On Wednesday night, after tackling President Trump’s NATO debacle, Late Show host Stephen Colbert focused on a development that’s been overshadowed by all the other administration chaos: the installment of former Fox News president Bill Shine as White House communications director.
“Now, before working at the White House, Bill Shine was president of Fox News, where he resigned amid the Roger Ailes harassment scandal after he was named in lawsuits for not taking action and trying to cover up allegations of sexual harassment,” Colbert explained.
“I’m sure that was a quick interview at the White House,” added the comedian, before mimicking Trump: “It says here on your résumé that you know Microsoft Excel and you enabled the sexual deviances of a dirty old meatbag? OK, welcome aboard.”
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Colbert then waded through some of the lawsuits filed by Fox News contributors against Ailes, which accused Shine of being Ailes’ protector and enforcer amid a flurry of sexual-harassment allegations—and generally uninterested in female employees’ abuse claims against Ailes.
“When one female Fox contributor tried to talk to Shine about the sexual abuse at Fox News, he seemed more interested in talking about the Eagles, telling her she should watch a Showtime documentary about the rock band because their story was very similar to the story of Fox News,” said Colbert. “Hmm. You don’t know why they’re so influential and only old white people listen? Yeah, checks out.”
“Shine was so toxic after leaving Fox News that ‘he was considered untouchable by many other prospective employers,’” Colbert continued, quoting The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman. “Eh, you’re not really Quiznos material. Have you tried the White House?”
The late-night comic then aimed his ire at the recently unearthed racist and transphobic social media posts of Shine’s wife, Darla.
“It quickly came out that Bill Shine’s wife, Darla, used her Twitter account to complain that she couldn’t use the n-word, and to spread conspiracy theories about ‘blacks.’ I am shocked that those kind of tweets came from the wife of the president’s communications director and not from the president himself,” joked Colbert.
One of the tweets came after President Trump got in hot water for calling Africa (and Haiti and El Salvador) a bunch of “shithole countries” during a talk on immigration. This led Darla Shine to tweet out a racist meme that read “Rome 2000 years ago, Africa now,” with two side-by-side pictures of a Roman palace and dilapidated huts in Africa.
“Wow. I’ve got a response: racist a hundred years ago, racist now,” offered Colbert, presenting side-by-side photos of Ku Klux Klan members and Darla Shine.
