Stephen Colbert has a sneaking suspicion that he knows why former minority leader Kevin McCarthy is so adamantly putting himself up to a floor vote for House speaker – just to lose over and over again.
“Losing floor votes might be his kink,” the “Late Show” host teased in Thursday’s monologue. “He’s getting off on this.”
As they say, different strokes!
On Thursday, the California Republican failed to be elected Speaker of the House five more times, making for a total of 11 ballots he’s lost since Tuesday. While Colbert and the rest of late night at large has been finding endless material and humor in the matter, the “Late Show” host couldn’t help but wonder if it will ever go from funny to sad.
“At what point does it become sad to watch him get repeatedly dragged through the town square while the village idiots pelt him with rotting garbage? Not at this point because this is still a lot of fun,” he said.
“Why does he keep going? I’m beginning to think losing floor votes might be his kink. He’s getting off on this,” he added. “It’s all in the new erotic congressional novel, ‘Fifty Shades of Nay.’ Now that’s upsetting!”
The “Late Show” crew even drew up an idea of what that book cover might look like – proceed viewing it with caution.
While Colbert covered his political bases in Thursday’s monologue, he kept coming back to the fact that he simply can’t get enough of McCarthy and the Republican Party’s embarrassment. It’s happiness at their expense.
“Why else would Kevin McCarthy continue to do this, other than to make me happy?” he posed. “Because I cannot get enough of this. I don’t know how the rest of y’all feel, but this is better than watching him lose an election.”
The studio audience erupted into applause and cheers.
“I mean, it’s better than getting him to watch him lose an election because you get to watch him lose three times a day for apparently eternity,” Colbert said. “It’s fantastic.”
Watch the full “Late Show” monologue in the video above.
