Stephen Colbert Sounds Off on E. Jean Carroll’s Trump Rape Allegation: ‘Specific, Credible and Terrible’

“Here’s something you did not see discussed on TV a lot this weekend,” Stephen Colbert said nearly 10 minutes into his Late Show monologue Monday night. “The president of the United States was accused of sexual assault—again.” As the audience jeered, the host joked, “Trump is really repeating his 2016 strategy.” 

Colbert was of course referring to the new allegation from author E. Jean Carroll, who says in her new memoir that Donald Trump raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-‘90s. 

“These accusations are specific, they are credible and they are terrible,” Colbert said. “And they make Carroll the 22nd woman to step forward. 22 women! That should raise alarms.” 

“Let me put it this way,” he continued. “If one person in your life accused you of pooping in their kitchen sink, I could be persuaded to believe that that is a lie. But if over the course of the 73 years of your life, 22 separate people came forward with detailed accounts of times you had pooped in their kitchen sinks, I’m going to start to think you’re a sink pooper. There’s no difference here.” 

From there, Colbert moved on to Trump’s blanket denials of the incident (taped before he called Carroll “not my type”), including the analogy the president drew between himself and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“To which Brett Kavanaugh replied, ‘Stop helping!’” Colbert joked before adding as Trump, “‘No Brett, you and I are exactly the same. Besides, I couldn’t have been in that Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. I was at Beach Week, boofing with P.J. and Squi.’”