The live, Election Night Late Show With Stephen Colbert substituted comedy for smearing Republicans as KKK-loving racists. This included one of Colbert's guests insisting that Donald Trump would wake up on Wednesday thinking that racism and hate work.
Here are the three moments in which the late-night host or his guests called Republicans bigots:
STEPHEN COLBERT: And in Kansas, a big win for Democrats as Lara Kelly has defeated Grand Imperial Vote Suppresser Kris Kobach. Kobach, you may remember, is the guy who Trump put in charge of finding those three million illegal voters. So, good news, Kris. You’ll have plenty of time to look for them now.
After that, Late Show guest John Heilemann hammered the President as a racist:
JOHN HEILEMANN: We saw, over this weekend, Paul Ryan and others were begging Trump to stop talking about the caravan and immigration and these kind of racist, xenophobic appeals that he was making that everyone was calling out. They wanted him to talk about the economy. You noticed yesterday, he finally in the last closing hours was like, "The economy, very good.".... And then back to racism and xenophobia, on stage with Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Jeanine Pirro like the four horseman of apocalypse on television last night.
A few minutes later, Heilemann insisted that Trump would wake up on Wednesday thinking that the lesson is racism works:
HEILEMANN: I think Trump wakes up tomorrow and says, "I campaigned on racism, xenophobia, fear of the other, paranoia, all that stuff. And the punishment I suffered was I got an enhanced majority in the Senate, and the two black candidates who everybody cared about lost." I mean, for him I think you head into 2020 —
COLBERT: It’s a vindication.
Honorable mention for race-baiting: Colbert’s take on Ted Cruz winning:
COLBERT: So once again, Ted Cruz defeats Beto O'Rourke. Although, although by not being Ted Cruz, Beto still a winner... With Ted Cruz holding his seat, this means Republicans have officially kept control of the U.S. Senate. And to celebrate, Republicans are deporting immigrants via confetti cannon.
Partial transcripts are below. Click “expand” to read more.
Late Show With Stephen Colbert
11/7/18
11:59
STEPHEN COLBERT: So once again, Ted Cruz defeats Beto O'Rourke. Although, although by not being Ted Cruz, Beto still a winner... With Ted Cruz holding his seat, this means Republicans have officially kept control of the U.S. Senate. And to celebrate, Republicans are deporting immigrants via confetti cannon.
12:01COLBERT: And in Kansas, a big win for Democrats as Lara Kelly has defeated Grand Imperial Vote Suppresser Kris Kobach. Kobach, you may remember, is the guy who Trump put in charge of finding those three million illegal voters. So, good news, Chris. You’ll have plenty of time to look for them now.
...JOHN HELIEMANN: [Pulls out bag to show Colbert.] In your bag, this is the one from 2016, you can have that fucker back.
...
HEILEMANN: I think there's going to be actually an interesting debate in the Republican party over the way trump closed, right. I mean, we saw, over this weekend, Paul Ryan and others were begging Trump to stop talking about the caravan and immigration and these kind of racist, xenophobic appeals that he was making that everyone was calling out. They wanted him to talk about the economy. You noticed yesterday, he finally in the last closing hours was like, "The economy, very good." And then back to — and then back to racism and xenophobia, on stage with Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Jeanine Pirro like the four horseman of apocalypse on television last night.
...
HEILEMANN: I think Trump wakes up tomorrow and says, "I campaigned on racism, xenophobia, fear of the other, paranoia, all that stuff. And my punishment I suffered was I got an enhanced majority in the Senate, and the two black candidates who everybody cared about lost." I mean, for him I think you head into 2020 —
COLBERT: It’s a vindication.
