On Wednesday, the Time Warner Center in New York was evacuated after a pipe bomb was mailed to the CNN newsroom. Similar explosive devices were shipped to the Obamas, the Clintons, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), former AG Eric Holder, and Democratic megadonor George Soros. The one thing these victims have in common, in addition to their liberal bona fides, is that they’ve frequently found themselves on the receiving end of verbal attacks by President Trump.
That night comedian Stephen Colbert, whose Ed Sullivan Theater is mere blocks from CNN, opened The Late Show by addressing the mail-bombing assassination attempts.
He first read a statement issued by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said, “We condemn the attempted violent attacks recently made against President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and other public figures.” Colbert then plugged in his own addition: “P.S. Lock her up. Lock her up.” (Sanders proceeded to attack CNN later in the day, saying, “You chose to attack and divide.”)
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Colbert then read Vice President Mike Pence’s statement, which he called “a nice sentiment”—one that was so nice, the president decided to initially use it as his own:
“First of all, we fact-checked that one and it doesn’t work out: You have no whole heart,” said Colbert. “And second, you’re the president! There has been an attempted attack on two—two!—previous presidents today. This is the one time you can’t think of your own tweet?!”
The late-night host then set up a clip of Trump’s statement addressing the bombing attempts—only to play a montage of the president’s attacks on Democrats at rallies: “The Democrats are truly the party of crime…” “[The Democrats] want to destroy people. These are evil people!”
After a wink and a smile, Colbert then aired a portion of the president’s actual statement, wherein he said “we have to unify, we have to come together,” calling it a “bipartisan” message.
“Both sides must come together with respect, be they Republicans or crooked, lying Soros-bought Dems working for the enemy of the people CNN, the Caravan News Network,” offered Colbert, imitating Trump. “Body-slam!”
“Of course,” the comedian continued, “when news breaks like this, everyone’s rushing to get information out and mistakes can happen—like this mistake from Fox News.”
He then put up a since-deleted breaking-news alert from Fox News that read, “Suspicious package sent to CNN contained ‘some kind’ of ‘white power.’”
“An honest mistake,” joked Colbert, before reading out a fake “tweet” from Fox News: “White House committed to finding perpetrator, vows to do everything they Klan.”
“We made one of those up,” he cracked.
