What do the U.S. Senate and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have in common? Storied veteran leaders who can’t seem to decide whether they’re retiring.
Just days after Bucs quarterback Tom Brady officially hung up his cleats (ahem, for now) the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) announced she will not be seeking reelection in 2024 – and everyone seemed to know about the announcement but her.
Stephen Colbert joked about the confusion from the oldest serving senator in his Wednesday night monologue monologue, saying that “her announcement comes after years of speculation she might retire with many insiders worried about her memory.”
“It did not help,” he continued, “when yesterday, after her office announced her retirement, she was asked about it and said this.” The “Late Show” host then played an audio clip of Feinstein saying, “Oh, no, I’m not announcing anything.”
“Wait a second,” Colbert said. “She announced her retirement and then back-tracked? Either she’s having memory problems, or she signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”
Colbert continued to play the audio exchanged between a confused Feinstein and reporters.
“I haven’t made that decision. I haven’t released anything,” Feinstein said.
As the senator was talking, you could hear a staffer in the audio clip correcting her and saying they released the retirement announcement earlier that day. Feinstein replied in a shocked voice and said, “You put out the statement,” which led Colbert to pounce.
“Oops-a-cadabray,” Colbert said while laughing. “This explains the cake her staff got her.”
Colbert then showed a cake with a series of quotes between Feinstein and her staffers.
“Congrats on your retirement!”
“I’m retiring?”
“Yes, we put out your statement.”
“Whose statement?”
Yours.”
“My what?”
“Statement.”
“Yes, I’m preparing one.”
No, we already put it out.”
“Then what’s the cake for, is someone retiring?”
Watch Colbert’s full “Late Show” monologue in the video above.
