As the Trump administration continues to defy court orders and makes plans to deport American citizens, Stephen Colbert informed his audience on Tuesday that America is not on its way to a dictatorship — it’s already there.
During his monologue, Colbert first made fun of the fact that the president and his team initially tried to claim that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported by mistake, due to an “administrative error.” As the audience booed the move, Colbert offered some mocking grace.
“We’ve all done it. No, come on,” he said. “Folks, have some patience. We’ve all done it. You mean to send the email to just one guy in accounting, and instead, you kidnap a man and send him to a prison in El Salvador.”
Colbert explained that the Supreme Court didn’t buy into the administration’s explanation of “whoopsie gulag” and ordered Trump and his team to reverse the deportation. Instead, they ignored that order, admitting it was never a mistake and arguing that they couldn’t undo it even if they wanted to.
Naturally, the late night host had a few more jokes about the whole situation, but the failure of checks and balances prompted Colbert to get blunt, summing up the current state of things.
“The point is, Trump wants to arrest people without due process, in defiance of the Supreme Court, and also wants to include American citizens,” he said. “We’re not on our way to a dictatorship. We’re on the ship with old tater d–k.”
As the audience applauded, Colbert added that standing up to Trump on this shouldn’t come down to which party you’re part of: “Regardless of your politics, those aren’t your politics! The only people who thrive in a dictatorship are the dictator, and the fine folks at Carl’s Unmarked Windowless Van and Head-Sized Bag Depot.”
You can watch Stephen Colbert’s full CBS monologue in the video above.
The post Stephen Colbert Says America Isn’t on Its Way to a Dictatorship: ‘We’re on the Ship!’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
