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

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.