Colbert on Pelosi calling Trump a vile creature: ‘You know who agrees? Most Americans’
Late-night hosts spoke about Trump’s disastrous approval rating and looked at a big election night for New Yorkers
Late-night hosts looked back on comments made by Nancy Pelosi about Donald Trump and examined the last-minute campaigning for the New York mayoral race.
Stephen Colbert
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the big night for New York. He said that election night in the US is known internationally as “Guys, come look, they’re about to do something stupid!”
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He spoke about Zohran Mamdani’s late campaign push, hitting multiple clubs and bars in an episode that was taped just before the Democratic candidate made history winning the majority of votes.
His major competition, Andrew Cuomo, picked up endorsements from Elon Musk, Eric Adams, George Santos and Stephen Miller, AKA “everyone New Yorkers love”.
Colbert also joked that support came from “subway seat puddle” and “your neighbour with the trumpet”.
This week also saw Nancy Pelosi call Donald Trump a “vile creature” and the “worst thing on the face of the Earth”.
Colbert said that would place him in between “eating half your sandwich before realising it’s moldy” and “that fish in the Amazon that swims up your peehole”.
He added: “You know who agrees with Nancy Pelosi? Most Americans.”
Because this week a new opinion poll was published showing that Trump has reached a new second-term low in his approval rating with a showing of 37%, down from 47% in mid-February.
The week also saw the death of Dick Cheney, at the age of 84. Colbert said that his family are “asking well-wishers, in lieu of flowers, to please shoot a friend in the face”.
Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host spoke about the California vote over redistricting, joking that whatever the result was, “Trump’s just gonna redraw everything with a Sharpie himself”.
The president has already called the vote “unconstitutional” and “a giant scam”, which Kimmel said were “also adjectives someone might use to describe him”.
He moved on to the New York mayoral race, calling Eric Adams a “clownishly funny” mayor who will next be seen on Dancing With the Stars.
It was also day 35 of the government shutdown and Trump has threatened to delay Snap benefits, something his press secretary had to walk back immediately. It would affect 42 million people, a sign of callousness that explains why “his kids are like that”.
Kimmel added: “The guy who never missed a happy meal in his life is deciding who gets to eat in this country.”
The administration was ultimately forced into an agreement to pay half and it all led Kimmel to announce that he would be helping local organisations with a “big beautiful food bank” in the studio’s parking lot, asking viewers for food donations.
Trump was also asked this week about former prince Andrew being stripped of his royal title as a result of the Jeffrey Epstein association. He told reporters he felt “very badly” for the royal family.
Kimmel said it was “like Bill Cosby feeling bad for R Kelly” and there were also dozens of photos of Trump and Andrew together.
Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have also plummeted since Trump took over and demanded less “woke” programming with sales at 57%, down from 93% this time last year.
“Everything he touches dies,” Kimmel said before joking: “Good news, Melania, you’re gonna live forever.”
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers also spoke about the big New York election day, talking about a recent CNN profile of Mamdani’s wife.
“Bad news ladies, he’s married, and even worse news, Cuomo isn’t,” he joked.
This week has also seen Trump threatening possible military action in Nigeria on social media which led the Pentagon head, Pete Hegseth, to reply: “Yes, sir.”
Meyers called it “gross” and said they were “like those couples who wish each other happy anniversary on Facebook”.
Sotheby’s is also set to auction off a sculpture of a solid gold toilet called America, which led Meyers to joke: “I don’t know if that’s fair though since the toilet actually works.”
Democrats brace for Nancy Pelosi’s possible retirement
The former House speaker is expected to make an announcement about her political future after Tuesday’s elections.
Multiple Democratic sources in California and Congress told NBC News that Rep. Nancy Pelosi will decide not to seek re-election in 2026.Tom Williams /
WASHINGTON — Democrats are bracing for the possible retirement of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, one of the party’s most powerful, popular and effective leaders, who served as chief antagonist to President Donald Trump during his first term and has quietly counseled Democrats as they take on Trump in his second term.
She is expected to make an announcement about her future after Tuesday’s elections, when voters will consider a ballot measure, known as “Proposition 50,” that would redraw the state’s congressional lines. Pelosi is a prominent proponent of the plan, which Democrats hope would net them several seats in next year’s midterm elections.
Multiple Democratic sources in her home state and in Congress told NBC News they believe the 85-year-old California Democrat will choose not to seek re-election in 2026 after nearly four decades representing her San Francisco-based district.
“I wish she would stay for 10 more years,” said one House Democrat from California. “I think she’s out. She’s going to go out with Prop 50 overwhelmingly passing, and what a crowning achievement for her to do that.”
Her departure — if it happens — would end an era in Congress, where her unparalleled skills as a legislative strategist, vote counter and fundraiser helped make Pelosi the first woman to win the speaker’s gavel, and it would touch off a more furious scramble for her coveted House seat.
