Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton finally accepted the invitation to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night, weeks after her husband Bill Clinton did the same. The stop at the Ed Sullivan Theater is the latest in a string of late night appearances that the campaign has mounted for Clinton, and the first since the full day of testimony in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Thursday.
Clinton joked, “It’s my first visit to the Cathedral of Colbert!” remarking on the refurbished performing space previously occupied by David Letterman. When Colbert poked about Clinton’s recent birthday, the candidate pulled just shy of a full on Netflix-and-chill response. “We finally finished House Of Cards,” Clinton said.
As it was the first time that Colbert has interviewed Clinton since the change of platform to CBS late night, the elephant in the room of Colbert’s former “high-status idiot” alter ego was front and center. “I played a character who did not like you,” Colbert admitted with a sheepish laugh. Clinton didn’t hesitant: “Well I can say it now — it was mutual!”.
The conversation did not focus solely on niceties and Netflix queues, however; Colbert’s sharp political chops came out in the interview’s send half. He directly pushed onto Clinton, “Why do you want to be President?”.
“I want to build on the progress that we’ve been making and make it possible for more people in our country — especially young people — to live up to their God-given potential,” responded Clinton to roars from the crowd. She continued to give credit to the tenures of her husband and President Barack Obama for the work they’ve done, but made clear, “I’m running for my first term.”
Another big crowd pleaser came during the segment of the interview when Colbert pressed about the 2008 TARP bailout relief money to the financial institutions. “If you’re President, and the banks are failing, do we let them fail this time?”
Clinton unapologetically shot back: “Yes.” It seemed to catch Colbert off guard, and she continued, “I’m going to impose a risk fee on the banks if they engage in risky behavior… if you can’t manage it, it’s more likely to fail”.
Already on this campaign trail, Clinton has made multiple television appearances demonstrating her comedic chops. Before appearing in a sketch in the Saturday Night Live season premiere, she danced alongside Ellen DeGeneres.
Check out the above clip from CBS.
[featured image via screengrab]
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