Stephen Colbert reopens The Late Show to cover the government shutdown

Back from a holiday hiatus, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert picked up right where it left off.

We are now more than a week into 2019. Everything still feels new, hopefully. But perhaps you could still sense something was missing. If it was your nightly dose of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, then you’re in luck. He’s back and ready to take on 2019.

Colbert spent his first monologue of 2019 examining the government shutdown. Around a quarter of the government has been shut down for the past two weeks due in part to President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion for border security. It certainly is the biggest story in politics at the moment and these type of stories have become a specialty of Colbert and The Late Show.

The commentary on the shutdown from Colbert tried to explain the motivation for Trump backing off his initial plans to sign a bill preventing the shutdown. Not surprisingly, it was the influence of Fox News and other conservative media outlets that apparently got Trump to reverse course.

Moving on from Trump listening to Fox News, Colbert hits on one of his favorite topics: revealing a Trump lie. Apparently none of the former presidents have expressed regret over not building a wall to President Trump. President Barack Obama does not have a 10-foot wall around his house. It’s a bold move to make that up considering how easy it can be fact-check but then again, it’s a classic from the Trump playbook.

This clip from The Late Show shows us a couple things. First, the government shutdown may not be ending anytime soon. Second, Stephen Colbert was ready to get back to business in 2019 and showed no sign of rust. There is a reason he topped the late night ratings in 2018 and is primed to do it again. Colbert’s humor may be the only silver lining if the shutdown continues.