On Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert lost it.
Casually seated next to a bottle of champagne, The Late Show host began his monologue by saying, “Oh, what a strange, troubling world some people would like this to be. Yesterday, I was pouring champagne to toast the administration, and today”— before smashing the bottle, holding up its broken end, and yelling—“I will cut you if you come near me, because there’s some crazy shit going on out there!”
Colbert was angry about Trump’s “baseless charges of non-existent fraud” in the 2020 presidential election, as well as his instructions to his staff to block any and all cooperation with President-elect Biden’s transition team.
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On top of that, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other Republican politicians, and the Trump bootlickers on Fox News are all echoing the president’s dangerous and entirely unfounded claims that the election results are illegitimate. The Washington Post quoted top Republican officials as saying, “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change.”
“Should our entire political system be arranged to salve the wounded feelings of the guy who lost?” Colbert asked, before addressing Pompeo’s statement that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” (Pompeo repeated the statement later in the day to Fox News’ Bret Baier.)
“No. Wrong. First, there won’t be a second Trump administration unless Tiffany wins in 2032 with a slogan, ‘Make America Make America Great Again Again.’ Secondly, nothing this administration has done has ever been smooth. He couldn’t even manage a smooth transition from stage to ground level. Third, your guy lost. Fourth, if that was a joke, you just bombed so hard you violated the Geneva Convention. This is dangerous! He’s the Secretary of State! He represents America to other countries, who just got the message that maybe the guy who lost isn’t going to leave.”
“You know all those dictators you visited, Mr. Secretary?” added Colbert, throwing to photos of Pompeo kissing the rings of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman. “That wasn’t supposed to be an internship!”
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