Colbert Presses Mark Esper About Waiting to Spill Trump’s Secrets in Tell-All: ‘Doesn’t That Seem Like You’re Trying to Sell Books?’

Stephen Colbert sat down with Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper during his first show back, pressing him for waiting to share revelations from Donald Trump’s presidency in a book.

“Given you knew all of this, why did you wait to put it in a book?” Colbert asked Esper on Monday’s Late Show. “Doesn’t that seem like you’re trying to sell books as opposed to protect the country?”

Colbert then pointed to Esper’s “circuit breaker” defense, as Esper has claimed he stayed in the administration to protect the country and stop Trump from his impulses. 

“What does that say to you about the state of our country that it’s just this one man in this position pushing back against the crazy and that you can’t be truthful to the American people?” Colbert added. “Because the founders imagined that an informed public would save our country, not one guy, however well-meaning.”

Esper noted that there were other members of Trump’s cabinet that were wary of the former president.

Colbert then highlighted that none of those people felt they could tell the country about what was happening behind closed doors throughout Trump’s presidency.

“But where are we as a country if you can’t tell us that?” Colbert asked. “We deserve to know that to make our choice. And I take your rationale, but where are we as a country if you can’t tell us that?”

Esper explained that he would have been fired “on the spot” if he had shared any information in his book while still working for Trump.

Later in the show, Colbert sat down with Judd Apatow, who is promoting his new documentary on comedian George Carlin, entitled George Carlin’s American Dream, 

Colbert asked Apatow if he thinks Carlin would like Esper, prompting Apatow to say, “I don’t think George Carlin would like Mark Esper.”

“Because Carlin’s whole idea was that people with money manipulate the whole system,” Apatow continued. “So if somebody knows that Trump is a maniac, you would think the day after he gets fired is the day to go, ‘Hey, he wanted to shoot all the George Floyd protesters in the legs.’ But he waits a year to write a book and makes money.”

“That was George Carlin’s whole thing,” Apatow added. “He just thought, ‘They’re not looking out for you.’”

Watch above, via CBS.

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