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


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
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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.
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Sudoku hard: August 23, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle