Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers React to Trump Winning Election
Late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are offering their takes after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! kicked off his monologue, telling his audience, “Let me tell you, that was the worst Taco Tuesday of my whole life. We had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal and we chose the criminal to be president of the United States. More than half of this country voted for the criminal who’s planning to pardon himself for his crimes. I guess this election wasn’t rigged.”
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Later during his opening segment, Kimmel got emotional as he listed off everyone who was impacted by the “terrible night last night.”
“It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go,” he said, trying to hold back tears. “For health care, for our climate, for scientists, for journalists, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on Social Security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO and democracy and decency. It was a terrible 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.”
Kimmel then noted everyone it was a “really good night for,” including [Vladimir] Putin, Polio and “lovable billionaires like Elon Musk and the bros up in Silicon Valley and all the wriggling brain worms who sold what was left of their souls to bow down to Donald Trump.”
The host then shared some encouraging words with his viewers: “I’m gonna say something that Trump would never say unless it favored him. The people voted and this is the choice we made. In January, Donald Trump becomes president and that’s that, he won. It doesn’t mean we give up, but it also doesn’t mean we storm the Capitol because we don’t like the result.”
“And I know a lot of people want to hear anything positive. I’ve been trying to come up with something positive,” Kimmel continued. “The best I can come up with is we’ve been through this once before and yes, this time it is probably going to be worse, maybe a lot worse, but I also think that maybe we will look back and realize that in the long run, this is what we needed to wake us up. Maybe the people who care so much about him need to find out how little he cares about them.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert host began his opening monologue Wednesday night with a blunt statement: “Well fuck, it happened again.” Colbert added, “After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need not to go to jail, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election.”
“The deep shock and sense of loss is enormous,” he continued. “But let’s look at the bright side. This way at least there’ll be a peaceful transfer of power. Mike Pence, olly olly oxen free. All day yesterday, I was walking around proudly wearing my ‘I Voted’ sticker. Today I wore my, ‘I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity’ sticker.
The host added, “Now as a late night host, people often say to me, ‘Come on, part of you has gotta want Trump to win because he gives you so much material to work with.’ No. No one tells the guy who cleans the bathroom, ‘Wow, you must love it when someone has explosive diarrhea, there’s so much material for you to work with.'”
Meyers also kicked off his show Late Night with some words reflecting on the outcome that America woke up to Wednesday morning. After confirming for his audience that he did vote for Harris, he said, “I was watching the results come in because I couldn’t sleep. And it was like Christmas Eve. If you know, on Christmas morning, you’re either gonna wake up to find that Santa left presents under the tree or just took a huge dump in your fireplace. If you’re lactose intolerant, don’t drink the milk, you know.”
The host continued, “So I was watching the results and I knew I would be here a few hours later to talk about it and I couldn’t help but think — and this is genuine — what a privilege to be here with you, to be here with my colleagues, to not feel alone, what a privilege. This is a joyful place to work and we hope you can see the joy when you’re watching at home. We’re not gonna let anything take that joy away. Even when we’re talking about things that are not particularly joyful.”
“For example, I don’t think Donald Trump’s a good person. I’d even go so far as to say he’s a bad person,” Meyers confessed. “Now, in my defense, I’m only basing that on everything I’ve ever been taught about what makes someone good or bad. That’s it. And this is real and this is something I accept — half the country thinks he’s a good person or they don’t care that he’s not because they think he’s a good president and because of that, he’s gonna be our president again. That’s how democracy works in America. A country that is a privilege to live in, even on a morning like today. Also, such a privilege.”
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