Seth Meyers on Maga’s Epstein scandal: ‘They did this to themselves’
Late-night hosts continued to track the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that Donald Trump just won’t let go and the Environmental Protection Agency giving up on the environment.Seth Meyers continued to relish Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein scandal that just won’t go away, as the president was hounded by questions about his friendship with the convicted sex offender while in Scotland.“They did this to themselves,” the Late Night host said of Maga’s Epstein quagmire.“This is like if after Trump screamed they’re eating the dogs in a debate, Donald Trump started eating the dog.”Despite Trump’s evident frustration with the topic, “people haven’t moved on, because Trump and his Maga mates spent years cynically hyping up the Epstein conspiracy,” Meyers explained on Wednesday evening.
“They thought only their political enemies would be harmed.But they either forgot or completely ignored the fact that Trump was Epstein’s best friend.It’s like basing an entire political movement around your opposition to Bert, and then voting for Ernie for president.”Meyers then poked fun at Trump’s many defenses against the Epstein scandal, starting with his claim that he didn’t send a lewd birthday greeting to Epstein featuring a nude drawing of a woman, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.As Trump said: “I don’t do drawings of women.
”“The way you keep saying ‘I don’t do drawings of women,’ instead of just saying ‘I don’t do drawings of people’ makes it sound like you do a ton of drawings of dudes,” Meyers laughed.Trump then “dug the hole deeper” by saying that his friendship with Epstein ended only because Epstein hired employees out from under him.“That’s not helping you, dude! Going out of your way to explain that you cut ties with a monster not because he was a monster, but because he hired people away from you makes you sound even worse,” said Meyers.“That’s like saying you stopped inviting Charles Manson to parties because he wouldn’t use a coaster.”Asked on the flight back from Scotland if the workers Epstein hired away from Trump were young women, the president responded: “Well, I don’t want to say, but everyone knows the people who were taken.
And the concept of taking people who work for me is bad,” He then confirmed that they were indeed young women who worked at the spa – “a great spa, one of the best spas in the world”,Meyers just laughed – “If this were a Law & Order episode, right about here is where Trump’s attorney would turn to Jack McCoy and say, ‘He doesn’t say any more until we have a deal,’”On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert reacted to news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking to throw out the “endangerment finding” from 2009 that found that greenhouse gases endanger health and public welfare,Eliminating the rule will allow the Trump administration to scrap rules to reduce climate pollution from cars and trucks.
“OK, but you’re the Environmental Protection Agency.You’re supposed to protect the environment!” Colbert fumed.“You’re just giving up? This explains why Woodsy Owl has updated his catchphrase to: ‘Why give a hoot? I’m just filling my pockets with rocks and walking into the river like Virginia Woolf.’”Trump’s EPA head, Lee Zeldin, appeared on Fox News with the energy secretary, Chris Wright, to push back on what they see as a “climate change hoax”.“The goal is to restore confidence in science and data and rationalism,” Wright said.
“That is what enabled the creation of modern science, then we slid back into this kind of cancel culture, Orwellian squelching of science.”“Nice try, fellas, but it makes it hard to dismiss global warming when you’re sharing the screen with a heat index of 126 degrees in Missouri,” Colbert responded.In “more proof” that “the Earth is mad at us,” there was also a powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia’s eastern Kamchatka peninsula.There were only a few injuries, despite the fact that the quake occurred along Russia’s so-called “megathrust” fault line.
“Yes, the Megathrust Fault, which is right next to Humpmaster Canyon and the Cape of I Had a Big Dinner, Can We Just Watch Gilded Age?” Colbert joked.
