Trevor Noah hails ‘bravery and tenacity of Iran’s women and girls’

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah addressed the protests, led by women and now high school girls, that have roiled Iran in recent weeks following brutal government crackdowns on women’s rights.

The protests were spurred in part by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish women killed in police custody after being arrested for not covering her hair properly.

In a recent speech, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the protests a “bitter incident” and blamed the US and Israel.

“Come on, man. You can’t blame the US and Israel for everything,” the Daily Show host said. “This is Iranians protesting what the Iranian government is doing to them. It’s not about America or Israel. I bet this dude comes out of the bathroom at a party like, ‘looks like Israel clogged up your toilet, huh?’

Related: Stephen Colbert: ‘There’s a reason the Russian army is getting its ass kicked – it sucks’

“Secondly, can I just say how every single day I’m continually impressed by the bravery and the tenacity of the women and girls in Iran,” Noah continued. “Because remember, they are risking their lives protesting a brutal regime.

“Which I know for a fact I wouldn’t have the guts to do,” he added. “I won’t lie. Like once my mom thought it was a Friday when it was actually a Saturday, and I was so scared to incur her wrath that I just went to school.”

Stephen Colbert

On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert checked in on a pivotal Senate race in Georgia between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and GOP candidate Herschel Walker, who is in favor of a national abortion ban with no exceptions. “Turns out, he might make one exception to that,” Colbert noted.

According to a report by the Daily Beast, the extremely anti-choice Walker paid for his then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. Walker has denied the report, calling it a “flat-out lie”. “And if there’s one thing Herschel Walker knows, it’s lying,” said Colbert, “because he as done a ton of it.”

Walker has falsely claimed he was an FBI agent, hid secret children from his campaign, and falsely claimed that he never falsely claimed to have graduated from the University of Georgia. “He not only lied, he lied about lying? What kind of lesson does that teach his secret children!” Colbert joked.

His former girlfriend brought receipts – one from the abortion clinic, a copy of a $700 check from Walker, and a signed get well card. “This is a, um, what’s the word? A disaster,” said Colbert. So the former football star went on Fox News to perform damage control with, as Colbert called it, “the most effective birth control known to man: Sean Hannity”.

Asked to explain the $700 check, Walker said: “Well, I send money to a lot of people, and that’s what’s so funny. I do scholarship funds for kids, I give money to people all the time because I’m always helping people.”

“It’s true, he does like helping people,” said Colbert. “For instance, that interview really helped Raphael Warnock.”

Jimmy Kimmel

And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel dug into the release of Confidence Man, the new Trump book by the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. “If you thought there wasn’t any more all to tell, you were incorrect,” said Kimmel.

Among the details in the book, published on Tuesday: that five-year-old Donald Trump threw rocks at a baby named Dennis – “basically the same thing he did to Mike Pence many years later”, Kimmel quipped.

Kimmel listed some of the book’s highlights: that Trump thought gay people loved him, that during a flight with the Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, he had his then 13-year-old son Eric fast-forward through all the dialogue in Bloodsport just to watch the fight scenes. “Surprising part of that story is he let Eric on the plane,” said Kimmel.

Trump often made fun of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, “so we have that in common I guess”, Kimmel laughed.

In the lead-up to an ultimately scrapped meeting with Taliban leadership at Camp David, Trump was concerned that his daughter Ivanka would have to wear a burqa. “Inviting the people who helped Osama bin Laden, that’s one thing, but nobody puts Ivanka in a burqa!” Kimmel deadpanned.

“What a book this is,” Kimmel concluded. “I have to admit, I find it very entertaining. He’s not boring. He’s not like Joe Biden, sucking on a roll of Necco wafers to go to bed at 8 o’clock. He does like 10 crazy things a day.”