The situation in Oregon suddenly spread to California last night, when an armed group calling itself “The Freedom Doers” took over Andy Richter’s lectern on the Conan O’Brien show. But as they came to realize, they didn’t really think this whole thing through.
Larry Wilmore looked at the contrast between Cleveland, where a black 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, was shot and killed by police — and Oregon, where an armed militia group (with real guns) has been able to take over the wildlife refuge, but authorities are hoping to resolve the situation peacefully. “Showing restraint is the right thing to do,” Larry said, “but in all cases!!!”
Trevor Noah highlighted the New Year’s resolutions of all the Republican candidates — which were, of course, delivered on Fox News. But the best part was the New Year’s countdown by frontrunner Donald Trump: “And if you think about it, that actually makes sense. Donald Trump is basically the human embodiment of Times Square. Yeah, they’re both old, flashy, and full of garbage. And New Yorkers can’t understand what everyone else sees in them.”
Stephen Colbert examined the news that Jeb Bush sought to obtain a trademark on his signature “Jeb!” campaign logo, but the application has now lapsed. “That exclamation point really gets your attention — away from what his last name is.” But now the campaign can explore other punctuation options — like maybe “Jeb?”
Seth Meyers took a serious look at the state of the GOP field, and how there’s some reason to think Trump’s poll numbers might be softer than they appear, depending on his politically alienated supporters to actually show up.