Yorkshire and Glamorgan wins shake up tables: county cricket – as it happened
Wins for Glamorgan at the top end of Division Two, and Yorkshire at the bottom end of Division One, spruces things up nicely as the County Championship slips into the wings for August.Glamorgan’s first Championship victory at Old Trafford since 1993 left them sitting pretty in the second promotion spot behind Leicestershire. Rain had wiped out most of the morning’s cricket but the visiting bowlers stuck to their task against Lancashire, Asitha Fernando producing a juicy inswinging yorker to get rid of Tom Bailey and Ben Kellaway persuading Chris Green, the saviour of Cheltenham, to top-edge a sweep. Glamorgan cemented their victory when Jimmy Anderson was bowled by Mason Crane – who hopped on the team coach with nine for 126 in the match.A Scarborough, a 22-point hoopla lifted Yorkshire clear of the immediate relegation zone
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Don’t talk about the Ashes. Don’t talk about the Ashes. Don’t. Talk. About the Ashes
Itoje leads Lions on history chase with echoes of former Sydney glories in air
Australia will have other ideas but Andy Farrell’s team are intent on sealing the clean sweep with a triumph that would stand the test of timeAs the 2025 British & Irish Lions prepare for their last hurrah there are distant echoes of former glories in the damp Sydney air. A highly respected English lock forward leading out a history-chasing team in the same stadium which staged the 2003 Rugby World Cup final? It is not the worst of precedents for Maro Itoje as he and his modern-day Lions await their third and final date with destiny.Itoje and his squad would also dearly love to rekindle memories of another significant contest in this city. The decisive concluding Test of the 2013 Lions series was a classic example of a touring side saving its best until last, with a tiring Wallaby side eventually losing 41-16 after a certain assistant coach called Andy Farrell had urged the players to take their hosts to “the hurt arena”.This time around, among other things, Farrell has been invoking the never-say-die ethos of the Irish boxer Katie Taylor, who was asked to record a few motivational words for the Lions
England squander chance to take control as tetchy final Test heads for close finish
Day two at the Oval was played in fast forward and when England are batting this tends to mean one of two things: either the scoreboard spinning like wheels on a fruit machine and pigeons flying to all parts, or the regular clank of spikes up and down the dressing room stairs.There was a fair bit of both, as it happened, plus tempers once again fraying, as the crowd witnessed a bun fight unfold out in the middle. But while India were initially skittled for 224 by the completion of Gus Atkinson’s fourth five-wicket haul in Test cricket, England then folded to 247 all out and an opportunity to take full control had gone begging.The injury Chris Woakes sustained on day one not only ruined his Ashes but it also left England a bowler down in this series finale. As well as needing to give the remainder of the attack time off their feet, this meant securing a decent lead
England v India: fifth men’s cricket Test, day two – as it happened
Ali Martin’s reportThe end of a pretty remarkable day at The Oval. Only 75 overs were bowled, but in that time we saw 342 runs, 16 wickets and thousands of Thorpey headbands.India, who looked a beaten team during a bruising the morning session, showed extraordinary resilience to fight back and then edge ahead in the game. They were inspired by Mohammed Siraj, who took out England’s entire middle order across two superb spells.England need something similar from Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue or Jamie Overton tomorrow morning
Graham Thorpe remembered by England amid the joy and sorrow of fifth Test | Simon Burnton
Friday morning at the Oval, and the ground reverberates to a unique but not unfamiliar sound, the baritone rumble of thousands of pained groans. It was prompted by replays on the ground’s big screens of a particular kind of delivery with a very specific outcome, on this occasion bowled by Akash Deep. The ball flicked off the inside of Ben Duckett’s thigh before crashing remorselessly into, well, the next part of his anatomy that it reached, and with agonising results.The game was paused for several minutes while the pain subsided and the opener regained his composure (the blow certainly didn’t make him at all cautious, and by the end of that one over Duckett had survived a review for lbw, skipped down the track and missed completely with a wild swing, seen a leading edge drop short of gully and reverse-scooped for six).On Thursday evening a very different sound had been heard, Chris Woakes’ cries of pain after he landed awkwardly on his left shoulder having flicked a ball back from the boundary edge, close to the press box at the Vauxhall End
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