Stephen Colbert expressed regret Wednesday for saying President Trump’s mouth would be a good “cock holster” for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, remaining defiant against the president while seeking unity with those who found the insult homophobic.
Though Colbert didn’t refer to the remark specifically, he said he would “change a few words” — and left little doubt which ones he meant.
In a transcript provided to TheWrap by CBS before the airing of Wednesday’s “Late Show,” Colbert offered a message of love and inclusion: “I just want to say for the record, life is short, and anyone who expresses their love for another person, in their own way, is to me an American hero.” He said he hoped Trump would agree.
On Tuesday’s “Late Show,” Colbert did not address the tumult over the remark, which came during a lengthy tirade Monday in response to Trump insulting John Dickerson, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation.” The comments in Wednesday’s monologue were Colbert’s first on the matter.
In response to the “cock holster” joke, some Colbert fans expressed disappointment that the left-leaning host would make a joke that seemed to suggest, to them, that he thought there was anything wrong with a sex act between two men. Conservatives, meanwhile, fumed that liberals had a double standard for right-wingers and their own progressive icons. They said many conservative media personalities had been torn down for making remarks like Colbert’s.
The Colbert debate played well with conservative media outlets, especially since it came just days after the fall of right-wing icon Bill O’Reilly. He lost his job at Fox News after The New York Times reported that he and the network had paid out $13 million to women who accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment and other misconduct.
Here are Colbert’s comments, as provided by CBS:
Welcome to “The Late Show.” I’m your host, Stephen Colbert.
Still? I am still the host?
I’m still the host!!
Now, if you saw my monologue Monday, you know that I was a little upset at Donald Trump for insulting a friend of mine. So at the end of that monologue I had a few choice insults for the president in return. I don’t regret that. He, I believe, can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight.
So while I would do it again, I would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be. I’m not going to repeat the phrase, but I just want to say for the record, life is short, and anyone who expresses their love for another person, in their own way, is to me, an American hero. I think we can all agree on that. I hope even the president and I can agree on that. Nothing else. But, that.