Rocio Mateos
A lot has been going on in the White House in the past week, and Stephen Colbert, as usual, has no plans on holding back. He took his ‘Late Show’ on Monday to address issues like Trump leaking classified secrets to Russia, doing his own press conferences, firing FBI director James Comey and more.
Colbert started the show saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got good news and bad news.” The bad news was that, according to The Washington Post, Donald Trump has shared classified information with Russian diplomats. The good news? Trump found the leaker.
It was revealed on Monday that President Trump had a meeting last week with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in The White House, in which he revealed “code-word information” – meaning that some words should be replaced by others, like Colbert’s example, “The squirrel is in the basket… The idiot is in the oval”.
The information relayed was part of an intelligence-sharing arrangement “considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government,” the Washington Post says.
Well, that didn’t mean much to Trump. Colbert addressed that “going off script and describing details about an Islamic State terrorist threat” is not as surprising as the fact that Trump has a script.
Colbert also talked about Comey after being fired and Trump’s threats
Colbert mentioned that during a private dinner, Trump asked for Comey’s “loyalty”. Instead, the former director of the FBI offered his “honesty”. Colbert rolled a clip of an interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro in which the journalist asked Trump if he did the request and if that wouldn’t be inappropriate. Trump answered that he didn’t do it, but it wouldn’t be a bad question to ask. Of course, Colbert made fun of this asseveration.
The TV host then addressed a tweet of the President in which he claims to own tapes of the conversation between him and Comey, followed by a clip of a press conference given by press secretary Sean Spicer on his very strong position on the subject: “The President has nothing further to add on that,” and remained tight-lipped about the actual meaning of the tweet.
Spicer insisted that the president’s position was very clear. “No, we know he’s screwing the country but he hasn’t made it clear what his position is – is it missionary? Is it doggy style?” Colbert joked.
Trump may start doing his own press conferences and Colbert for sure would enjoy that
Colbert also talked about some other topics mentioned during the Fox News interview, like the contradictions between what Trump says and what his press team declares. Pirro says that maybe Trump’s pace is too fast and is hard to keep a track on him, to which he responds, “Yes.” “So what do we do about that?” Pirro asked. Trump replied that then it’s better to not do press conferences unless he has them every two weeks and he does them himself.
Colbert commented in a sarcastic tone: “Oh, sir. Please don’t do your own press conferences. They’re always such fountains of eloquence and bastions of dignity. What would we make jokes about the next day?”
He then turned his attention to Spicers, as rumors continue to swirl that he will be fired soon. He finished with two requests for the President: “Donald Trump, if you’re watching—first of all, you’re a bad president, please resign. Second, please, please, please don’t take Sean Spicer from us. Where am I going to get my daily dose of veiled anger and condescension?”
On Tuesday night, Colbert reviewed more details about Comey and the reunion with the Russians
Of course, Colbert was not going to give Trump a break on such polemic topics. He took his show Tuesday night to talk about some more details about the president firing James Comey, his reunion with the Russian diplomatics and how his press team has been handling the situation.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no getting around it,” Colbert said. “There’s a huge scandal out of the White House – no, not that scandal, or the one before that, or the one tomorrow. Although technically they’re all part of one big scandal stroganoff.” Then he reacted to the breaking news that Trump asked Comey back in February to shut down the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The New York Times broke the news, detailing that Trump insisted Comey to “let it go,” which Colbert very appropriately complemented with a clip of Disney’s ‘Frozen.’ “That is definitely obstruction of something. I can’t put my finger on what it’s obstruction of. It’s obstruction of just … a second, I’ll think of it,” the TV host commented.
Tonight: Stephen reacts to breaking news that the President asked James Comey to drop his investigation of Michael Flynn. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/z7RUIWpOHM
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 17, 2017
He moved on in his monolog. “You know the old saying ‘Elections have consequences?’ Right now we are knee-deep in a steaming pile of consequence,” he said referring to Trump giving away confidential information on national security and ISIS.
Colbert deduced from the Washington Post article that Trump was just showing off in front of his guests, telling the Russians, “I got great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day…”
“Well, yeah, you’re the president. It’s the job,” Colbert commented. He then recalled that the only issue is not who Trump gave the information to, but also who did he get it from. The answer? Allies in Israel. The problem? Trump is scheduled to visit Israel next week. “That is really going to be one awkward state dinner,” he said.
He then rolled a clip of McMaster, the National Security Adviser, denying that Trump did such thing. “It didn’t happen,” he said. Moments later, Trump contradicted the statement, tweeting that as president, he has the right to share that kind of details with Russia.
As for how the White House press has been dealing with all this? The Deadly Beast reported they are literally hiding, giving answers like “Do not ask me about how this looks, we all know how this looks.”
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