Stephen Colbert apologized on Wednesday to National Review writer Jonah Goldberg after saying the conservative was a Trump ally. Goldberg — as followers of his work and his prolific Twitter account will know — is one of the web’s most vocal anti-Trump conservative’s working today.
“I just want to issue a rare correction. On last night’s show, I described this guy right here, conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, as one of Trump’s allies,” said Colbert on his late-night show.
“He is not actually a Trump ally. He is, in fact, a very staunch Never Trumper. He’s been very public about it, and we here at ‘The Late Show’ regret many things and I wanted to extend portion of that regret to Jonah Goldberg and Jonah Goldberg’s family.”
Colbert then got jokey, suggesting that the term “Trump ally” was comparable to a racial slur.
“To many Americans, the label Trump ally is a hurtful slur I’m surprised CBS even allows me to say that on air,” he said. “It’s the sort of divisive hate speech that we are trying to get rid of in our national discourse, like ‘Cuck’ and ‘Papa John.’ So, Mr. Goldberg, please accept this bouquet of regrets.”
On his show the day before, Colbert laced into Goldberg, who, in addition to labeling him a Trump ally, also said he looked like a creeper at a magic convention who invited you to their hotel room.
Goldberg mocked the moment on Twitter an issued a longer reply on the National Review.
“Sometimes you’ve got to bend the facts for the sake of a really, really good joke,” he said. “Or, in this case, any joke.”