“It feels like we’re all James Bond strapped to the table, and the laser is slowly inching toward our crotch, and it’s like, ‘enough about your evil plot to conquer Greenland. Just zap America’s junk off already,'” he added.

Colbert then brought up how the Village People will be performing at Trump’s inauguration, “leading many to ask why,” Colbert joked, pronouncing “why” like the syllable “Y” in the chorus of the Village People song “YMCA.”

“This is a big change of heart for the for the village people, given that in 2020 they demanded Trump stop using their music,” Colbert explained. “Evidently, the band is trying to go in a new direction, and that direction is toward money. Because a few weeks ago, this was a few weeks ago, lead singer Victor Willis posted that he will sue every news organization that falsely refers to YMCA as a gay anthem.”

Quoting Willis directly, Colbert said, “This must stop, because it is damaging to the song. Yes, for once and for all, ladies and gentlemen, YMCA is not gay. Where did that even come from? It’s off the famously straight, actual Village People album ‘Cruisin'”, packed with hetero hits like “Hot Cop,” “My Roommate” and simply, “I’m a Cruiser.”

Colbert didn’t get into it, but a few additional things to note about this. First, Willis is indeed a founding member of the Village People, but he didn’t create the band. That was the work of French music producer Jacques Morali, a gay man who was specifically inspired to assemble what would become the Village People by the costume balls thrown in the gay disco scene of New York City. He also wrote or co-wrote most of the band’s iconic hits, including “Go West,” “In the Navy,” “Macho Man” and, yes, “YMCA,” among many others.

These songs weren’t intended to be expressly political, but they were written to appeal to both heterosexual and queer listeners, and they’re filled with deliberate innuendo. They also inspired generations of queer artists who would later help break numerous barriers, including Pet Shop Boys, who had a major hit with a cover of “Go West” in 1994.

Sadly, Morali, died from complications of AIDS in 1991 when he was only 44 years old. Willis, who co-wrote Village People hits with Morali including “YMCA,” is now the sole original member left. It’s not clear why he’s denying the context of the songs he performs or the life and reality of the man who made him a star.

Anyway, later in the monologue, Colbert also discussed the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the government in 2021 and reverse the outcome of the 2020 election. His assessment was suitably bleak.

“When people find out what Trump did, his chances of being re elected two months ago are going to be pretty slim,” Colbert joked. “Okay, the report has a bold claim in it. Smith says if Donald Trump hadn’t won the presidential election in November, the Justice Department would have had ample evidence to convict him at trial. It’s all true, and you can see it dramatized in the new Marvel series. ‘What if anything mattered anymore?'”

Watch the full monologue below:

The post Stephen Colbert Jokes Waiting for Trump’s Inauguration is Like Being ‘James Bond Strapped to the Table’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“You know, as if these fires weren’t enough to deal with, we also have a ton of misinformation going around. Some of it is nuts. My brother was at the market near his neighborhood which is in a fire and evacuation zone. He started talking to a lady in line who honestly believed that Diddy started the fires.”

“Diddy, who is in prison in New York. Somehow managed to start the fires. And she believed this. I looked it up, I was like, ‘where did she get this?’ and guess what? It came from TikTok,” Kimmel explained. “There’s a story going around on TikTok that says the fires were started on purpose by ‘elites.’ who intend to destroy P Diddy’s pedophile escape tunnels because they’re evidence.”

“This is something real people believe. Never mind the fact, if you look at a map, you’ll see that these bonehead ‘elites,’ somehow managed to burn everything but Diddy’s house,” Kimmel continued. “I don’t know if they’re closing in on him or what the plan is, but thank God fire isn’t fueled by stupid or this country would be one giant Olympic torch right now.”

Elsewhere in the monologue, Kimmel also mentioned the Special Counsel report on Trump’s attempts to violently overturn the 2020 election results. He wasn’t optimistic.

“It’s a mountain of evidence, details the unconstitutional and criminal behavior we all already knew he did when we re-elected him. The special counsel uncovered so much evidence, they had to split the report into two volumes, like Cher’s autobiography,” Kimmel said. “And yet, nothing will come of it.”

See the whole monologue below:

The post Jimmy Kimmel Says if Misinfo Fueled Fires America ‘Would Be One Giant Olympic Torch’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

When it came to what Kelly called Kaine’s “holier than though” reproach to Hegseth over his alleged history with extramarital affairs, she thought it was a moment of the pot calling the kettle black, considering the politician was once Hillary Clinton’s running mate.

