Stephen Colbert on Trump’s victory: ‘The deep shock and sense of loss is enormous’ | Late night TV catch-up

Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, sending him back to the White House.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert didn’t talk about the results of the 2024 election: “Well, fuck it. It happened again,” he said. “After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need to stay out of jail, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election.

“The deep shock and sense of loss is immense,” he continued. “But let’s look on the bright side. At least this way there will be a peaceful transfer of power. Mike Pence, olly olly bulls free. All day yesterday I proudly walked around with my ‘I Voted’ sticker. Today I wore my “I question my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity” sticker.

“Now as a late-night host, people often say to me, ‘Come on, part of you has to want Trump to win because he gives you so much material to work with,'” he added. “Nobody. Nobody says to the guy cleaning the bathroom, ‘Wow, you gotta love it when someone has explosive diarrhea, there’s so much material to work with!’

“I wish you would wish, so many of us wish this hadn’t happened,” he continued, “but it’s not up to any of us to decide. This is a democracy. It’s democracy with a big “duh”. And in this democracy, the majority have spoken, and they said they don’t really care that much about democracy.”

The Late Show host congratulated Harris and Tim Walz on running an “extraordinary” 107-day campaign and looked to the bleak future. “The first time Donald Trump was elected, he started as a joke and ended as a tragedy. This time he starts as a tragedy. Who knows what he will end up as – a limerick?

“Who knows what the next four years are going to look like,” he added. “What we do know is that we’re going to be ruled by a monstrous child surrounded by cowards and uglies, and my brain keeps pumping out an unlimited supply of consequences. It’s really hard to see a bright side here.”

But “we can take comfort in knowing that we have been here before. We know what’s coming,” he concluded. And there would be jokes, ’cause that’s what we do. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody gets into this business because everything in their life worked out great, so they were built for rough roads. Are you clear?”

Jimmy Kimmel

“Let me tell you, that was the worst Taco Tuesday of my entire life,” Jimmy Kimmel said Wednesday night. “We had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal, and we elected the criminal to be president of the United States. More than half of this country voted for the criminal who plans to pardon himself for his crimes. I guess this election was not rigged.”

Fighting back tears, Kimmel listed everyone Trump’s election will hurt: “It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for scientists, for journalists, for freedom of speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for seniors who depend on social security, for NATO and for democracy and decency night for everyone who voted against him, and guess what? It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him, too. You just don’t realize it yet.”

However, it was a good night for Putin, polio and “lovable billionaires like Elon Musk and the bros up in Silicon Valley and all the squirming brainworms who sold what was left of their souls to bow to Donald Trump”.

“But I will say something that Trump would never say unless it favored him,” he added. “The people voted, and that’s the choice we’ve made. In January, Donald Trump is going to be president, and that’s what he won. That doesn’t mean we’re giving up, but it also doesn’t mean we’re storming the Capitol because we don’t like the result.”

Despite the fact that many people didn’t want to hear anything silver, Kimmel made an effort to end on a positive note. “The best I can come up with is that we’ve been through this once before, and yes, this time it’s probably going to be worse, maybe a lot worse, but I also think we might look back and realize that in in the long run, that’s what we needed to wake us up,” he concluded. “Maybe the people who care so much about him need to find out how little he cares about them.”

Seth Meyers

And on Late Night, Seth Meyers also mourned Trump’s victory, noting that he will be the oldest person to ever take office and the first convicted felon. “When I was in elementary school, they always told us that anyone could grow up to be president, but they didn’t say ‘literally, damn anyone,'” he joked.

“I wish I had some sharp words of wisdom to impart,” he later added. “I’m sorry to say I don’t. We’re stepping over the precipice into really uncharted territory. You only have to look back at Trump’s first term to get a sense of how dangerous his second term will be .And no one can say they didn’t know what they got, because Trump made it crystal clear.All I know is that the fight for justice doesn’t end with one election.

“In times like this, when everything feels overwhelming and impossible, like all hope is lost, we have no choice but to look back at the broad reach of history,” he continued. “Justice is not automatic, emergence is not guaranteed, politics is unfortunately not a Marvel movie, even if Joe Biden looks uncannily like the old Captain America. That does not mean that a fight against a more just and compassionate world is in vain, it just means it’s hard and heartbreaking and painful. And it never ends. Democracy doesn’t just happen on election day.”

Meyers ended with a call to his viewers to keep fighting back: “If you are one of the tens of millions of Americans who said no to Trump’s dark, dangerous vision for America last night, now is the time to to stand in solidarity with our friends, with our neighbors, with the vulnerable communities, and begin the hard work of making the world we want to live in real. That is what we will do on day one.”