Late Night Hosts Help America Process Joe Biden’s Post-Debate Fallout

The presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump came at a bad time for late night. Most hosts were off getting an early start to the Fourth of July as the nation let out a collective scream. Thankfully, Jon Stewart was not one of those watching from the Hamptons or wherever rich people go. Instead, he went live on Comedy Central to help us process before heading off on a vacation.

The Monday host of The Daily Show returned swinging last night, walking us through all that has happened, or, rather, not happened since debate night. There are two camps on the center-left right now, Stewart says: those who think Biden has trouble expressing thoughts, and those who think “those people should shut the fuck up.” The latter camp is doing something commonly referred to as gaslighting. Or, as Stewart said with a wave of the hand, “These are not the droids you’re looking for.” 

In his monologue, Stewart takes us back to 2022, showing clips of Biden (and not in the deceptively edited way the right always does) that prove what we saw in the debate was not some kind of one-off occurrence that his most loyal defenders say we cannot even question. Stewart’s monologue gets at what is so offensive about the Biden conversation: it is not that the president has defenders, it’s that those defenders are so aggressively dismissive of those who, in Stewart words, are not so easily willing to accept “blatant bullshit.”

Stephen Colbert Puts on Kid Gloves 

No matter where you stand on the drop out issue, Biden is still the incumbent president of the United States who, uh, ya know, wields a lot of power. So it was especially weird to watch Stephen Colbert, who once roasted George W. Bush to his face in one of the greatest live comedy performances of this century, preface his monologue with gushing praise for Biden. Biden is a great man, president, leader, etc., Colbert insisted in a tone that was a bit too Dear-Leader-ish. 

“Before we get to the jokes — and they are jokes — I want to be clear from the very beginning [on] what I think about Joe Biden,” Colbert said, before playing a monologue of talking heads kissing up to Biden. “Yes,” Colbert said, clapping his hands to get the crowd going, “he’s a great president.” To which I ask …. really? I don’t mean to engage in a kind of both-sides-ism, but have we reached the point where comics now have to pump up people in power before taking them down? 

Colbert goes on to deliver a strong monologue, full of observations about the obvious and horrifying realities of this mess of a presidential election, including, of course, Trump’s own monstrosity. But the deference to power at the outset cheapened the rest of the monologue. Let’s ditch the pleasantries, please. Or at least save it for the couch.

Kathryn Hahn Talks Biden’s Deal with God

Over on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel’s summer vacation continued. The ever-hilarious Kathryn Hahn stepped into the host’s chair for the first of three nights. Admittedly still working on developing her late night host persona, Hahn dove into the week’s hot topics, working in a few digs at Biden.

Like her counterparts on other networks, Hahn had fun with Biden’s post-debate interview with George Stephanopoulos. In a totally normal thing for a democratically elected official to say, Biden made clear that only “the Lord Almighty” could get him to drop out of the race. “Come on,” Hahn reasoned, “if he’s not going to listen to his college roommate, who is he gonna listen to?” 

Seth Meyers Lays Out the Stakes

The former Weekend Update anchor is a seasoned pro when it comes to laying out the state of the nation. Monday night was no exception. Seth Meyers prefaced his discussion of Biden’s performance with some Trump talk, paying special attention to the horribleness of the right-wing plan for power, Project 2025 (for more on this, see this great monologue from John Oliver). 

Meyers’ decision smartly lays out the stakes before turning to Biden because, ya know, despite what the president’s most loyal defenders might say, the concern is because people care about democracy. Beyond the debate performance itself, Meyers highlights the condescending nature of responses given by the White House and Biden campaign. “Are you hoping,” Meyers asks, we’ll forget he’s 81 if you treat him like he’s five-and-a-half?” 

Jimmy Fallon Acts Out a Biden Phone Call

The Tonight Show featured a fairly vanilla monologue from Jimmy Fallon, who worked in a few Biden jokes as part of his 10 minute set. In reference to the long letter Biden sent to Congressional Democrats, the kind of thing that embodies “I’m happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened,” Fallon wisely pointed out that nothing will assuage concerns about age than sending a strongly worded letter. 

In a skit later in the show, Fallon, with an assistant from Dion Flynn, played a confused Biden talking with Barack Obama on the phone. The audience couldn’t even fake a laugh at many of the horrible, basic punchlines. The problem late night faces is simple: no skit could be a bigger joke than what actually occurred on the debate stage.