On Thursday’s edition of Ellen, host Ellen DeGeneres set up her guest, comedian David Letterman, to trash the President. She asked him “if you got a chance to interview President Trump again...what question would you ask him?” Not surprisingly, Letterman took the bait and indulged the anti-Trump DeGeneres and her anti-Trump audience.
This particular back-and-forth between DeGeneres and Letterman came as part of a segment called “Burning Questions” where DeGeneres would ask Letterman a question and Shutterfly would donate $1,000 to Habitat for Humanity if DeGeneres thought he answered the question honestly. DeGeneres asked Letterman three other questions before addressing the elephant in the room: President Trump.
When asked about President Trump, Letterman made it clear he was “disappointed in his administration” as he and DeGeneres laughed and the crowd applauded. As to what question Letterman would ask President Trump, the former Late Show host said that he would ask him “Don, why are you such a putz?” The audience erupted into laughter and applause while DeGeneres laughed in amusement.
And with that, the “Burning Questions” segment came to a close. DeGeneres didn’t really seem to care if Letterman was telling the truth in any of his responses, including his statement about President Trump, since she announced that Shutterfly would donate $20,000 to Habitat for Humanity; a far higher amount than it would have donated even if she had deemed that Letterman had answered every question honestly.
While the segment with Letterman came to an end at this point, the Trump-bashing on the Ellen show will likely continue. DeGeneres has developed a pattern of asking her guests about President Trump, whom she obviously despises. Last year, when Senator Kamala Harris appeared on the Ellen program, DeGeneres asked her “if you had to be stuck in an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence, or Jeff Sessions, who would it be?”
Harris responded by asking “does one of us have to come out alive?” DeGeneres and the crowd erupted into laughter and applause. Earlier this week, Senator Cory Booker appeared on Ellen and she asked him if he thought President Trump was “losing his mind” as the New Jersey Senator and Presidential hopeful held her up as an example of “decency,” apparently forgetting about the exchange with Harris. Fantasizing about the deaths of top officials in the Trump administration hardly comes across as decent.
As for Letterman, he has used his new Netflix show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” as a forum for Trump-bashing as well. Letterman has referred to the President as a “dumb*ss” and compared him to a duck.
A recent poll found that both Democrats and Republicans admit that late night hosts are liberals. This segment on Ellen proves that daytime comics and former late-night comics align with #TheResistance as well.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Thursday’s edition of The Ellen DeGeneres Show is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
03/21/19
03:48 PM
ELLEN DEGENERES: We’re back with David Letterman. We’re playing “Burning Questions” to help raise some money for Habitat for Humanity.
(APPLAUSE)
DAVID LETTERMAN: Do I have to start? You have a lot going on here.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGENERES: Yeah, I just, we like music, so we just play it as much as possible.
LETTERMAN: Sure.
DEGENERES: For every question you answer honestly and I’ll be the judge of that, our friends at Shutterfly will donate $1,000. Okay?
(APPLAUSE)
DEGENERES: You will answer the question and then you will hit that for no apparent reason.
LETTERMAN: Okay.
DEGENERES: Who was your first crush?
LETTERMAN: A girl named Susie Franks.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGENERES: How old were you?
LETTERMAN: I was in the eighth grade.
DEGENERES: Have you seen her since?
LETTERMAN: No, I’ve spoken to her since.
DEGENERES: Oh, you have?
LETTERMAN: Yeah but she was… yeah, she…you know, I, I was such a dumb ass, can you say that?
DEGENERES: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
LETTERMAN: That I ruined it and I, I loved her all the way through high school and…
(LAUGHTER)
LETTERMAN: I, you know, I’ve done all right.
(LAUGHTER)
LETTERMAN: But yeah, Susie, Susie Franks. And grew up to be a teacher. She lives up on Cape Cod and has a...I think she actually has a son named David.
DEGENERES: Oh.
(LAUGHTER, CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
DEGENERES: I’m gonna leave that alone.
LETTERMAN: What do you, what do you mean? There’s nothing to...
DEGENERES: No, I’m just saying…
LETTERMAN: Just saying what? You are not saying anything. You are not saying anything.
DEGENERES: It’s interesting that she still has...obviously has feelings for you that she...
LETTERMAN: No, she has no feelings for me.
DEGENERES: She named her son David.
LETTERMAN: Well, she has two other kids. I don’t know what their names are and I don’t care.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGENERES: All right. Besides your face, what body part do you look at the most in the mirror?
LETTERMAN: I’ll tell you what, when you get to be my age, you get stuff on your skin, you got to be careful, especially out here in California, and I have more stuff taken off me than the discount table at Ralph’s. So I’m, I’m always looking for skin problems.
DEGENERES: Yeah. Okay. So you check everything all the time.
LETTERMAN: You get a dermatologist, right?
DEGENERES: Yeah. I don’t even know…
(APPLAUSE)
DEGENERES: Tell us a lie you recently told.
LETTERMAN: Oh. the guy at the hotel said, so are you taking off, and I said yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
LETTERMAN: I’ll do it, damn it.
(APPLAUSE)
LETTERMAN: You don’t have to do everything.
DEGENERES: All right, if you got a chance to interview President Trump again, what, what question would you ask him?
LETTERMAN: You know, I, I knew President Trump…I’m disappointed in his administration.
(APPLAUSE)
LETTERMAN: I would say, I would say to him, Don, why are you such a putz?
(LAUGHTER, CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
DEGENERES: Shutterfly likes helping charities like Habitat for Humanity, they want to round your total up to $20,000!
LETTERMAN: Whoa.
DEGENERES: $20,000…
LETTERMAN: Wow! Thank you very much!
DEGENERES: …for Habitat for Humanity!
LETTERMAN: It’s a giant check! Look at this. It’s the giant check. Thank you.
DEGENERES: The new season of “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman” is coming this spring to Netflix. We’ll be right back!
