Stephen Colbert explains why Trump is afraid of Joe Biden
Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show that when he plugged back in to the news after last week's vacation, he was surprised to learn that "Donald Trump is still president — did no one read the Mueller report?" But there's still an election scheduled for 2020, and former Vice President Joe Biden just entered the race.
"After months of teasing us, today Biden was in Pittsburgh to hold the first official rally of his presidential campaign," Colbert said, and as far as rallies go, "it seemed a little off: The crowd didn't chant to lock anyone up, not one journalist was threatened, and there were no unifying hats!" Biden "took a swing at our current president" in Monday's official campaign launch, but he "teed it up last week with this YouTube video" focused on Charlottesville, Colbert said, annotating the ad. "Biden did not just attack the white supremacists, he also went after their hero," Trump.
"Trump's already worried about Joe Biden," Colbert said. "And the proof of that is this ad did something none of the other Democrats have been able to do, and that's put Trump on the defensive. Because after Biden's ad talking about Charlottesville, the president had to answer for his Charlottesville response again." Trump's answer, defending Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, veered a little off-kilter. "Trump thinks you should be honored because you're a good general, no matter which side you fought on," Colbert said. "That explains why I went to Erwin Rommel Middle School — the Fightin' Desert Foxes."
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Trump doubled-down on his Robert E. Lee claim on conservative radio, and "that nationwide broadcast radio fib was significant because it was the statement that pushed Trump over 10,000 false and misleading claims," Colbert said. "Whoooo! