Stephen Colbert brings out his Colbert Report alter ego to critique Michelle Wolf, fellow WHCD alum

&quot;Stephen Colbert&quot; weighs in on the WHCD

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

"Most nights I come out here and make jokes about the news from Washington," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "Well, tonight, the news from Washington is about jokes, who can tell them and who can take them." Michelle Wolf "did not pull any punches" at Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner, roasting the Trump administration and the media, he said. "And you know who got mad? The administration and the media."

Colbert found the media's criticism harder to stomach. "Look, you didn't like it?" he asked the White House Correspondents' Association. "You have that right. Don't invite her back again. But grow a pair." He brought out an expert to weigh in, his Colbert Report character, Stephen Colbert, who hosted the WHCD in 2006. "This is the correspondents' dinner, celebrating freedom of speech — you can't just say whatever you want," the Colbert character said. "You don't go to a funeral and say exactly what you thought of the person. And what is the annual correspondents' dinner but a funeral for the independent press?"

Trump skipped the dinner for a rally in Michigan, where he relived his 2016 electoral victory and took credit for the Korean spring — a topic that has led Trump supporters to start talking about a Nobel Peace Prize. "Look, it's not out of the question," Colbert said. "I mean, give the man credit: He was able to go toe-to-toe with a nuclear madman. Now if he could just handle being in the same room as a comedian."

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Colbert picked apart Trump's new explanation for what appears to be "the simplest possible definition of collusion you could come up with," then noted that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has reportedly been referring to Trump as "an idiot" lately. "Kelly denies the report, no doubt hoping to save his job — to which Rex Tillerson replied, 'What a moron.'" Watch below. 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.