Shortly after being ousted from his position as Speaker of the House on Tuesday—and almost immediately confirming that he would not attempt to win back the job—Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) claimed to be feeling “great.”
While not everyone was buying his high spirits, many people were genuinely delighted by the news, and Stephen Colbert was among them.
Word that McCarthy had been given the boot reached The Late Show host just moments before he stepped onto the stage, and he could not hide his utter glee.
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“I’m sure this won’t be taken out of context when I say: ‘I love the McCarthy Hearings,’” Colbert said.
While it’s one thing to make history as the first-ever Speaker of the House to be unceremoniously removed from the job via a vote of his colleagues, it’s another thing altogether to have that move largely orchestrated by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)—who even fellow Republicans are starting to tire of. The embarrassment of the situation was not lost on Colbert, who mocked the pathetic smack talk that started it all.
“This all started just last night … when Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, which Gaetz had threatened to file earlier in the day,” Colbert explained. “And then McCarthy tweeted ‘Bring it on,’ to which Gaetz replied ‘Just did.’”
If it didn’t already read like the script from an ABC after-school special where two totally non-threatening individuals do their best to act like tough guy bullies, Colbert took a few creative liberties to rectify that.
During Tuesday’s show, he imagined the Twitter exchange continued with McCarthy replying “‘Ok then,’ to which Gaetz replied: ‘Well ok.’ McCarthy then replies ‘What happens now?’
Colbert proceeded on like this for some time. “It’s chaos,” he happily concluded.
