Late night legend David Letterman was interviewed by Vulture this past weekend, and they got him talking about our country’s current state of affairs. Letterman has been pretty openly liberal the past few years and his brand of anti-humor spawned the comedic sensibilities of an entire generation of comics. After some playful talk about his Walt Whitman-style beard, the interview gets into Trump. Letterman makes fun of the hair and you can’t blame him. The former late night talk show host has probably thought of 100 hair jokes a day for the past two months. Letterman interviewed Trump numerous times over the years as the two men were both fixtures of the New York City scene, and as Letterman explains, “He was a joke of a wealthy guy. We didn’t take him seriously.” When the interviewer asks whether Letterman gives credence to the idea that humor lessens the seriousness with which we consider President Trump, Letterman had this to say:
I guess it’s a possibility. On the other hand, Donald Trump can be Donald Trump, but if he doesn’t help the people that need help, then he’s just a jerk. That press conference that he held berating the news media? I mean, how do you build a dictatorship? First, you undermine the press: “The only truth you’re going to hear is from me.” And he hires the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Steve Bannon, to be his little buddy. Bannon looks like a guy who goes to lunch, gets drunk, and comes back to the office: “Steve, could you have just one drink?” “Fuck you.” How is a white supremacist the chief adviser to our president? Did anybody look that up? I don’t know. How’s this interview going? Do you think you’re talking to a normal person here? Don’t I seem like I’m full of something?
The interview is entertaining and amazing and Letterman hits them all from Kellyanne Conway—
Boy, if this administration decides you need counseling — whoa.
—to Sean Spicer.
And poor Sean Spicer is a boob who just got out of a cab and now here he is.
He gives a cynical and frighteningly believable scenario about Trump’s Russian ties:
I’m sure the Russians groomed Trump. They gave him tips: “You want to be an authoritarian dictator? Sure, that’s not a problem. We’ll tell you how to do it, for God’s sake.” I think it was just all like that, because that’s the way Trump does business: “See if they’ll give us the tar coating? They’ll throw that in? Great, great. And by the way, we’re not paying the last 10 percent of the bill.” I think it’s the same shit.
The whole interview is amazing. He talks about Russia and blackmail, he talks about Jimmy Fallon’s handling of Trump on television, Ted Cruz and Al Franken, and he explains how he would interview Donald Trump today.
