On Wednesday morning, CNN’s Time Warner Center office in New York City was evacuated in response to discovering a suspicious package containing an explosive device. Late-night hosts addressed the issue on their programs Wednesday evening.
Similarly suspicious packages were sent to the homes of former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Democratic congresswomen Maxine Waters and Deborah Wasserman Schultz, ex-Attorney General Eric Holder and liberal financier George Soros.
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert noted President Donald Trump’s retweet of Vice President Mike Pence’s statement earlier that morning. Trump wrote, “I agree wholeheartedly” in his retweet of Pence’s statement condemning the attempted attacks.
“First of all, we fact-checked that one, and it doesn’t work out. You have no whole heart,” Colbert joked. “Second, you’re the president. There’s been an attempted attack on two previous presidents today. This is the one time you can’t think of your own tweet?”
The president and Melania Trump condemned the attempted attacks in their own statement earlier on Monday, while CNN anchor Jake Tapper said of the targets, “These are organizations that President Trump routinely attacks, demonizes.”
Over on Late Night, Seth Meyers dedicated his “Closer Look” segment to the packages and similarly addressed Trump’s retweet of Pence’s statement. “Hey man, you’re the president. You can’t just add your name to somebody else’s statement like you’re signing a get-well-soon card for a co-worker,” Meyers said.
“Trump is like a kid who tries to cheat off a classmate but instead of actually copying he just writes, ‘See Mike’s test for answers,'” Meyers added.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said, “The president, for once, said the right thing in response. He said, ‘We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that threats or acts of political violence have no place in the United States of America …except for at all of my rallies.'”
Jimmy Fallon poked fun at the situation on The Tonight Show, specifically noting the packages sent to CNN. “When he heard that, the president said, ‘Oh my God, is Fox News OK?'”
Fallon then speculated on what Trump did after hearing the news: “Out of precaution, President Trump evacuated himself to a golf course.”
Samantha Bee gave a shout out to CNN host Wolf Blitzer for letting his colleagues “huddle in his beard for warmth” during the evacuation.
The Full Frontal host also said that Fox News “tried to do a journalism” by tweeting updates from the scene. Bee criticized a tweet the network sent that said the suspicious package found at CNN contained “white power” instead of “powder.” She said, “You know, I don’t mean to be critical right now, but autocorrect doesn’t change ‘white powder’ to ‘white power’ unless you type ‘white power’ a lot.”
Over on The Late Late Show, James Corden said that many people wanted to turn to Washington, D.C. and politicians for stability and leadership following the scary events.
Corden criticized Trump’s tweet following the news. “He just retweeted Mike Pence. Now Trump says he agrees wholeheartedly, but everyone knows that retweets, by definition, are half-hearted at best,” he said. “‘I agree wholeheartedly’ isn’t what you tweet when there’s been an attempted attack on former presidents. It’s what you tweet when your friend says, ‘McRibs should be available all year.'”
