October 12, 2017
The late-night hosts fired back at the president after he suggested the network's broadcasting license should be revoked.
During their Wednesday night shows, late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers challenged Donald Trump's recent tweets threatening to revoke NBC's broadcasting license.
On Wednesday (Oct. 11), Trump tweeted that with all the "fake news" coming out of "NBC and the networks," it begs the question, "at what point is it appropriate to challenge their license?"
Trump's tweet followed an NBC News report claiming he asked to expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The report said Trump suggested a nearly "tenfold increase" during a meeting with high-ranking security leaders.
Kimmel responded to the president's question, saying, "Uh, never. I don't know, because that's what dictators do. Never is it appropriate to challenge their license."
"It's like the comic book of revelations," the late-night host added. "Everything Trump says is fake is true. Everything he says is honest is dishonest."
To mock Trump's tweets, Kimmel then showed a montage of his tweets to where his frequent word usage of "fake" and "dishonest" were replaced with "true" and "honest."
An example of the revamped tweet reads, "Just watched the totally biased and true news reports of the so-called Russia story on NBC and ABC. Such honesty!"
Also commenting on the president's controversial tweet, Colbert mocked the threat, affirming that media content is what "we the people" want.
After showing a clip of the president saying that people should "look into" published media content, Colbert fired back, saying that "we the people" looked into it and thought, "Yeah, they should write whatever they want."
Colbert proceeded to explain that he had "two follow-ups" to Trump's question regarding NBC News licensing.
"When is it appropriate for Twitter to deactivate the account of a president who doesn't believe in the first amendment?" Colbert asked. "Can that be yesterday?"
Meanwhile, during his news roundup, Meyers challenged Trump, directing questions to the president.
"You're coming after NBC? Well, if they didn't take our license after that monkey hospital show, they're not gonna take it for you," Meyers joked, referencing the NBC show Animal Practice.
"Are you having trouble reading the First Amendment?" Meyers then asked the president. "How about if we put it in red? Oh wait! How 'bout 'in peach?' 'In peach' is definitely the way to go," Meyers joked of a presidential impeachment.