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Stephen Colbert Is Not Ready to Hail Jeff Flake as a Hero

The ‘Late Show’ host joked that the Republican senator is more like ‘Clark Kent who is retiring from the Senate so it’s OK if he stands up to Donald Trump.’

Stephen Colbert spent this past weekend in “recovery” mode following the emotional rollercoaster that was last week’s Senate Judiciary hearing for “Supreme Court nominee and toddler being dragged out the Gymboree Brett Kavanaugh,” as the Late Show host put it.

Despite Christine Blasey Ford’s “moving testimony,” Colbert said it “looked like Kavanaugh was going to sail through.” But that’s when “retiring Republican senator and man with ‘what have I become’ face Jeff Flake” stepped in.

Sen. Flake (R-AZ) initially put out a statement Friday morning saying he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, but after he was confronted by survivors of sexual assault in a Capitol Hill elevator, he said he would agree to vote Kavanaugh out of committee only with the guarantee of an FBI investigation into the allegations against him.

“I don’t understand how that happened,” Colbert said. “Didn’t he read the congressional safety signs? ‘In case of protest, take the stairs.’”

The host noted that before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted early Friday afternoon, Flake huddled with his friend Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) in a large phone booth to discuss the decision.

“Jeff Flake may have gone into that phone booth as Clark Kent,” Colbert said, “but he came out as Clark Kent who is retiring from the Senate so it’s OK if he stands up to Donald Trump.”

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Matt WilsteinSenior Editor

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