Stephen Colbert is back for 2021, and in his first episode of the year he took aim (again) at U.S. President Donald Trump.
Colbert jokingly riffed on the ending of 2020, pointing out that just because the year is over, it doesn’t mean our worldwide collective struggles are done. COVID-19 rages on, and the U.S. is grappling with a president trying to overturn the election results.
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“Turns out 2020 is dropping some bonus tracks,” Colbert joked.
The host then segued into Trump’s Georgia election phone call, when the president pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offence” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.
“This call is like if Watergate and the Ukraine scandal had a baby that they made on the Access Hollywood bus,” joked Colbert, referring to historical political scandals and Trump’s infamous 2005 recorded conversation with Billy Bush.
“When you’re a star they let you do it,” Colbert quipped.
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The host dissected Trump’s hour-long Georgia call, pointing out the president’s lack of evidence and incoherencies, as well as his insistence on using rally size as an indicator of support.
“Rally size does not decide who wins the election,” said Colbert bluntly, before joking, “that’s why on the 20th of January, we won’t be swearing in President BTS.”
On Wednesday beginning at 1 p.m. ET, Vice-President Mike Pence is to preside over a joint session of Congress. His role is to open the certificates of the electoral votes from each state and present them to the appointed “tellers” from the House and Senate in alphabetical order. At the end of the count, it falls to Pence to announce who won the 2020 election — Trump or Biden.
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You can watch ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ on weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.
— With files from The Associated Press
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