During CBS’ "The Late Show" on Monday night, host Stephen Colbert expressed grief for America after the assassination attempt against former President Trump.
Ahead of his typical format, Colbert played a prerecorded monologue of his thoughts about the attempted murder of Trump. He remarked that a "great tragedy" almost occurred and described the "horror" of finding out that a rally attendee was killed.
"My immediate reaction when I saw this on Saturday was horror at what was unfolding, relief that Donald Trump had lived and, frankly, grief for my beautiful country," the late night host said.
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An assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, narrowly avoiding killing the former president only minutes into his speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on January 13. Trump was not seriously hurt, though other rally goers were hit with stray fire. One was killed.
U.S. Secret Service snipers killed the suspected assassin immediately after he fired several shots at Trump.
Sitting at his desk for the segment, Colbert stated, "The United States came close to a great tragedy on Saturday when at a political rally down in Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old gunman shot and nearly killed a former president and the man who today became the 2024 Republican nominee."
The host continued, mentioning his sadness at the incident and his reaction to the man killed by the gunfire. He then condemned the violence, stating, "I could just as easily start the show moaning on the floor, because how many times do we need to learn the lesson that violence has no role in our politics, that the entire objective of a democracy is to fight out our differences with — as the saying goes — a ballot, not a bullet."
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He also talked about his experience witnessing assassinations in America’s past, saying, "I’m old enough that one of my earliest memories is sitting in a dark room with my sister watching my parents’ little black-and-white TV, and seeing Bobby Kennedy’s coffin on that slow train from New York down to Washington."
His point was that "that violence is with us still — from the shooting of a GOP baseball practice that seriously injured Steve Scalise, to the plot to kidnap and kill Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to the hammer attack that nearly killed Paul Pelosi, to the horrors of Jan. 6, to this most recent attack."
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Towards the end of the remarks, Colbert mentioned how Americans are looking to lower the temperature of their political discourse following the attack, though he expressed uncertainty about whether that would happen.
"In the wake of this attack on Saturday, many Americans on both sides of the aisle, from President Biden to Speaker Johnson, are calling on all this to change how we see each other, how we treat each other, how we talk to each other," he said, adding, "That may or may not happen."
Colbert made no comment on whether his program would dial back on the anti-Trump/anti-conservative bias that has dominated political jokes on his late night show.
Fellow late night comic Seth Meyers also weighed in on the tragedy during Monday night’s episode of NBC’s "Late Night." He condemned the violence, while also pushing gun control and insisting on the importance of protecting "democracy" – a narrative he and other liberal pundits have routinely used to criticize Trump.
"Political violence must be rejected in all its forms – it is both morally wrong and a poison to democracy. We must all condemn it and repudiate it and do everything in our power to stop it," he said.
Referencing how he reacted to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021, Meyers continued, "I said then that multiracial, pluralistic democracy is fragile and precious. It requires our vigilance, stewardship and protection. That’s as true now as it was then, and in light of the horrific events at a Trump rally on Saturday, it’s clear that we must recommit ourselves to that endeavor as fully and as steadfastly as we can."
Elsewhere, the host added, "Schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, movie theaters, houses of worship and now political rallies have all been infected by this scourge of everyday violence. We cannot accept that there are too many guns. They’re too easy to get. We must work to change that."
