“Last night was a monumental election that fundamentally shifts the balance of power in Washington, D.C., for years to come,” Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday night’s Late Show. “And it is not the top story.”
That’s because the day after the Democrats took back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, President Donald Trump finally fired his attorney general Jeff Sessions.
“Now, there’s some confusion, among stupid people, as to whether Sessions was fired or he resigned,” Colbert added. As he explained, Sessions did submit a letter a resignation, but it began, “At your request, I am submitting my resignation.” CNN reported on Wednesday that it was Chief of Staff John Kelly and not the president himself who asked Sessions to step down.
“None of this is exactly a huge shock,” Colbert said. “For over a year now, Trump has blamed Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, which led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.”
“You can’t blame Sessions for recusing himself,” the host told Trump. “It’s the only thing that’s good that he’s ever done. It’s like hating Lou Bega for ‘Mambo No. 5.’”
Then, after reading off a series of insults Trump has reportedly used to describe Sessions over the past two years, including “Dumb Southerner” and “Mr. Magoo,” Colbert said that “perhaps most humiliating of all” he called him “a member of my administration.”