Stephen Colbert follows Trump down his 'Spygate' rabbit hole, laughs at where he ends up

Stephen Colbert takes on &quot;Spygate&quot;

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

published 24 May 2018

President Trump was in New York City on Wednesday, having dinner with supporters — "well, it's New York, so 'supporter,'" Stephen Colbert joked on The Late Show. "Bon appétit, Sean Hannity." But the big story is that "Trump is calling the one informant that the FBI used to find out if the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russian government 'a nest of spies,'" he added. "The reviews are in on his new thriller," and they are not glowing. "But today, Trump gave his conspiracy a nickname," Colbert said, and he wasn't unimpressed.

Spygate? "A, a criminal investigation is not 'spying' — it should be 'Investigate-gate,'" Colbert said. "And B, 'Spygate' has already been used, twice — once to describe the public identification of Valerie Plame as a CIA officer, and for the New England Patriots videotaping of New York Jets coaches' signals. Well, as long as we're just stealing other scandals' names, from now on Watergate is the fact that Trump can't drink one-handed." Trump tweeted about his "made-up spy thing," too, Colbert said, and he read some of the nuttier tweets.

"Yes, follow Trump down the rabbit hole here," Colbert said. "They embedded a spy early on and paid him massive sums of money to sabotage the Trump campaign with false claims of Russian collusion in the press to help Hillary Clinton win, and then — and here's the insidious part — they didn't tell the press and Hillary Clinton lost, so when Trump revealed this plot he would seem like a desperate criminal spinning conspiracy theories to stop the walls from closing in! Nice try, Deep State!" He ended with a few caustic thoughts on Trump's call for nonpartisan transparency, ending with this zinger: "I give him this — we are getting transparency, because it is easy to see through that bulls--t." 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.