US comedian Stephen Colbert has given a passionate speech denouncing Donald Trump and urged Americans to “stay cool” amid rising tensions over voter fraud.
In an eight-minute-long monologue posted on Twitter, Colbert said the president had been acting like a “sad, frightened fraud” after alleging the US election had been rigged.
On Thursday, major US networks stopped broadcasting the president’s White House briefing because he made a slew of unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud.
Networks such as ABC, CBS and NBC all pulled away from covering Trump’s claims. MSNBC also interrupted the president, but the Fox News Channel and CNN aired the president’s address in full.
Hosting the latest episode of A Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS dressed in black, Colbert said: “If you didn’t know if Joe Biden was getting close to 270, Donald Trump just provided all the truth you will ever need.”
Colbert, upset and needing to clear his throat, added: “We all know he was going to do this. What I didn’t know was that it would hurt so much.
“For him to cast a dark shadow on our most basic right from the briefing room in the White House, our White House, not his, that is devastating.”
Colbert accused Trump of “tearing up” any “shred of decency in the office of the president of the United States”.
“Everything he did is in some way presidential, unless – unless every single person rejects what he just did,” he said.
“Right now something unpredictable needs to happen: Republicans need to speak up. All of them. Because for evil to succeed, all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing.”
Stephen Colbert gives passionate monologue slamming Donald T
Colbert then slammed Senate Majority leader and Republican Mitch McConnell for refusing to condemn Trump’s comments.
Refusing to show Trump’s White House statement, Colbert decided to show a clip of a Nevada voting registrar being shouted at by a Trump supporter live on air instead.
“Joe Gloria took a deep breath and did his job which is what we should all do,” Colbert said. “Just, stay cool.”
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