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Late-night TV slams Joe Biden, cheers Kamala Harris after Democratic debate

Former Vice President Joe Biden, left, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Kamala Harris were among the participants in Thursday night's Democratic debate.
(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)
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As the second round of this week’s Democratic debates came to a close, no one was safe from late-night talk show hosts — especially not former Vice President Joe Biden.

Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers all went live on Thursday night to mine fresh material from the participants, commenting on every water-cooler moment — from Sen. Kamala Harris’ famous “food fight” line to Biden’s toothy grin.

“Tonight was the second Democratic debate, or, as nine candidates called it, ‘Operation Destroy Joe Biden,’” Fallon joked on “The Tonight Show.”

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And the swings at Biden kept coming.

“I hope they took dental photographs of Biden during this debate because they’re gonna need a reference to put his teeth back in,” Colbert quipped on “The Late Show.”

The comedians attributed Biden’s stumble primarily to Harris, spotlighting her move to confront the former vice president on the topic of race. While discussing inequality, Harris brought up Biden’s history of working with segregationists, putting him on the defensive.

“She just pulled an M. Night Shyamalan,” “The Daily Show’s” Noah said. “She was black the whole movie. I didn’t see that coming. Did you see that coming? That move was so brutal on Joe Biden, for the first time, I wanted to give him a massage.”

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Another candidate who received attention was breakout meme star Marianne Williamson, whose comments about love turned into fuel on the late-night circuit.

“Then there was Marianne Williamson, who rose up out of a lake under a full moon to be at the debate,” Meyers joked on “The Late Show.”

Others poked fun at Williamson’s thoughts on “plans” and President Trump.

“He didn’t win by saying he had a plan,” Williamson said during the debate. “He won by simply saying, ‘Make America great again.’ ”

“Yes, we need to go deeper than these superficial, carefully thought out political policies,” Colbert quipped. “Has anyone tried fixing America with crystals and bee pollen? Yoga?”

Even the moderators made it into the monologues for their inability to keep the candidates from speaking over time and out of turn, despite their repeated attempts to keep some answers to a couple words.

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“Uh, bite me, Chuck?,” Colbert directed at moderator Chuck Todd. “Oh, sorry, that’s three. I apologize.”

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