and interests has long been what has kept the country from falling apart, O’Donnell said that the government’s ongoing shutdown is evidence of how much Trump and his administration have hampered citizens’ ability to continue doing so.

“We all know how to do it, and Congress used to know how to do it and Congress used to do it,” O’Donnell concluded. “But Donald Trump doesn’t want to do it. And so the government of the United States of America has shut down.”

The post Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Trump’s Social Media Antics Amid Government Shutdown: ‘The President Has Lost His Mind’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“That is not true,” Brzezinski told MSNBC viewers. “The message has been echoed by the GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration in recent days, but is highly misleading, as U.S. law prohibits unauthorized immigrants from gaining any federally subsidized health care coverage.”

“The Democrats’ bill would not change the existing law,” the “Morning Joe” anchor explained. “The changes sought by Democrats would only extend medicaid coverage to immigrants whom the federal government has labeled as lawfully present, but who have not been formally given legal status.” Brzezinski criticized Vance, in particular, for instigating a rampant flow of misinformation.

“The vice president [is] again saying things that are not true,” Brzezinski observed. “It is tough to counter this message when it then ripples through different members of Congress, social media accounts and folks on the Right. It’s hard to push back against so many lies going in one direction.” This misdirection is why Brzezinski said she has become “defensive” of Democrats in recent days. 

“Everyone’s going, ‘Why aren’t the Democrats doing more? Why can’t the Democrats get [some] backbone?'” she remarked. “I believe the Republicans are in charge, and we have lies trickling down from the top. It’s really hard.”

The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson then told Brzezinski what he believes is not only the flaw of the Republicans’ messaging, but also the opportunity that the government shutdown has presented to the Democratic Party. “They’re not trying to appeal to the middle of America or to the majority of America,” he said of Vance & Co.’s comments. “They’re trying to produce content for the Fox News conveyor belt, and so they’re going to lie about these things.”

“Look at what the Republicans are doing. They’re attributing blame to the Democrats that does not exist,” Wilson noted when asked how Democrats should counter Republican officials. “The Democrats have the opportunity to point out to America, once again, [that] Donald Trump rules Washington with an iron fist. He controls the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court and the White House. He’s the guy who chose this.”

As for what he believes the Democrats’ message should be, Wilson answered: “This is crazy and Donald Trump is hurting you. This is crazy. Donald Trump is hurting you.” Brzezinski, meanwhile, added that she believes Democrats should call out not only Trump, but also Vance and the media personalities who openly support their administration.

“I think it needs to go beyond Donald Trump,” Brzezinski said. “It needs to go to those who are holding up the lies.”

The post ‘Morning Joe’ Explains ‘Highly Misleading’ Government Shutdown: ‘Donald Trump Is Hurting You’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“I tell you folks, I definitely did not call this one, but evidently ‘The Late Show’ has outlasted the United States federal government,” he joked to kick off his CBS monologue. “Because we’re still open and they done shut down!”

The joke earned a loud cheer from the audience, as Colbert chuckled at the irony. “The Late Show” was cancelled earlier this year, in a move that Paramount maintains was an economic decision. But, the decision came as the company was finalizing a merger with Skydance, which would have needed approval from Trump’s FCC.

Following the announcement, Trump openly celebrated the news, encouraging ABC and NBC to fire their own late night hosts who regularly make fun of the president. All that said, Colbert joked on Wednesday night that maybe the government shutting down wasn’t the worst thing to happen.

“The government hasn’t been working that great lately, who knows why?” Colbert joked coyly. “Maybe somebody got the government wet. You know, let’s unplug it for a while, plug it back in, see if it reboots.”

“That doesn’t work, maybe toss it in a bag of rice. Leave it there for a couple hours, doesn’t work, we’ll just throw it away and buy a new one with a better camera and a functioning president,” he continued, earning an uproarious applause from the audience.

You can watch Stephen Colbert’s full monologue in the video above.

The post Stephen Colbert Is Stunned His Show ‘Outlasted’ US Government Amid Shutdown | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

During his “A Closer Look” segment on Wednesday night, Meyers largely mocked Trump and his allies for blaming the shutdown on Democrats, considering the House, Senate and presidency are all Republican-controlled. But the NBC host took particular delight in highlighting how many times over more than a decade Trump publicly said the blame for any government shutdown should go to whomever is president when it happens.

During the 2016 Republican presidential debate, Trump argued a president needs to get Congress to agree, and said, “You have to get people in, grab them, hug them, kiss them and get the deal done.”

