Washington is still reeling from Wednesday's New York Times op-ed from a member of the self-described White House "resistance," Stephen Colbert said on Thursday's Late Show. All the news reports are describing it as "explosive," but "the word I would have used for this op-ed is confusing," Colbert said. "Because if you're inside the White House, pretending to be loyal to the president but secretly thwarting the president to protect the rest of us from him, why would you tell us? Now he'll try to stop you."
"Well, now the hunt for the author is on — the op-ed has sent tremors through the West Wing and launched a frantic guessing game," Colbert said. He wasn't persuaded by the argument that, due to the word "lodestar," the author was Vice President Mike Pence — though "it's so unlike Mike Pence to make a strange word choice," he deadpanned. "Just ask his wife, 'Mother.'"
"Poor Mike Pence — last night was so stressful, Mother had to read him two bedtime stories," Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday's Kimmel Live. "Someone wrote this op-ed, and nobody knows who it is, but Sen. Rand Paul has what I think is a terrific idea: He's suggesting they give everyone a lie-detector test. I'm all for it, give everyone a lie-detector test, ask everyone on the White House staff, 'Do you think the president is a dangerous idiot?'" But Kimmel also found all the commotion "funny," because "I already know who it is, I know the name of the person who wrote this," he said. "It's Jared, it's Jared Kushner, his son-in-law." You can hear his elaborate argument for Kushner being the mole below. Peter Weber
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Crossword: August 27, 2025The Week's daily crossword
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August 27 editorial cartoonsCartoons Wednesday’s political cartoons include a KKK rebrand, Donald Trump vs. Gavin Newsom, and Ghislaine Maxwell as the new Celebrity Apprentice
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Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
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