Stephen Colbert Rips Tucker Carlson Claiming His Staff Committed Insurrection: ‘Shameful and Grotesque Insult’ to Jan. 6 Victims
Stephen Colbert hit back hard at those who’ve tried to dismiss the storming of the U.S. Capitol by comparing the detainment of his production team to the riots of January 6.
The Late Show host used the top of his Monday night show to address the “memorable” weekend his team had when they were arrested at the Longworth House Office Building on the U.S. Capitol complex last week. The group was arrested alongside Robert Smigel, the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, as they were working on a segment about the January 6 hearings.
Colbert addressed all of this as he told viewers “Democratic and Republican congresspeople agreed to talk to Triumph” for the bit.
“He’s a bipartisan puppy. He’s so neutral, he’s neutered,” said Colbert. “Triumph and my folks shot for two days in congressional offices across the street from the Capitol building. They went through security clearance, shot all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, invited into the offices of the congresspeople they were interviewing.”
Colbert explained that it was on Thursday when the team had finished their interviews, and “they were doing some last-minute puppetry and jokey make-em-ups” in the hallway when they were approached by Capitol police. The arrest didn’t surprise Colbert because “The Capitol Police are much more cautious than they were, say, 18 months ago — and for a very good reason. If you don’t know what that reason is, I know what news network you watch.”
After saying “everyone was very calm” and his team was released after their detainment, Colbert turned his attention toward Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and others who claimed that his team committed an “insurrection,” and demanded they be punished like the January 6 rioters. Colbert explained that his crew didn’t go inside the actual Capitol building, and he snarked at the “predictable” attacks by saying “an insurrection involves disrupting the lawful actions of Congress and howling for the blood of elected leaders, all to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
“They want to talk about something other than the January 6th hearings on the actual seditionist insurrection that led to the deaths of multiple people, and the injury of over 140 police officers,” Colbert said. “But drawing any equivalence between rioters storming our Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots and a cigar-chomping toy dog is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died. And it obscenely trivializes the service and the courage the Capitol Police showed on that terrible day.”
Watch above, via CBS.
