Late-night hosts talked Kamala Harris’s efforts to reach new voters via media interviews, Donald Trump’s calls with Vladimir Putin and the embattled New York City mayor, Eric Adams.
Stephen Colbert
The Late Show was supposed to be off this week, but Stephen Colbert returned on Tuesday night to interview Kamala Harris, her first appearance as the Democratic presidential nominee. The vice-president has been on a media blitz recently, appearing on 60 Minutes, Howard Stern and The View in recent days, “as well as Inkmaster, the Mandalorian and explaining the child tax credit on Bluey”, Colbert joked.
The appearances are part of an effort to connect with younger voters, Black and Latino audiences, and older Americans. “I think I know which demographic we represent,” said Colbert, repeating it again louder for those who are hard of hearing.
Harris also did an interview on the podcast Call Her Daddy, which the Atlantic called “sex-positive”, “mega-popular” and “the most-listened-to podcast by women”.
“That is, until an upcoming release of A Microphone Next to Glen Powell’s Abs,” Colbert quipped.
In the podcast interview, the host, Alex Cooper, asked Harris about her feelings on a comment by the Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said that because the vice-president does not have biological children, she has no one “keeping her humble”.
Harris responded: “I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble.”
“And that’s true,” Colbert cheered. “You don’t usually associate the word humble with wanting to be the most powerful person in the world.”
The host also laughed at Elon Musk’s appearance on stage at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this weekend. “That’s gotta be a little confusing for Trump voters,” he said, imitating Trump. “I’m fighting for the little guy, and you know how much I hate immigrants, so please welcome an immigrant who makes more money in one second than you’ll make in your entire worthless lives. Put your filthy little worker hands together for your South African oligarch god, Elon Musk!”
On the stage, Musk jumped with enthusiasm. Or, as Colbert put it: “one weird little hop for a douchebag”.
Jimmy Kimmel
Tuesday marked exactly four weeks out from election day, and “the Democrats seem to have some momentum and All Caps-tain America is feeling the heat,” said Jimmy Kimmel.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump posted on Truth Social that “ANYBODY THAT CHEATS ON THE ELECTION IS GOING TO JAIL!!!”
“And I agree, for this election and the last one, too,” Kimmel laughed. “I hope they silkscreen that sentence on the back of his prison jumpsuit.”
Kimmel then recapped the “extra crispy McNuggets” in a new book on Trump by the journalist Bob Woodward, including “a few gems from one of Trump’s most loyal under-lickers”, Lindsey Graham. According to the book, titled War, the South Carolina senator described Mar-a-Lago as “a little bit like going to North Korea” and admitted that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but Trump “doesn’t like to hear that”.
“Well, by all means, entertain his dangerous delusions until we’ve burned America to the ground then, Lindsey,” Kimmel remarked.
Woodward also reported that Trump had spoken to Vladimir Putin seven times since he left office, “which is less than Ivanka, but more than Tiffany. It’s right in that daughter sweet spot,” Kimmel joked.
According to Woodward, Trump sent Covid testing equipment to Putin during the height of the pandemic, when testing was scarce in America – free of charge.
“Can you imagine?” Kimmel lamented. “Nurses, doctors, American hospitals couldn’t get these machines. He’s sending them to the devil himself.
“I don’t want to say Trump was his puppet,” he added, “but whenever they were in a room together, you never saw more than one of Putin’s hands.”
Seth Meyers
And on Late Night, Seth Meyers noted that Harris appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show, “and she’s already gone up 15 points among Uber drivers”.
Meanwhile, Trump falsely claimed in a new Fox News interview that Harris had not visited areas devastated by Hurricane Helene, prompting a factcheck from the host Laura Ingraham. “Imagine being such a liar that you get factchecked by Laura Ingraham,” Meyers laughed. “That’s like getting fashion advice from Kevin Smith.”
Meyers also touched on the detail from Woodward’s book that Trump and Putin have spoken on the phone at least seven times since he left office. “That’s how you know they’re tight. Adult men never call each other,” said Meyers.
And a sixth member of Eric Adams’s administration has resigned. “Who’s even left at this point?” Meyers wondered. “At this rate, his communications director is just going to be a Times Square Dora.”
