Stephen Colbert asks how America's fate came to rest 'in Donald Trump's tiny, whining, loser hands'

Stephen Colbert is irked at Donald Trump

(Image credit: Late Show)

Stephen Colbert began Thursday's Late Show by noting he has a "Trump hangover" from the "third and final debate — if there is a God." In his live post-debate show Wednesday night, Colbert lit into Donald Trump for refusing to say he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, and Colbert wasn't done 24 hours later. "Now the polls pretty much all say Clinton won, but Trump is no longer accepting the polls — or reality," he said, noting that Trump pledged on Thursday to "totally accept" the results "if I win."

The audience booed, but Colbert laughed. "Come on, you got to give it to him," he said, pointing toward Trump: "You really got me for a second there: I actually believed you had a shred of integrity." Colbert put this in perspective. "What an amazing psych-out, you know, a national psych-out," he said. "It's like that classic joke where you offer to shake somebody's hand, but when they go to shake it, you undermine our system of government." He dropped the laughter, mostly. "How did we get to the point where the fate of the American experiment rests in Donald Trump's tiny, whining, loser hands?" Colbert asked. "And undermining 250 years of representative democracy to protect his ego wasn't Trump's only contribution to the debate." Watch below for a few more shots from the debate and one halfhearted dig at Hillary Clinton. 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.