CBS’s late-night host Stephen Colbert served as DNC court jester on Monday, devoting a good portion of his opening monologue to telling harmless jokes about the Democratic National Convention, whose punishingly long run time forced his show to air much later than usual.
Among his anodyne jokes that were designed to tickle but not alienate his left-wing audience were multiple digs at Joe Biden’s decrepitude and a glancing jab at Kamala Harris’ last-minute enthronement as the party elite’s chosen nominee.
Colbert made no jokes about his special guest — Hillary Clinton, who enthused about the evening to Colbert’s fawning live audience of 4,000 fans at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre.
He also made no direct mention of the chaotic pro-Palestinian protests outside the convention hall that upstaged most of Monday’s events. As Breitbart News reported, Democrat challenger Cornell West joined the protests, urging voters to “abandon” Kamala.
Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart NewsInstead, Stephen Colbert served principally as DNC cheerleader, telling jokes that were not supposed to ruffle any feathers.
“It was an extraordinary night and extraordinarily long. Technically we’ve just rolled over into the first night of the 2028 campaign,” he said.
Later, he ribbed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) for one her gaffes while also mentioning Kamala Harris’s unannounced appearance. “We got an unscheduled speaker. Surprise, it’s Kamala. Which one month ago became the Democrats campaign slogan,” he said.
Colbert made an indirect reference to the protests outside the convention hall.
“Let’s just skip over 1968,” he said, referencing the 1968 DNC that was plagued by student protests.
Colbert also told some old jokes about Biden.
“Biden stood on that stage and proved to the country and world that he can stay up past 8 p.m.,” he said, later adding “Biden saved up all the energy he did not use at that debate and uncorked it tonight.”
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