Shocking no one, Stephen Colbert doesn’t buy Donald Trump’s explanation for why he didn’t wear a mask during his visit this week to an Arizona mask factory. On Wednesday’s “The Late Show,” Colbert compared Trump’s behavior to an arsonist version of Smokey the Bear.
As everyone by now knows, on Tuesday Trump toured a mask manufacturing facility owned by industrial products manufacturer Honeywell, located in Phoenix. The visit is best known for the bizarre footage where Trump’s conversation with a factory official is drowned out by the Guns N’ Roses rendition of the song “Live and Let Die,” which was blasted over the loudspeakers. But more notably, Trump didn’t wear a mask despite numerous signs noting that they were mandatory.
Wednesday morning, Trump claimed that he had in fact wore a mask “backstage,” whatever that means, but didn’t wear one on the factory floor because, Trump claimed, “I asked, specifically, the head of Honeywell, ‘Should I wear a mask?’ And he said, ‘Well, you don’t need one in this territory.’” Again, the factory visibly had multiple signs noting that masks are mandatory.
“Did the president of Honeywell really say ‘in this territory’?” Colbert said after playing the clip. “Was he giving you a tour of the Yukon? And come on, you’re the president. Why are you blaming the factory owner when there are signs everywhere in the factory saying ‘Please wear your mask at all times’?”
“And you’re supposed to be setting an example,” Colbert continued. “Do the right thing. You don’t see Smokey the Bear saying this,” at which point the scene changed to a cartoon in which the famous U.S. Forest Service mascot turns out to be a firebug.
“Only you can prevent forest fires,” the fake version of Smokey, called “Smoldery,” says. “But the fire doesn’t want me to protect the trees. The flames, they talk to me. They tell me to do things,” at which point Smokey lit a fire and cackled with laughter.
Watch the whole clip below:
Trump claims he didn’t need a mask at the Honeywell factory. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/mFbkPVdj83
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 7, 2020