When Senator Bernie Sanders is a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” you can expect certain things. The crowd will go wild when he’s introduced, chanting his name – “Ber-nie! Ber-nie!” – until he thanks them into a more listening position. He will talk with hands, as he is wont to do, and wear the same blue suit as last time.
Tuesday’s show marked the 19th time that the democratic socialist from Vermont has appeared on “The Late Show,” and he now has a clear comfort level with the host; at the close of the interview, Colbert called his guest “Bernie,” before correcting himself: “Senator Sanders, I mean.” But Tuesday’s show felt a little more urgent than many previous Sanders visits, for the simple reason that the country, and the world, seem to be on fire.
Colbert and Sanders started with national income inequality, before getting down to international matters – specifically President Donald Trump’s bellicose ambitions to take over Greenland. As Colbert marveled at Trump’s widely mocked text to Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, in which the president suggested that one reason he wants to acquire Greenland is because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, Sanders didn’t hold back.
“It’s pathetic,” he told Colbert. “It’s like a narcissistic four-year-old spoiled brat. ‘I’m gonna yell and scream because I didn’t get my extra cup of ice cream.”
Speaking of ICE, the conversation eventually turned to Minnesota, where protests continue after an ICE agent shot and killed unarmed motorist Renee Good on Jan. 7. Colbert noted that at least 1,500 active-duty US soldiers are now standing by to possibly invade the city.
“ICE has invaded Minneapolis, and their goal is to intimidate every person in the country,” Sanders said. “[They want you to think] if you stand up, you are in trouble, because the military is coming.”
Sanders, still fiery at 84, is duly alarmed by national and world events. But he continued to express faith, and even hope, in the American public.
On the ICE offensive: “I gotta tell you, this is repellent to the vast majority of the American people.” On Greenland: “About eight percent of American people think invading Greenland is a good idea. You don’t really want to campaign on that.” On the encroachment of authoritarianism: “The people of the United States of America do not want to live under an authoritarian society, they do not want to live under an oligarchic society, and they understand that in the richest nation in the world, all of our people, not just the billionaires, should be doing well.”
That line was met with applause, as were others. “The Late Show” audience has long been a home crowd for Bernie. Senator Sanders, I mean.
Chris Vognar can be reached at chris.vognar@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram at @chrisvognar and on Bluesky at chrisvognar.bsky.social.