Fueling speculation that she might retire, Pelosi has made no outward move to counter two Democrats who have entered the district’s primary, despite having raised more than $2 million this election cycle so far and sitting on a $1.5 million war chest, according to campaign records. Those Democrats, who would face Pelosi if she decides to fight for another term, are state Sen. Scott Wiener, and wealthy former tech executive Saikat Chakrabarti, who previously served as chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Pelosi has dropped hints she might be heading out. At a recent California Democratic delegation meeting on Capitol Hill, she told colleagues she looks forward to watching Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sworn in as the first Black speaker of the House — if she’s still allowed on the floor, she joked, according to a source in the room.
“I think she’s preparing to exit the stage,” another source, a House Democratic leadership aide, said of Pelosi. “We will not fully appreciate the time we have spent with her” until she’s gone.
In political circles in the Bay Area, the tea leaves increasingly point to her standing down, according to a Democratic elected official in the region. “Most people think it is highly unlikely that she will run for another term,” this official said.
Pelosi spokesman Ian Krager declined to say whether she will seek re-election to a 20th full term in Congress, but dismissed the comments from Democrats as “pure speculation.”
“Speaker Pelosi is fully focused on her mission to win the Yes on 50 special election in California on Tuesday,” Krager said, referring to the slogan used by ballot-initiative supporters. “She urges all Californians to join in that mission on the path to taking back the House for Democrats.”
After this story published, Krager wrote on X: “Any discussion of her future plans beyond that mission is pure speculation.” Then, he posted the famous proverb: “Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
The other sources requested anonymity to speak about a sensitive matter, underscoring the sway Pelosi still holds in Democratic politics. But Democrats are not unanimous in the opinion that she’s leaving.
“My sense is she runs again for many reasons. She should hang it up, but I think she thinks the caucus needs her,” said one former Democratic leadership aide. “I also think she wants to be part of history if Leader Jeffries rises to become the first Black speaker of the House after the midterm election. She wants to be seen as part of that special moment.”
In an interview last month with the San Francisco Examiner, Pelosi said she won’t decide whether she’ll run for re-election until after Tuesday’s election, where California voters will decide the fate of Prop 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrats’ plan to redraw the Golden State’s congressional districts to gain more seats for the party. It’s a direct response to Republican mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and other red states.
She said Prop 50 is her No. 1 priority at the moment.
“Here’s the thing: We must win the House. If you talk about ‘no kings,’ we must win the House to put a stop to this. We won’t be able to get many things done, but we’ll be able to stop a lot of the poison that he’s putting there, and the best antidote to poison is to win the election,” she told the Examiner.
“There’s a lot riding on this because this is the path to our winning the House,” Pelosi continued. “We will win the House regardless, but winning it big, and we want to win Nov. 4 big.”
During her two decades as House Democratic leader — from 2002 to 2022 — Pelosi ruled her caucus with a velvet glove. She could be tough: One of her favorite sayings was, “I eat nails for breakfast.”
But she knew how to wield both sticks and carrots. When then-Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, considered an insurgent challenge to Pelosi for speaker in 2018, Pelosi invited Fudge into her office for a private meeting, warned her about all of the fundraising and travel the job required and offered her a post chairing a subcommittee focused on elections and voting rights. Fudge abandoned her challenge and endorsed Pelosi.
Colleagues say Pelosi hasn’t shared her plans with them, but they hailed her as a historic figure — she was the first female speaker of the House and served in the top job twice — who made her mark on Congress and the country.
“Nancy Pelosi is a stateswoman who, as they say about Lincoln, belongs to the ages,” said progressive Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a fellow Bay Area Democrat. “Generations to come will be reading about her contributions to America.”
Ashley Etienne, who previously served as communications director to both Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, said she hasn’t spoken to the former speaker about her future plans. She praised Pelosi for deftly leading the opposition to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Trump, but also for being a pragmatist who hammered out deals with them “in the interest of the nation.”
Pelosi teamed with Bush on the 2008 bank bailout, clean energy and AIDS relief, and backed the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement signed into law by Trump.
“Pelosi’s loss is bigger than even to the Democratic Party; it’s a loss to the institution. She’s an object lesson. No matter which side of the political aisle you’re on, if you’re smart, you’re taking copious notes,” said Etienne, who led impeachment messaging for Pelosi and the Democrats during Trump’s first term.
“She’s not just redefined the speakership, but she’s also demonstrated what real sound, principled leadership looks like, man or woman, but definitely as a woman,” she added. “Pelosi is a beast. She’s the best to ever do it, the most successful speaker in American history.”
But Pelosi angered some fellow Democrats, particularly those most loyal to then-President Joe Biden, when she put public and private pressure on him to relinquish the party’s nomination following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
And though she represents a district that has historically been among the most liberal in the country, Pelosi has at times battled the progressive wing of her caucus in Congress in the nearly quarter century since she first won a spot in Democratic leadership. Those fights have included scrapes with Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the progressive “Squad.”
It’s not yet clear how a race featuring Chakrabarti, Wiener, Pelosi and perhaps others would play out, but there’s a potential parallel from recent political history that she would no doubt like to avoid.
In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez knocked out Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., then a rising star and seen as a possible successor to Pelosi, in a primary. Ocasio-Cortez portrayed Crowley as too absent from the district and too moderate for its voters.