“This guy with his holier than thou on the cheating allegations of what he did … [He] was Hillary Clinton’s running mate,” Kelly exclaimed on her “Megyn Kelly Show” podcast. “So this, this man was fine with Bill Clinton. This man who wants us to believe any extra marital activity is abhorrent to him. He’s disgusted by it, that’s the same Tim Kaine.”

Watch the full “Megyn Kelly Show” segment below:

Kelly was referring to Kaine’s previous position as Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016, when Clinton made her bid for the White House as the Democratic nominee before losing to Donald Trump. Because Kaine teamed up with Clinton — an arena that saw him getting chummy with her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who had a highly publicized extramarital sex scandal of his own — Kelly seemed to think that the politician’s opinion on extramarital affairs was one-sided.

Kelly — who attended Hegseth’s hearing in person — said Kaine was “disgusting” to watch and listen to.

“Tim Kaine, who literally pulled out the old, ‘How long have you been beating your wife,'” Kelly said. “It was stunning. We know the allegations against Pete, we know that Pete has been a serial cheater on his wives, that is known. OK, so that’s fair game. I guess if you want to go there, you can go there … But ‘how long have you been beating your wife,’ is defamatory. Not literally, because you can’t sue senators for what they’re saying in this context. But my point is, that was so below the belt for Tim Kaine.”

Kaine was one of the many politicians who grilled Hegseth Tuesday as part of his confirmation hearing to become President-elect Trump’s secretary of defense. He was questioned about the slew of allegations against him, including sexual assault, excessive drinking and his marital affairs.

The post Megyn Kelly Slams Tim Kaine’s ‘Holier Than Thou’ Treatment of Pete Hegseth Affairs Since He Worked With Hillary Clinton | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“So if you’re confirmed as Secretary of Defense, you will oversee our military, including about a quarter of a million women who currently serve on active duty, Warren began. “And I have serious concerns that your behavior toward women disqualifies you from serving in this role.”

About two minutes into her remarks, Warren targeted the main point of her argument: statements that Hegseth has publicly made that disparage women from serving in the military dating back to 2013 all the way to just weeks before Trump nominated him to defense secretary.

“I want to be clear here: For 12 years, you were quite open about your views, and your views were consistently the same. Women are inferior. Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and guardians — and incase anyone missed the point, and these are your words from 10 weeks ago: Women absolutely straight-up should not be permitted to serve in combat,” Warren railed. “And I notice on each of these quotes, those are said without qualification. It’s not by how much you can lift, or how fast you can run. They don’t belong in combat, period. Or your words, ‘straight-up.’

“And then on Nov. 9, just 32 days after your last public comments saying that women absolutely should not be in combat, you declared that ‘some of our greatest warriors are women,’ and you support having them serve in combat,” Warren continued. She asked him pointblank: What “extraordinary event” happened in that month window that made him change his mind?

Hegseth, who has answered to such framing of his track record before, argued that the issue of women in the military “has always been about standards” — but to Warren’s point, he had not previously expressed it as such. It was a “straight-up” declaration that women did not belong in active duty.

“What I see is that there is a 32-day period in which you suddenly have another description about your views about women in the military, and I just want to know what changed in the 32 days that the song you sang is not the song you come in here today to sing,” Warren said, before pointing to where she’d been leading all along: Trump’s nomination.

“I’ve heard of deathbed conversions, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a nomination conversion,” the senator quipped. “And I hope you understand that many women serving in the military right now might think that if you can convert so rapidly your long-held and aggressively pursued views in just 32 days, that 32 days after you get confirmed, maybe you’ll just reverse those views and go back to the old guy who said straight-up, women do not belong in combat.”

Watch the full clip of Warren’s time with Hegseth in the video below, via Fox News.

The post Elizabeth Warren Slams Pete Hegseth for Refusing to Meet With Her About His Record on Women | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Maddow laid out her view Monday night on MSNBC for how Trump’s upcoming transition to his second presidential term is going. She pointed to his many questionable cabinet choices – from friends and family to various TV hosts – and the fact the president-elect continues to hock his wares, including most recently a “classless and tacky” Inauguration Day edition of his bible. The MSNBC host is unimpressed to say the least.

