The left-wing late-night network TV show hosts, who’ve for years mocked a ridiculed millions of conservative Americans, put their political puns aside on Wednesday night and lashed out in anger and frustration over the violence at the U.S. Capitol, offering lengthy lectures about the need for civility and calm.
“It was a terrible day in the history of this country,” said Jimmy Kimmel on his ABC show Wednesday. Over on CBS, Stephen Colbert called it “a horrifying day that will go down in U.S. history, however much longer that is.”
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They were reacting to footage several hours earlier of violence that erupted after many thousands attended a peaceful pro-Trump Save America March in Washington D.C. Some agitators broke through barricades, pounded through Capitol building windows and doors, flooded into the Senate, forcing lawmakers into hiding. Tear gas was used in the Rotunda.
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“If my grandfather were alive today and saw what was happening in the country that he fought for, he’d be disgusted,” said Jimmy Fallon on NBC. “People walking around with the flag upside down thinking they’re patriotic. Today was not patriotism. Today was terrorism.”
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NBC late-night host Seth Seth Meyers called for Donald Trump to be “immediately removed from office” after the Capitol carnage. “The only way our democracy is going to survive this harrowing moment is if he’s immediately removed from office by either the cabinet or the Congress and prosecuted,” Meyers said. “Anything less is tacit permission to continue to use his office, and his influence after he leaves office, to foment sedition and dismantle democracy.”
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James Corden, who grew up in England, used the perspective of an outsider to view the events, saying he always looked to the United States as a beacon of light and possibility.
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“Today, people across the world would have looked at these pictures from Washington and they would have wondered what on earth has happened to this great country,” Corden said on CBS. But he added ”the America that they admire still exists.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who objected to Arizona’s electoral votes on Wednesday, and President Trump repeatedly called for the violence to end and for rioters to leave the Capitol. President Trump later issued a statement, saying that he would participate in an “orderly transition” of power to President-elect Joe Biden on January 20th, after Congress certified the electoral college votes early Thursday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter, instagram, and Parlor @jeromeehudson