SHADY

Stephen Colbert Rips Trump for Congratulating Putin on ‘Sham Election’

“You’ve got to give Putin credit,” the ‘Late Show’ host said. “He did win by the most made-up votes.”

Unlike our president, Stephen Colbert has no illusions about the nature of this past weekend’s presidential election in Russia.

“On Sunday, Vladimir Putin won an election rigged to prop up a dangerous strongman who is threatening Western democracy,” the Late Show host said in his monologue Tuesday night. “That requires a strong response. So Donald Trump called him up to say, ‘Attaboy!’”

It was reported earlier in the day that Trump congratulated Putin on his victory in a personal phone call, going against the specific advice of his foreign policy advisers.

“You’ve got to give Putin credit,” Colbert said. “He did win by the most made-up votes. I believe the final tally was 144 million to everyone else is dead.”

“But a lot of people were not happy Trump was giving the thumbs up to a murderous dictator for winning a sham election,” the host continued. Among those critics of the move was Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who said that Trump “insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime.”

As Colbert showed, a bipartisan group of senators was left speechless when reporters asked them about Trump’s call to Putin in a press conference. He imitated their reaction by standing silently for a few seconds before yelling, “smoke bomb!” and making his escape from the stage.

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Matt WilsteinSenior Editor

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