“This is a shambolic presidential transition,” Maddow said. “It is a ridiculously bad, poorly run presidential transition – which ought to be the subject of some discussion in our country. It is not going well.”

The host added that it would have been very hard to have a worse transition than the last one, but Trump was pulling out all the stops to get it as close as possible.

“The last inauguration had to have thousands of National Guard troops on hand to protect the proceedings from the threat of more violence from his followers,” Maddow said. “At the last presidential transition, the outgoing president didn’t even show up for his successor’s swearing in. The last transition Donald Trump was a part of was the worst presidential transition in the history of the country.”

She continued, “Given how disastrously he performed in that last transition you have to just assume that this one inherently will be better. It has to be, right? But I think it is worth being blunt about the fact that it might be close.”

Watch the segment below:

Maddow will be offering up more of her thoughts on the incoming Trump administration for a while still. It was announced Monday that she’s returning to MSNBC full force with “The Rachel Maddow Show” being featured five nights a week for the first 100 days of Trump’s second term. Alex Wagner will be criss-crossing the country during this time for “Trumpland: The First 100 Days” segments, which air through April 30, covering the impacts of Trump’s early policies and promises on the electorate.

Maddow will also steer MSNBC’s live coverage of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. She will be joined by Wagner, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Ari Melber, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle and Jen Psaki.

Watch the full video of Maddow’s breakdown of Trump’s transition above.

The post Rachel Maddow Says Trump’s Presidential Transition Is So ‘Ridiculously Bad’ That It’s Nearing Levels of Jan. 6 | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The late night host quipped that, while in six days users may not have TikTok, “Once RFK Jr. takes office, we’ll still have plenty of things that go viral.” The riff came at the expense of Robert Kennedy Jr., the outspoken anti-vaxxer and Trump’s pick for Department of Health and Human Services secretary.

Following Friday’s Supreme Court hearing, the short-form video app is scheduled to shut down for American users on Sunday, Jan. 19. Users can still use the app if it is on their phone, but it will likely stop working over time.

“If the ban goes into effect, Americans can see TikToks, but the app will stop working due to a lack of updates,” Fallon said on Monday. “It’s pretty much what happened to President Biden.”

Fallon went on to joke that the popular platform does not have much of an argument, considering the “only thing they told the Court was a ban would not be very mindful or demure.”

The late night host also teased Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, saying TikTok’s odds are not looking too good since the justices simply slapped each other with tortillas the whole hearing — nodding to the viral TikTok trend.

Halfway through his monologue, Fallon was interrupted by his one-night-only co-host Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican musician entered the stage with a full band accompanied by drums, trumpets and maracas. The “King of Latin Trap” led a parade through the studio and waved his home country’s flag.

Watch Fallon’s full “Tonight Show” monologue below: 

The post Fallon Finds Comfort in TikTok Ban Knowing When RFK Jr. Takes Office ‘We’ll Still Have Things That Go Viral’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“I got stuck watching Marble Mouth Meyers the other night, the first time in months, and every time I watch this moron I feel an obligation to say how dumb and untalented he is, merely a slot filler for the Scum that runs Comcast,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Tuesday morning. “These guys should be paying a lot of money for the right to give these ‘in kind’ contributions to the Radical Left Democrat Party.”

He continued, “These are not shows or entertainment, they are simply political hits, 100% of the time, to me and the Republican Party. Comcast should pay a BIG price for this!”

His comments came as Meyers recently pushed back against Trump’s thoughts on the Los Angeles wildfires and has mocked him over his recent comments about a takeover of Greenland and annexing Canada to give it U.S. statehood.

Trump has also previously knocked Comcast in other Truth Social posts, specifically targeting MSNBC, which he refers to as MSDNC.

MSNBC will be one of multiple cable networks that Comcast plans to spin off into a separate, publicly traded entity. The move, which is expected to be tax-free to Comcast shareholders and take around a year to complete, is subject to final approval from the company’s board, completion of “SpinCo” financing and receipt of tax opinions and any regulatory approvals.

The network will retain its branding despite the reorganization, SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus told employees during a meeting on Tuesday. Separately, the network revealed that president Rashida Jones is stepping down and will be replaced by content strategy senior vice president Rebecca Kutler in the interim.

In addition to Meyers, Trump has also attacked CBS’ Stephen Colbert in the past, calling him a “complete and total loser.”

