Outside of the standard drama inside the Trump Administration, the big news on Tuesday was Kim Jong Un’s meeting with South Korean leaders, a first since Kim took power in North Korea in 2011. Reports say that North Korea wants to also talk with the U.S. — which of course meant Donald Trump would tweet his views in response. Stephen Colbert was baffled and addressed it during his “Late Show” monologue on Tuesday night.
He started by rejoicing at the news that maybe we won’t end up in a nuclear war with North Korea after all and discussed how Trump and Kim could bond.
“If you normalize, then Kim Jong Un and Trump can sit down and talk about the things they have in common, like military parades and ridiculous haircuts,” Colbert joked.
But then, of course, came the topic of Trump’s Twitter response to all this, which came on Tuesday morning: “Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! Maybe false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!”
The part Colbert was confused by was the concept of “going hard in either direction.”
“Either way? Go hard in either direction? That’s leadership. ‘Who’s with me? And where am I?’” Colbert said. “How do you go hard on peace? ‘We’re gonna peace you back to the stone age, motherf—er! We’re gonna rain reconciliation down on you! We’re gonna obliterate you with friendship! You will never recover from the relentless bombardment of hugs! Heed my words: your children will sleep at night.’”
Afterward, Colbert talked a little bit more about the Sam Nunberg situation. Because of how late in the day Nunberg’s numerous cable news appearances were on Monday, Colbert was the only late-night host to talk about him that night and even then, he didn’t know the full story just yet, which also meant that Colbert missed the news that CNN’s Erin Burnett told Nunberg that she smelled alcohol on his breath.
“I don’t know what’s more disturbing,” Colbert said, “him going on the news drunk, or me having to watch the news sober.”
You can watch this portion of Colbert’s monologue from Monday’s “Late Show” in the embedded video at the top of the post.