The presenter of “The Late Show” even made a reference to the failed “Cats” film.
Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” devoted his whole opening monologue to the issue in Afghanistan, where the withdrawal of US troops resulted in a swift takeover by Taliban hardliners.
And he attempted to break through the partisanship to demonstrate how all parties hold responsibility for the outcome, including President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Last month, Colbert aired a videotape of Biden saying that a Taliban takeover was “very improbable.”
“Wow,” Colbert said. “That is the most erroneous forecast made by a president since Abe Lincoln remarked, ‘See you after the play.’”
“Too soon,” bandleader Jon Batiste interrupted. “Far too soon.”
Colbert acknowledged Trump’s request for Biden to resign, but then aired a tape of the former guy boasting in June that he initiated the pullout and Biden “couldn’t stop” it.
“They wanted to, but it was extremely difficult to halt the process,” Trump stated.
“They wanted to, but they couldn’t halt the process,’ is exactly how he characterizes Eric Trump’s birth,” Colbert added, before breaking out his impersonation of Eric Trump: “It’s your little quagmire, Dad. It’s too late to leave me.”
Colbert also outlined all of Trump’s choices that led up to this point, from his talks with the Taliban to his pressure on the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban detainees.
“You can’t blame yourself for a disaster you helped create,” he added. “That’s like Andrew Lloyd Webber declaring ‘Cats’ a bad film. You created a musical with no story! “How did you expect this to end?”