“He is not funny, which he gets paid far too much to be, he is not wise, he is VERY BORING, and his show is dying from a complete lack of viewers,” Trump said in a post back in September.

When asked if he would have Trump on his show, Colbert similarly called Trump “kind of boring,” adding, “I don’t like to have people on the show who I don’t think are going to be honest agents of their own ideas.”

Trump has also called for the late night return of Johnny Carson — who is dead — to replace NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.

The post Trump Slams Seth Meyers as ‘Dumb and Untalented,’ Threatens Comcast in Truth Social Rant appeared first on TheWrap.

“We know this won’t make some of you happy to hear, however, we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics,” the group wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “Our song ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost. Therefore, we believe it’s now time to bring the country together with music.”

The group also noted they will be performing at “various events” during the 2025 inauguration. The post has received mixed reactions so far, with some Facebook users praising the group for putting politics aside to participate and others calling the group “sell outs.”

Trump’s love of “Y.M.C.A.” is well documented as the president-elect played the song repeatedly during his campaign.

The Village People are now the second major music stars to confirm their inauguration participation. On Monday, it was confirmed that country music star Carrie Underwood will perform during the Jan. 20 event.

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” Underwood said in a statement. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

Even with only two performers locked in, 2025 is already a major musical step up from Trump’s 2017 inauguration. The Republican politician struggled to book musical acts during that time, eventually recruiting “America’s Got Talent” runner-up Jackie Evancho and the Radio City Rockettes.

The post Village People Say They Will Perform at Trump’s Inauguration: ‘We Know This Won’t Make Some of You Happy’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, is in Washington, D.C., to be grilled by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Accusations of sexual misconduct put Hegseth’s nomination for secretary of defense in jeopardy late last year. The former “Fox & Friends” weekend host served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the military.

Here’s a video of the first protestor, a bearded man who yelled Hegseth was a “misogynist”:

A woman who was yelling was then removed shortly afterwards:

And then a long-haired male protestor was removed after that:

Since being nominated, Hegseth’s treatment of women, including cheating on his ex-wives, has come under scrutiny. The biggest hurdle his nomination has faced is an allegation of sexual assault from a woman who claimed Hegseth drugged and sexually abused her at a Conservative conference in 2017. The woman had sex with Hegseth while her husband and kids were sleeping in a nearby hotel room; Megyn Kelly did a deep dive into her accusations, saying the accuser’s husband’s recounting of the night indicates she wasn’t drugged — which ultimately led police to not pursue charges against Hegseth.

Trump’s defense secretary pick has denied any wrongdoing, and has said he paid the accuser a settlement to protect his family and career at Fox News, where he worked as a host following his military career.

The post 3 Screaming Protestors Removed From Pete Hegseth Confirmation Hearing | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

In giving the latest headlines on the fires, the “Daily Show” host first called out Trump directly, after the president-elect posted a meme of flames burning behind the Hollywood sign — with the sign itself photoshopped to read “Trump was right.”

“Appropriate. Thank you, Mr. President. I’d almost forgotten your penchant for casual cruelty and dickfoolery,” Stewart deadpanned.

But the Comedy Central host took even bigger issue with Republicans using Trump’s response as permission to add conditions to any relief aid, such as forcing policy changes.

Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) went so far as to declare, “They don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they’re going to make some changes.”

“What the f–k is wrong with you?” Stewart retorted. “Really, Senator from Alabama? The state near the bottom in math, reading and test scores. Next time you get hit by a f–king hurricane, why don’t we have a little parent-teacher conference to see that if you got your scores up, you would get the money?”

“Or actually, let’s not do it, because you’ll get the money anyway, because we’re not f–king psychos!” he continued. “That is psychotic. There’s something wrong with you.”

The host went on to call out the hypocrisy of Republicans, arguing that their own states somehow never have to deal with strings attached.

“Red states are always the tragic victims of circumstance outside of their control, and Democrats always vote for their aid, whereas blue state disasters are a function of their flawed morality and policy,” he mocked. “And if we help blue state survivors, well, what message will that send? What lesson will they learn?”

You can watch the full segment from “The Daily Show” in the video, above.

The post Jon Stewart Shreds Republicans for Saying LA Wildfire Aid Should Have Conditions: ‘What the F– Is Wrong With You?’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.