WASHINGTON — Several late night hosts across the nation delivered emotional pleas for leaders to adopt more stringent gun control measures following a Texas elementary school shooting that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead.
Jimmy Kimmel delivered a powerful monologue in the wake of the Uvalde elementary school shooting, lambasting legislators for lack of action.
"Here we are again on another day of mourning in this country. Once again we grieve for the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed," Kimmel tearfully said in a monologue for Wednesday's show taped without an audience.
The late night host accused "cowardly leaders" of "listening to the NRA."
On Tuesday night, James Corden and Stephen Colbert both taped segments to address the horrific tragedy.
“I don’t know what has to happen to change things here,” Corden said. “I am constantly shocked by the number of people who must think this is an OK byproduct to never make meaningful changes to gun laws. It doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t reflect the country that I think America is, the America I’ve always admired. You have a problem, you solve it. You’re on the forefront of medicine, of technology, of innovation. When there’s a world war, you are the ones we turn to. Yet on this issue, America is one of the most backward places in the world.”
“While we can add our prayers for the dead,” Colbert said before pausing for several seconds, “there is nothing that can ever be said that can approach the immeasurable grief of those families.”
He went on to call on leaders to show "courage" to prevent this from ever happening again.
During Wednesday's show, Colbert called for a "simple, if extremely difficult solution: reduce the number of guns."
Meanwhile, "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" aired a slate before Tuesday's episode that stated: "Tonight's show was taped prior to today's tragic news in Texas."