Stephen Colbert has a big question about Donald Trump's Julian Assange tweets

Stephen Colbert has a question about Donald Trump&#039;s Julian Assange tweets — (Image credit: Late Show)

On Thursday, Sen. John McCain's Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings on Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election, and Stephen Colbert said on The Late Show that while the heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies said there's no doubt Russia was behind the hacks, President-elect Donald Trump has been listening more to "middle-aged Draco Malfoy" Julian Assange than U.S. spy chiefs. Or at least he had been — on Thursday morning, Trump appeared to back away from Assange in two tweets in which he said of Assange: "I simply state what he states, it is for the people.... to make up their own minds as to the truth."

"That's true leadership," Colbert said. "Just type any claim you hear and let people decide what's true. Like: 'Billy told me if a boy and a girl touch butts the girl gets pregnant. True? You decide. Sad!'" He and bandleader Jon Batiste got lost in that joke for a minute, then Colbert snapped back: "Here's what's really weird about Trump's Julian Assange tweet. He tweeted the first part of this sentence at 8:25 a.m., but finished the thought 20 minutes later. How can he have a plan for America when he doesn't have a plan for the end of a sentence?"

"But enough about hacking our democracy, let's get to the big news," Colbert said, meaning former American Idol runner-up Bo Bice complaining of "racial prejudice" because he was called "white boy" at a Popeye's Chicken in the Atlanta airport. After mocking Bice, Colbert ended with a Utah legislator's plan to open the pornography industry to lawsuits — and a look at what the inevitable TV ads for pornography lawyers might look like. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.