CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill to Monday’s taping of The Late Show for some mutual back patting, where Colbert praised Sherrill’s “curb stomping” of her opponent while she portrayed him as a free speech martyr who got cancelled because of President Trump.
Colbert wondered, “Well, you sure did because you won by 56.9 percent to 42.5 percent, which is 14.4 points, which political experts call—have a term for—it’s called ‘a curb stomping.’ November 4th was big for you, Abigail Spanberger, and Zohran Mamdani here in the city. What ideas—what do you think—you think there's a commonality between any of those victories?”
Sherrill had a typical politician’s cliché-ridden response, “Yeah, I think fighting hard for people, listening to people on the ground, and delivering on a different vision than what is being presented by the president in Washington and people—I think right now these are scary times, and to navigate these is going to take some real leadership.”
Moving on, Colbert admired Sherrill’s ability to recognize the country is supposedly in the midst of a “crisis” as he asked, “Donald Trump was one of the reasons why you ran for Congress in 2018. You saw the crisis of the moment, and what does resisting his agenda look like to you now that you will be a governor of a state?”
Sherrill declared that, “So, obviously there are areas where I really need the federal government to start performing better when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to SNAP, schools, medical care, et cetera, et cetera, so we’re going to fight that and work with anybody in the administration who we can to deliver on those promises. But that doesn't mean in any way, shape, or form hiding or ducking or not standing up against those things that are going on that are so wrong.”
Continuing a trend of guests portraying Colbert as a victim of CBS’s efforts to appease Trump after his 60 Minutes lawsuit and Paramount’s merger with Skydance, Sherrill continued, “I mean, I'm glad you are sitting down. You might not know this: some people are losing their jobs because they are speaking out against the president of the United States.”
A sarcastic Colbert then removed his glasses in dramatic form and wondered, “What are you talking about?” as Sherrill added, “Yeah. It's horrible. It’s horrible.”
There’s no evidence that Colbert was cancelled because of politics. CBS is getting out of the late night game completely. Colbert’s average viewer is 68-years old and his show loses $40 million per year. The simple truth is far less exciting than Sherrill’s insulation: Colbert was cancelled for financial reasons.
Here is a transcript for the December 1-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
12/2/2025
12:16 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Well, you sure did because you won by 56.9 percent to 42.5 percent, which is 14.4 points, which political experts call—have a term for—it’s called “a curb stomping.” November 4th was big for you, Abigail Spanberger, and Zohran Mamdani here in the city. What ideas—what do you think—you think there's a commonality between any of those victories?
MIKIE SHERRILL: Yeah, I think fighting hard for people, listening to people on the ground, and delivering on a different vision than what is being presented by the president in Washington and people—I think right now these are scary times, and to navigate these is going to take some real leadership.
COLBERT: Donald Trump was one of the reasons why you ran for Congress in 2018. You saw the crisis of the moment, and what does resisting his agenda look like to you now that you will be a governor of a state?
SHERRILL: So, obviously there are areas where I really need the federal government to start performing better when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to SNAP, schools, medical care, et cetera, et cetera, so we’re going to fight that and work with anybody in the administration who we can to deliver on those promises. But that doesn't mean in any way, shape, or form hiding or ducking or not standing up against those things that are going on that are so wrong. I mean, I'm glad you are sitting down. You might not know this: some people are losing their jobs because they are speaking out against the president of the United States.
COLBERT: What—
SHERRILL: Yeah.
COLBERT: — are you talking about?
SHERRILL: It's horrible. It’s horrible.
COLBERT: I hope you got something to back that up with.
