This week’s deadly terror attacks in Brussels produced a couple of short, somber messages on late-night TV Tuesday night, but on Wednesday, The Nightly Show’s Larry Wilmore became the first host to try to find some comedy in the tragedy.
Wilmore began in Cuba, where President Obama addressed the attacks from his seat at a baseball game, without taking off his sunglasses. “Fine, keep the shades on,” the host said. “Who am I to say? At least try to not have too much fun.”
Cut to the president and Raul Castro doing the wave. “Really? The wave?” Wilmore asked. “Optics, Mr. President, optics.” But he also reserved plenty of ire for Republicans, who returned to their favorite mantra of calling Obama “the worst president ever for seeming to take this terror attack too lightly.”
ADVERTISEMENT
But that description fails to capture just how apocalyptic Ted Cruz’s rhetoric has become over the past 48 hours, including calls for police to patrol and surveil Muslim neighborhoods “before they become radicalized.”
“‘Before they become radicalized?’” Wilmore asked. “The Muslim community is not a carton of milk. It doesn’t go bad.” To recap, he added, “Donald Trump wants to wall Muslims out and Ted Cruz wants to fence Muslims in.”
Later in the segment, Wilmore aired a clip of Cruz on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, where he accused Obama of being too “politically correct” to even say the words “radical Islamic terrorism.” That comment prompted Fox host Steve Doocy to say sarcastically, “Because Islam is a peaceful religion.”
“Go fuck yourselves, seriously,” Wilmore said, no longer joking. “A so-called major news network and a major presidential candidate slamming a major religion has nothing to do with political correctness. It’s just wrong.”
