{"id":129785,"date":"2025-11-11T16:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/129785\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:04:08","slug":"jon-stewart-on-government-shutdown-deal-a-world-class-collapse-by-democrats-late-night-tv-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/129785\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Stewart on government shutdown deal: \u2018A world-class collapse by Democrats\u2019 | Late-night TV roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late-night hosts unleashed on Senate Democrats for caving<\/a> on the longest-ever government shutdown<\/a> with no assurance on healthcare subsidies<\/a> from Republicans.<\/p>\n

Jon Stewart<\/p>\n

Jon Stewart<\/a> minced no words for congressional Democrats on Monday evening, hours after a coalition broke from the party and voted with Republicans to extend government funding through January with no assurances on the healthcare tax credits at the center of the 41-day stalemate. \u201cBy the way, tonight\u2019s show will be brought to you by: I can\u2019t fucking believe it,\u201d Stewart fumed at the top of The Daily Show. \u201cI can\u2019t fucking believe it: for when the \u2018I can\u2019t believe it\u2019 Edvard Munch scream emoji doesn\u2019t quite convey how much you cannot fucking believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fucking caved on the shutdown, not even a full week removed from the best election night results they\u2019ve had in years,\u201d he continued. \u201cSeven Democratic senators and an independent voted with their Republican counterparts to end the shutdown and reopen the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had the wind at your back, election victories all over the country, the new Sydney Sweeney movie \u2013 box office bupkis<\/a>,\u201d he added. \u201cApparently, her new Maga fanbase didn\u2019t show up in droves to see a biopic about a lesbian professional boxer who overcomes domestic violence to live her truth. Who could have seen that coming? Democrats, you sold out the entire shutdown not to get what you wanted but for a promise to not get what you wanted later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart also raged at the fact that the only assurance Democrats received on the expiring tax credit for healthcare premiums \u2013 whose end would effectively cause millions to lose their health insurance \u2013 was the promise of a vote on the issue sometime in December. \u201cSurely, someone in the party understands that offering a vote in the Senate without a commitment that it would pass or that the House would even take it up is an empty offer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stewart then singled out Democratic senators Tim Kaine, of Virginia, and New Hampshire\u2019s Jeanne Shaheen, two of the eight Democrats who once opposed such a deal with a Republicans. \u201cLook, either all eight senators who voted to capitulate coincidentally are not up for re-election in 2026, or Chuck Schumer worked behind the scenes to give in to the Republicans while still protecting \u2018vulnerable Democrats\u2019, including himself,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a world-class collapse by Democrats,\u201d he said, comparing it to a spectacular loss by the New York Giants this weekend. \u201cIt would be like being up 10 points with three minutes left to go in a game and still finding a way to miraculously lose it for the fourth time in just one month.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the Democrats have squandered,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThey squandered their leverage, sapped their voters\u2019 enthusiasm and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert<\/p>\n

\u201cOur long national nightmare is \u2026 different,\u201d joked Stephen Colbert<\/a> on Monday\u2019s Late Show, as the longest-ever government shutdown appeared to be nearing its end after eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to fund the government through January without any Affordable Care Act guarantees.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yes, yes, the shutdown may have been long and painful for millions of Americans, but at least it achieved jack squat,\u201d said Colbert.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo surprise, the vast majority of Democrats do not want this,\u201d he continued. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, none of those eight are up for re-election next year. Two have already announced their retirement. \u201cWhat a disappointing way to end your career,\u201d said Colbert. \u201cIt reminds me of when Journey released their last album: We Stopped Believin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert referred to Sheehan, who said of her New Hampshire constituents: \u201cThey say, \u2018Why can\u2019t you all just work together to address the problems that are facing this country?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the country is being run by insane people!\u201d Colbert responded, mocking the senator \u2013 \u201c\u2018My constituents want to know why we can\u2019t work with the meth-addled chimps who broke into the cockpit and are now flying the plane. Some of their ideas are reasonable, although admittedly some are bananas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Seth Meyers<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats had finally backed Trump into a corner. Polls showed that voters were on their side, and then just when it seemed like they finally turned the tables, they buckled,\u201d Seth Meyers<\/a> lamented on Late Night.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I\u2019m sure you think caving to Republicans without any meaningful concessions constitutes giving up, but that\u2019s because you\u2019re not an expert on politics like Chuck Schumer is,\u201d he joked of the Senate minority leader. \u201cYou\u2019re playing checkers, he\u2019s playing chess, and he\u2019s playing it slowly. He\u2019s not playing it to win. He\u2019s playing until his opponent falls asleep. Which, by the way, literally just happened last week,\u201d he added before a photo of Trump asleep on live television during an Oval Office meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats, do you see this? Why are you caving to this guy?\u201d he fumed. \u201cIn the span of like five days he got crushed in elections, got booed at a football game, fell asleep at a meeting \u2013 and you guys saw that and thought, \u2018There\u2019s no way we can beat this guy, he\u2019s at the top of his game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyers then played a clip of Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who voted with Republicans and justified it to MSNBC: \u201cThere never was an endgame if the strategy didn\u2019t work. And now we have one,\u201d he said, with a \u201cguaranteed vote on the ACA. And it may not succeed, I grant that. But a reasonable chance \u2013 10%, 20%, 30% \u2013 is a lot better than 0%, which is where we were as of yesterday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys caved for a 10% chance of success?\u201d Meyers marveled. \u201cAlso, I hate to break it to you, but it\u2019s still 0%. You and I know this Republican party is not going to work with Democrats. And yet some Democrats are still capable of deluding themselves into thinking that cooperation is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Kimmel<\/p>\n

And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> quickly summarized how we got to this point. \u201cDemocrats refused to sign on to a bill that would force millions of Americans off their healthcare and make it much more expensive for those who can afford healthcare,\u201d he said. \u201cSo Democrats drew a line in the sand. They said: \u2018We\u2019re not going over this.\u2019 And today, after 41 days, they pulled out a shovel and a bucket and ate all that sand, and got nothing for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t that great?\u201d he mocked. \u201cYou know what they got? They got a promise from Republicans in the Senate to hold a vote on healthcare sometime in the future. And if there\u2019s one thing we know about Trump and his merry band of sycophants, it\u2019s that their word is as good as gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible at his age that Chuck Schumer is still able to bend over so far,\u201d he quipped. \u201cChuck Schumer is basically every parent who tells their kid \u2018No more iPad, that\u2019s it!\u2019 And next thing you know, he\u2019s playing Roblox at the dinner table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was such a big cave by the Democrats, Bruce Wayne offered to buy it,\u201d he joked. \u201cTurns out all Trump had to do was threaten to starve poor people, and he got his way. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll never do it again, though.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late-night hosts unleashed on Senate Democrats for caving on the longest-ever government shutdown with no assurance on healthcare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-129785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}