In a sad synchronicity, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert had a surprise trip to New Zealand in the works, having planned to take the late show on the road for a week starting Wednesday. Following Friday’s Christchurch mosque shootings, which left 50 New Zealanders dead, Colbert canceled the trip. On Monday, in addition to ruminating on the terrorist attacks themselves and President’s Trump’s failure to addresses white supremacy as he does in the video above, the Last Show host discussed the show’s plan to visit the country at a later date.
“I just love that country. If you’ve never been, go,†Colbert said, according to Variety. “The people there are unbelievably kind and welcoming. Obviously we’re not going to go down now but we hope to go down in the future and again, we want to say to everyone down there how sad and heartbroken we are for what that country is going through. For one of the hallmarks of New Zealand, and one of the things I have always thought of, is it’s this wonderful, isolated country so far away from the problems we take for granted here north of the equator.â€
Said Colbert, “I pray with all my heart that they take the action down there and have the courage to take action that we seem to lack up here in the United States. Good luck to them and blessings and peace to the Muslim community there and everywhere in the world.â€