Late-Night hosts condemn assassination attempt on former President Trump

"The United States came close to a great tragedy," says Stephen Colbert

Late-night hosts addressed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, opening their Monday monologues with somber messages condemning the shooting and urging Americans to protect the nation’s democracy.

“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,” said Stephen Colbert in a pre-taped opener before the show’s usual live edition of The Late Show. 

“My immediate reaction when I saw this on Saturday were horror at what was unfolding, relief that Donald Trump had lived, and frankly, grief for my beautiful country.”

“Though, 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?” he continued. 

“The entire objective of a democracy is to fight out our differences with, as the saying goes, ballots, not bullets.”

“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 of us to change how we see each other, how we treat each other, how we talk to each other,” he added, before concluding the recorded monologue on a lighter note. 

“So this week, we’re going to do our best to talk about those ideas, the people who represent those ideas, and many other things with guests, and who knows, if we’re lucky, maybe some fart jokes.”

Anthony Anderson, who was guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live, opened Monday’s episode by joking, “All weekend, I kept thinking, ‘I wonder what Jimmy Kimmel’s gonna say about this on Monday. And then I was like, ‘Oh shit! I am Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.’” 

He added, “In all seriousness, I do wanna say that our thoughts are with the families of the victims, and that hopefully, this will be a moment that we can all take a step back from the hatred and vitriol in our politics and maybe chill the fuck out.”

Seth Meyers also condemned the “horrifying” assassination attempt, calling it a “poison to our democracy.” 

The host said that when preparing for Monday’s monologue, he was reminded of when the Late Night team responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. 

“I said then that multiracial, pluralistic democracy is fragile and precious. It requires our vigilance, stewardship, and protection,” said Meyers. 

“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.”

Meyers noted that in the 10 years his team has been running the show, they have “witnessed far too many shocking scenes of political violence, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6, to an attack on the spouse of Nancy Pelosi, to a shooting at a congressional baseball practice, to a kidnapping plot against the governor of Michigan, and now an assassination attempt on the life of Donald Trump.” 

He added that while Trump was “thankfully spared,” the attack “tragically, killed one spectator and injured two others.” 

Meyers then called on Americans “to do the difficult work of safeguarding this cherished enterprise,” like the previous generations that “protected democracy and passed it on to us.”