Stephen Colbert Takes Down Kevin McCarthy With Not-So-Subtle Riddle

Stephen Colbert roasted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for getting pelted “with rotten garbage” as he failed to become House speaker for a third-straight day on Thursday.

McCarthy has lost 11 votes for speaker this week — the most rounds of voting that the House has needed to pick a speaker since 1860.

Colbert, who dedicated his entire monologue to the chaos in the House, resorted to a riddle to mock McCarthy’s hopeful remark that he crawls before he walks and walks before he runs .

“Oh, that reminds me of the ancient riddle: ‘What walks on four legs in the mornings, two legs in the afternoon and is never going to be speaker of the House?’” Colbert quipped.

The “Late Night ” host, who joked that losing is McCarthy’s “kink,” later attacked the Republican for visiting former President Donald Trump two weeks after he called on him to “accept his share of responsibility ” for the Jan. 6 riot.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway for his personal political power,” Colbert said.

“He made this calculation: I can do the right thing or I could be speaker. And now he gets neither.”

Watch the rest of Colbert’s monologue, including his reveal of an AI-generated McCarthy portrait, below.