Stephen Colbert Condemns Trump for Doing Putin’s Bidding in Syria
The “Late Show” host tore into the authoritarian-friendly POTUS for abandoning our Kurdish allies in Syria—exactly what Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan wanted all along.
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
On Wednesday evening, one day after John Lithgow debuted his unhinged Rudy Giuliani impersonation, Stephen Colbert kicked off The Late Show with a series of digs at—you guessed it—Donald J. Trump.
“I tell you one thing, you have got to hand it to the guy—he is willing to call his most disastrous blunders his greatest victories,” offered Colbert. “Case in point: Trump’s complete betrayal of our Kurdish allies after his phone call with Turkish president Erdogan. This is so despised on both sides of the aisle that the House voted to condemn Trump’s actions 354-60. That is the sort of bipartisanship you only see in, like, naming a post office.”
“It could be argued that getting out of the endless wars in the Middle East is not a bad thing, but the way Trump did this, make no mistake who wins here: his buddy Vladimir Putin, who yesterday met with Erdogan to carve up Syria like a Christmas shawarma.”
Indeed, Putin and Erdogan met on Tuesday in Sochi, where they announced a 10-point plan to shape Syria—one that excluded the U.S., after President Trump effectively abandoned YPG forces, America’s Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS, thus allowing his authoritarian pals to run roughshod over the region.
And Trump, as is his wont, took a victory lap of sorts following the Putin-Erdogan Syria pact—even though the president’s actions have cost the lives of hundreds of our Kurdish allies and led to the escape of hundreds of ISIS fighters captured by the Kurds, with some foreign-policy experts fearing it could lead to a strengthening of the terrorist group.
“Today’s announcement validates our course of action with Turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned, and now people are saying, ‘Wow, what a great outcome, congratulations,’” proclaimed Trump during a presser.
Enter Colbert, mimicking Trump, “Yes, a lot of people are saying, ‘Wow, what a great outcome, congratulations—specifically, Erdogan and Putin.’ They keep saying it to each other and giggling.”
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