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

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.

“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.

“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.