Stephen Colbert recapped where things stand with President Trump's impeachment at the start of Monday's Late Show. "For those just joining us, it looks like
Donald Trump withheld military aid to
Ukraine to try to pressure that country into announcing a bogus investigation of
Joe Biden, and I'm happy to say, people understand that simple story. In a new poll, 70 percent of Americans say Trump's actions tied to Ukraine were wrong."This week's impeachment hearings are expected to peak with Wednesday's testimony of Gordon Sondland, Trump's ambassador to the European Union. "Sondland is in deep," Colbert said, but his biggest "slip-up was when he called Donald Trump from a public restaurant in Kyiv, where several witnesses at the table heard Trump over the phone demanding an investigation of Biden. That's a direct link." Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch also testified she "was ousted after a smear campaign involving Rudy Giuliani," he said. "And if there's one thing
Rudy Giuliani knows, it's how to destroy a reputation — so far just his, but he burned that mother to the ground."
Trump and Giuliani knew Yovanovitch "would be an obstacle to their corrupt scheme,"
Seth Meyers said on
Late Night, and "as she was testifying, Trump decided to attack her" on
Twitter, potentially committing another impeachable crime. "That's like punching the bailiff during your assault trial," he joked. Meyers ran through the public evidence against Trump, suggested it's enough to impeach and convict him already, then said if "you still needed more evidence tying Trump directly to this scheme to extort a foreign country to investigate his political rivals by dangling hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money," Sondland's call with Trump should seal the deal.
"Trump talking investigations on the call with Sondland looks pretty bad,"
Trevor Noah agreed at The Daily Show. "What's even worse is that after the call — and this is crazy — after the call, Sondland recaps what just happened for everyone at the table." He laughed at Sondland's alleged assurance to Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "loves your ass," quipping, "A few days ago, Fox news was saying impeachment wasn't 'sexy' enough." He imagined Wednesday's hearings: "'Mr. Sondland, does Zelensky really love Trump's ass?' He'll be like, 'That's correct. He likes big butts and I cannot lie ... to Congress.'" Watch below.