It’s been more than two months since Stephen Colbert brought out his Hunger Games-inspired character to send off the last remaining rival to Donald Trump on the Republican side of the 2016 race. And while we have known who the general election candidate will be for some time now, Bernie Sanders finally made it official on Tuesday when he less than enthusiastically endorsed Hillary Clinton.
“Sadly, today, we lost the bravest tribute of all,” Colbert said. “A man we actually lost months ago, but who courageously kept pretending not to be dead.”
The host said it reminded him of “another man who forced himself to endorse a coronation in hopes of healing a rift” before cutting to a clip of Ned Stark declaring Joffrey Baratheon the true heir to the Iron Throne.
“You’ll notice the slogan on the podium was ‘Stronger Together,’ because Bernie rejected Hillary’s original idea: ‘It’s about fucking time,’” Colbert added. And since Sanders was a “worthy adversary” of the elite, the host proceeded to eat the Vermont senator’s name in caviar.
“From the very beginning, Sanders’ campaign was remarkable,” Colbert said when he was finished. “The first remark, of course, ‘Who is Bernie Sanders?’ Because back in April of 2015, Bernie announced his candidacy to a tiny crowd, and half of them thought he was the instructor for tai chi in the park.”
He marveled at the fact that Sanders “somehow became popular with his platform of giving everyone everything they want” and in the process “excited young voters with his pure sex appeal.”
“In the end,” Colbert concluded, “Bernie received over 12 million votes and won 22 states, and he stayed in the race so long after being mathematically eliminated, that he also won the state of denial.”