{"id":401704,"date":"2026-04-28T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/401704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:33:09","slug":"jon-stewart-on-white-house-correspondents-dinner-we-cant-even-pull-off-a-dinner-that-shouldnt-have-existed-in-the-first-place-late-night-tv-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/401704\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Stewart on White House correspondents\u2019 dinner: \u2018We can\u2019t even pull off a dinner that shouldn\u2019t have existed in the first place\u2019 | Late-night TV roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late-night hosts responded to the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner<\/a> shooting and Donald and Melania Trump<\/a>\u2019s attempts to blame political violence on Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s jokes.<\/p>\n

Jon Stewart<\/p>\n

Jon Stewart<\/a> resumed his Monday night chair at the Daily Show less than two days after the shocking attack<\/a> at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner on Saturday night, which resulted in the arrest of one man<\/a> and, thankfully, no injuries. \u201cIt was supposed to be an evening of fun and merriment until, like most things in America, it was interrupted by gunfire,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThis is why we can\u2019t have nice things. And to be perfectly frank, it\u2019s not even a nice thing. Nobody wanted this fucking dinner in the first place!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so fucked in this country right now,\u201d he added. \u201cWe can\u2019t even pull off a dinner that shouldn\u2019t have existed in the first place. Hey, let\u2019s celebrate the first amendment with an administration that\u2019s doing everything it can do to destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart went on to replay some footage from the chaos during the attack, with clips of people grabbing bottles of alcohol for themselves and one man continuing to calmly eat his salad as Secret Service agents rushed to evacuate the president and thwart the attacker. \u201cThere have been times I have been very worried about artificial intelligence and whether or not it\u2019s going to replace us,\u201d Stewart responded. \u201cAnd then there are other times where I think, \u2018Hey, AI, can you start Monday?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There was much to decode in the reactions of various members of the Trump administration, from \u201cJD Vance\u2019s Dancing with the Stars quickstep exit to Pete Hegseth dropping a smoldering Blue Steel, to RFK Jr being whisked away by a Secret Service hive who apparently couldn\u2019t spare one worker bee for, I don\u2019t know, his wife,\u201d said Stewart before pausing the clip on the health and human services secretary fleeing without his wife, Cheryl Hines.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow fucked up is that scene?\u201d Stewart wondered, even comparing it to footage of the hardline anti-immigrant Trump adviser<\/a>, Stephen Miller, escorting his pregnant wife out of the room. \u201cThe guy who outshined you is Stephen fucking Miller,\u201d Stewart marveled. \u201cThat\u2019s who was more chivalrous. Stephen Miller, a guy who probably jerks off to the new Faces of Death movie. And now for the rest of your life, for the rest of your life, your wife is gonna ask you a question no one\u2019s ever asked before, ever: \u2018Why can\u2019t you be more like Stephen Miller?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Kimmel<\/p>\n

On Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!, the host began his monologue by addressing Melania Trump\u2019s unusually public call for him to be fired for a joke he made days ahead of the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner shooting. In his show last Thursday, Kimmel described<\/a> the first lady as glowing \u201clike an expectant widow\u201d. Melania Trump accused him of \u201chateful and violent rhetoric\u201d and \u201catrocious behavior\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kimmel did not apologize<\/a> on Monday night, defending both his joke and the freedom of speech at large. \u201cObviously, it was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they\u2019re together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very light roast joke about the fact that he\u2019s almost 80 and she\u2019s younger than I am. It was not \u2013 by any stretch of the definition \u2013 a call to assassination. And they know that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,\u201d he added. \u201cI do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it. Donald Trump<\/a> is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I. Because under the first amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in his monologue, Kimmel touched on Trump\u2019s kneejerk response to the attack on Truth Social, where he wrote: \u201cThis event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about Donald Trump \u2013 there\u2019s nothing he couldn\u2019t turn into a real estate opportunity,\u201d Kimmel laughed. \u201cI hate to be the bearer of bad news, I\u2019m afraid that top secret ballroom is no longer top secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seth Meyers<\/p>\n

And on Late Night, Seth Meyers<\/a> also reacted to the shooting at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner with some relief, as no one was injured, though many were shaken up; Meyers played a clip of Wolf Blitzer, a CNN host, recounting the moments after the shooting, when he was pushed into a bathroom with 15 other guys by Secret Service agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree things: first, bravo to this officer for their quick reaction to make sure everyone is safe,\u201d said Meyers. \u201cTwo, bravo to Wolf Blitzer for his invaluable reporting. And three, can you imagine being trapped in a men\u2019s room with 15 other dudes? That is my actual nightmare. Because you know that somebody said, \u2018well, if Wolf is in the room, there must be a situation!\u2019 and then everybody had to fake laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, everyone was safe, and some even enjoyed their salad<\/a>,\u201d he continued, referring to now-viral image of one man continuing to eat his burrata salad as chaos ensued around him. \u201cNow the question is: what do we do about the rising tide of political violence in America? It\u2019s unacceptable and has no place in a functioning democracy. Mr President, can you give us any guidance, any leadership? What\u2019s one thing we can do?\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Trump, it\u2019s build his massive gilded ballroom despite court orders to halt construction until the proper permits are obtained for his \u201cMilitarily Top Secret Ballroom\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first I\u2019m hearing that it\u2019s a safe ballroom,\u201d Meyers joked. \u201cAll I\u2019ve ever heard is how it\u2019s going to be big and beautiful, but now we\u2019re shifting to safe? Man, I get it \u2013 when you want something as badly as you want your ballroom, you do what you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyers also had a bone to pick with the term \u201cmilitarily top secret\u201d \u2013 \u201cwhat do you mean it\u2019s top secret?\u201d he wondered. \u201cYou talk about it all the time! That\u2019s the opposite of top secret. You literally held a poster board with designs for the ballroom you claimed is top secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is \u2018militarily top secret\u2019 in the same way a stealth bomber it would be if it was pulling a banner that read \u2018invisible plane,\u2019\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical violence is unacceptable,\u201d he later concluded. \u201cIt has no place in a functioning democracy. It would be nice if our politicians could lead by example and provide solutions for keeping all Americans safe. Instead, the president and his party seem focused on telling the world about his \u2018militarily top secret ballroom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late-night hosts responded to the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner shooting and Donald and Melania Trump\u2019s attempts to blame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-401704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401704","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=401704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}