Late night hosts reflected on the “violence” and “horrifying scenes” Americans witnessed at the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania.
NBC host Seth Meyers opened his show on Monday talking about what happened on Saturday, when a shooter opened fire on Trump and wounded the former president, killing one of his supporters, and injuring two other supporters, Deadline reported.
“But I wanted to start our show tonight by reflecting for a bit on the horrifying scenes we witnessed in Pennsylvania on Saturday and on this fraught moment in American history,” Meyers said. “I want to echo what so many have already said, political violence must be rejected in all its forms.”
“It is both morally wrong and a poison to democracy,” he added. “We must all condemn it and repudiate it and do everything in our power to stop it.”
“Often after a tragedy like this, there are calls to forego politics,” Meyers continued. “But to me, politics — the nonviolent exchange of ideas, and the peaceful resolution of disputes — feels more important than ever. An inclusive politics of compassion, empathy and community, that’s what we must recommit to now.”
CBS’s Stephen Colbert spoke to his audience about how 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.”
“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 — and then fresh horror, as we learned that attendees had also been shot, one of whom died at the rally,” Colbert said.
“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, that the entire objective of a democracy is to fight out our differences with — as the saying goes — a ballot, not a bullet,” he added.
“Our job as American citizens is to reject violence and violent rhetoric in this time of crisis. … [n]ot only is violence evil, it is useless,” Colbert continued. “As I quoted [science fiction writer Isaac Asimov] when Representative Steve Scalise was shot, ‘Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.’ Violence, or even calls for violence, invalidate any ideas.”
Over on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel was out and Anthony Anderson was filling in as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show.
“All weekend, I kept thinking, ‘I wonder what Jimmy Kimmel’s gonna say about this on Monday. And then I was like, ‘Oh s**t! I am Jimmy Kimmel on Monday,” Anderson told the audience.
“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 f**k out,” he added.
NBC host Jimmy Fallon did not address the shooting and largely stayed away from politics, only mentioning Trump’s pick for Vice President, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), the outlet noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment