Fresh off his second consecutive Emmy nomination for The Late Show, Stephen Colbert wasted no time digging into the House Judiciary Committee hearing that captivated Washington on Thursday. In fact, he spent his entire monologue on it.
“It was a parliamentary smackdown,” the host said of the intense back and forth between FBI agent Peter Strzok and House Republicans. “The Capitol dome became the Thunderdome.” Colbert reviewed some of the anti-Trump texts that Strzok sent during the 2016 campaign to his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, including one that read, in all caps, “WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY…??!?!”
“I don’t know, but hopefully Robert Mueller will tell us soon,” Colbert answered, prompting a huge cheer from his live audience.
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“Republicans see these texts as proof of a vast conspiracy within the FBI to stop Donald Trump from being elected president,” he continued. “And here’s how devious and how deep they went: In order to keep it a secret, they let him get elected president!”
From there, Colbert presented his official coverage of “Red Hot Congressional Strzok-Fest 2018.” He covered all the most heated moments from the testimony, including the probing questions from “South Carolina Congressman and Supercuts vampire, Trey Gowdy.” The host also parodied the moment when the hearing completely devolved into a shouting match between members of Congress, culminating with, “Point of order, fuck you, point of order, no fuck you!” He added, “This is the first time I’ve seen Congress as frustrated with Congress as we are.”
After showing Gowdy attempt to intimidate Strzok, Colbert said, “Wow, that was intense! It was like A Few Good Men but with even fewer good men.” But that was nothing compared to Strzok’s defiant comeback. “I was wondering why Gowdy was slumped so far down in his chair. Turns out it’s because he had his ass handed to him.”
“So, it looks like what happened here is that Congress hauled in an FBI agent in an effort to undermine the integrity of law enforcement and protect the president from being investigated for potentially criminal acts,” Colbert concluded. Or as Trey Gowdy would say, he said, cutting to yet another clip of the congressmen reading Strzok’s texts, “OMG, this is terrifying!”
