Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made news Wednesday by refusing to deny a report that claimed he had called President Donald Trump a “fucking moron.” Before he did so, he spent several minutes “declaring his love” for his job and his boss, as Stephen Colbert put it Wednesday night.
But while Tillerson insisted that he has never considered stepping down from his cabinet post, the Late Show host reminded viewers what the Secretary of State said by in March about his decision to accept it. “I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job,” Tillerson said at the time. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.”
Colbert imagined Tillerson sitting down for dinner with his wife tonight and asking, “Honey, can you pass me the potatoes, or is there another moron you’d like me to work for?”
“As for his opinion of Donald Trump, Tillerson made that clear,” Colbert added, playing a clip of the Secretary of State dutifully calling his boss “smart” in front of reporters. “So that’s it, Rex Tillerson stood in front of the nation and vouched for Donald Trump’s intelligence. Which means he categorically denies the moron thing, right?”
After watching the video of Tillerson responding to that charge by saying he’s “not going to deal with petty stuff like that,” Colbert added, “Yeah, he totally said it.”