For one afternoon, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg single-handedly owned the media cycle. He did so by appearing on basically every news network possible while talking about how he was going to defy Robert Mueller’s subpoena. Along the way he revealed exactly how he felt about the president (hates him!), why he doesn’t want to turn over emails to the Russian investigation (would take too long!), and some gossip pertaining to Hope Hicks and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (juicy!). It was quite the spectacular performance, and late-night hosts were mesmerized. “I didn’t even know saying ‘screw you’ to a subpoena was an option,” Jordan Klepper said on The Opposition. “Because, legally, it’s actually not an option.” Klepper, playing up his conspiracy-loving character, suggested Nunberg’s actions were part of a bigger political strategy. “You know who laughs in jail?” he asked. “Crazy people. Nunberg’s workshopping his insanity defense and if it works for him, it will work for the whole administration!”
Stephen Colbert, who was able to change his material fast enough on Monday to get in some Nunberg material mid-media blitz, also added a few more jabs on Tuesday. He noted that Nunberg was appearing everywhere in digital media and on television. “I assume he went on gas-station TVs, a YouTube makeup tutorial, a rerun of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic,” The Late Show comedian said.
The Daily Show also joked about Nunberg’s ubiquity by editing his face into that very controversial Bachelor finale. Noah also noted that Nunberg’s day ended with his admitting that he would comply with Mueller’s investigation, saying that he might even give the special counsel his email password. “So after five hours of a verbal car chase it just ended with Nunberg offering Mueller his password,” Noah said. “Which, let’s be honest, there’s an 80 percent chance it’s either Password 123 or Nunberg69.”
Jimmy Kimmel called Nunberg’s cable news press run a “tour de force,” saying “This might be my favorite season 2 character addition since Ben Linus on Lost.” Kimmel joked that Nunberg had been so entertaining that he had already been offered a program on TLC, showing a glamorous clip from the new show, Here Comes Honey NuNu.
Seth Meyers brought in John Lutz to impersonate Nunberg in an interview, where he commented on Nunberg’s apparent intoxicated state during his appearances. “You know when you go to a bar and say, ‘I’m just gonna have one.’ Well, that was my plan last night — ‘I’m just gonna call into CNN.’ Then one CNN leads to an MSNBC, and then that leads to another CNN, and then the next thing you know you’re passed out on a Citi bike,” he said, joking about his absurd number of appearances before confirming that the bar analogy was rooted in reality. “I also had a lot of drinks.”
