Stephen Colbert thinks the Donald Trump presidency is pretty unsettling, but on Monday’s episode of “The Late Show” he found a silver lining of sorts by linking some recent, falsehood-heavy Trump statements to a self-inflicted Golden Globes PR headache.
On Monday, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was heavily criticized after it announced nominations for the 2020 Golden Globes, and no women were nominated for Best Director. Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, declared that the FBI had ample justification to investigate links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, rejecting Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory that he was unfairly targeted.
After the IG’s report was released, Trump repeated that conspiracy theory in a statement, saying that the FBI investigation was an “an attempted overthrow” of the government.
“So you’re saying the deep state was trying to overthrow your government when they started the Russia investigation in July of 2016, before you were elected?” Colbert asked during his monologue Monday night.
“That’s how deep this goes,” Colbert continued in his impression-of-Trump-accent. “They were trying to overthrow the government before I was even in it. That way, Barack Obama would no longer be in office to graciously allow a peaceful transition of power. I’m telling ya, I’m never gonna make that mistake.”
Colbert noted that “nothing Trump talked about today about the report is actually in the report; he is once again just naming an alternate reality he wants to exist. So on one level this is fun, and ‘ha ha ha.’ But it’s also really dangerous because why have an election if next Nov. 3 he can just say…” Colbert switched back into his Trump accent to add, “I just saw the election results. I won all 50 states, plus Manitoba. Thank you for your service, you patriotic beavers.”
“Well, two can play at that game, sir,” Colbert said, then faced the camera directly. “Hey, did you hear what’s in the IG report? It’s much worse than any of us imagined. Trump confessed to colluding with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and stopping the Golden Globes from nominating any women for best director.”
Watch the whole clip below:
TONIGHT: How will Trump respond to the IG report that says the FBI opened a lawful investigation into Trump and Russia? By making things up. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/h0aNKeNVnD
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) December 10, 2019