To mark the one-week anniversary of James Comey’s firing at the Lilliputian hands of President Donald Trump—really, it’s felt like a month—The New York Times’ Michael Schmidt quoted a memo composed by the former FBI director following a February tête-à-tête with the commander-in-chief. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
And for those on the right angry-tweeting “fake news by the liberal media,” Schmidt is the same reporter that broke the news of Hillary Clinton’s private email server use.
Unfortunately for late-night television, the Comey memo bombshell broke early Monday evening after the shows had already started recording. So in lieu of addressing the latest scandal in full, Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who has emerged as Trump’s comedy enemy No. 1, broke down the craziness of the past week.
“Donald Trump admitted to firing the man in charge of investigating his Russian ties, then he met with Russian diplomats—a meeting that was arranged by Vladimir Putin and which we only saw because Russian photographers were in there to take photos, and at that meeting he admits he gave Russian diplomats classified information,” said Colbert.
“For perspective on this, let’s go live to presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin,” he added. “Doris, what’s your reaction?”
Colbert then threw to the famous “What’s happening!?” clip from the cult horror film Poltergeist.
While most Republicans—save John McCain—have remained relatively mum on the recent Trump administration madness, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) spoke out, saying that President Trump’s White House must immediately reverse the “downward spiral” it’s in.
“Corker wasn’t the only one angry about mishandling classified info,” chimed in Colbert. “Another top Republican weighed in, and he did not mince words.”
The comedian then cut to a clip of candidate Trump addressing his acolytes at a Sept. 6 rally in Greenville, North Carolina.
“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘confidential’ or ‘classified,’” Trump bellowed.
“I gotta say,” said Colbert, “and I don’t care if this is taken out of context: I completely agree with Donald Trump.”