“If Trump started grabbing, hugging and kissing Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, I think they’d agree to anything just to get the hell out of there,” Meyers joked. “I mean, if Donald Trump tried to hug me, I’d f–king run to Joe Biden’s house to let him tell me a story about the John Wayne movie he watched last night.”

The late night host then pointed out that Trump’s idea of hugging and kissing people during negotiations isn’t a new one. In fact, it’s one that the president talks about nearly as often as he says a president should be blamed for government shutdowns.

Even as recently as the end of September, Trump said that a meeting in his office with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan ended with “hugging each other and holding hands.”

“I’m assuming, every time Don Jr. and Eric hear him talk like this, they say ‘Where the f–k was my hug?'” Meyers joked. “Why were you hugging and holding hands?! Were you world leaders negotiating a peace treaty, or bridesmaids at a wedding? ‘I love you besties, you’re gonna get married next.’ ‘No, you’re gonna get married next!'”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.

The post Seth Meyers Says Dems ‘Would Agree to Anything’ If Trump Used This Favorite Negotiating Tactic | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“They asked me to do it, and I would’ve debated over doing it, but I had to say no because it’s supposed to be, like, five days after I’m having a baby,” Wolf said during an Aug. 25 set first published on her YouTube page Tuesday. “So I had to say no. But now I keep thinking of all these jokes I would’ve told if I had gone.”

She added that she “definitely would’ve been Khashoggi’d — and by that I mean murdered by the government” (a nod to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul). “But for some reason without even trying, I just keep thinking of all these jokes I would’ve told in Saudi.

“It certainly would’ve been my last ever performance, I think,” she admitted.

Wolf went on to tell several quick one-liners: “I would’ve started with, ‘Sorry I’m late — I drove here.'”

“It’s nice to be in a place where women still have a leg up on gay men — or, I don’t know, whatever body part they’re cutting off,” she quipped.

And her third and final one for the Aug. 25 set: “We have this phrase in America, You’re only a stone’s throw away, which means you’re close,” she said. “I don’t think it means the same thing here. I think it’s more like, ‘You’re only a stone’s throw away from learning that lesson.'”

The video shared Tuesday, embedded below, then cuts to other sets from September, where Wolf continued to try out some Saudi-ready material during several “Thought Box LIVE!” performances. Again considering the hypothetical of actually telling them at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Wolf said, “I think I would’ve had to get airlifted out immediately.”

She especially zeroed in on the Saudi government’s supposed involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“This festival is sponsored by the Saudi government, so if my set doesn’t go well, if I crash and burn, you can just call me Flight 93,” she joked, spurring groans from the audience. “That’s really good! Why are you groaning? Are you groaning because a bunch of people died? That’s fair.”

In another she said, “As fun and as easy as it is to poke at Saudi, let’s not pretend America is perfect. Yeah, so maybe Saudi financed 9/11 — what did America do in response? Attack a different country that has less oil and even less weapons of mass destruction. If Saudi was acting as the bank for 9/11, we all know America thinks banks are too big to fail — but the Iraqi people are just the right size.”

Wolf also joked about the massive sums of money many of the participating comics were offered to perform during the festival. She said that they offered her “a good amount of money,” but that when she heard what they were offering the male comedians, “if you had seen my face when I found out, you would’ve wished we still had to cover our entire heads.”

Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival sparked outrage last week, with many comedians criticizing the high-profile event and Human Rights Watch condemning the festival while urging performers like Pete Davidson and Bill Burr to “publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists and human rights activists.”

David Cross said on Monday that the participating comedians — a list that also included Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K., along with about 50 others — can never be taken seriously again, “unless it’s complaining that we don’t support enough torture and mass executions of journalists and LGBQT peace activists here in the states, or that we don’t terrorize enough Americans by flying planes into our buildings.”

Burr, meanwhile, defended the decision to perform on the opening night for the fest Friday, saying on his podcast that he thinks participating is “going to lead to a lot of positive things.”

“It was great to experience that part of the world and to be a part of the first comedy festival over there in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The royals loved the show. Everyone was happy. The people that were doing the festival were thrilled. The comedians that I’ve been talking to are saying, ‘Dude, you can feel [the audience] wanted it. They want to see real stand-up comedy.’ It was a mind-blowing experience. Definitely top three experiences I’ve had.”

The post Michelle Wolf Shares Jokes That Would Get Her ‘Murdered by the Government’ if She Took Saudi Festival Invite | Video appeared first on TheWrap.