Jimmy Kimmel thought Monday was the “strangest” day of the Trump presidency. But that was before Tuesday happened.
“The news today is that our president is a liar, and not even a good one,” Kimmel said in his monologue. “President Trump today, in an attempt to explain what the Helsinki was going through his cotton candy-covered head when he stood next to Vladimir Putin of all people and took sides with Russia over our own American intelligence agencies, now says it was just a tiny little slip-up, even smaller than his fists.”
The late-night host was referring to the moment on Tuesday afternoon when Trump told the country that he meant to say he didn’t “see any reason why it wouldn’t be” Russia that hacked the 2016 election instead of what he actually said while standing next to Putin: “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
“I have to say, when you said, ‘I don’t see any reason why it would be’ Russia, for a minute it almost seemed like you were hiding something from us. Like it was something Putin knew about you that you wanted him to keep quiet,” Kimmel said. “Now it all makes sense.”
“Which genius on his team came up with this idea?” he asked. “Who in that administration told him it would be good to announce he meant to say ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t?’ I bet it was Melania. She hates him the most.”
Trying to put today in historical context, Kimmel joked, “This is like if Bill Clinton had come out and said, ‘Wait, no, I meant to say I did have sexual relations with that woman.’”
Later, since we now know the president of the United States “doesn’t know the difference between ‘would’ and ‘wouldn’t,’ Kimmel shared with his viewers a video featuring Sesame Street’s Grover—“brought to you by the letters K, G and B”—that might help Trump keep things straight.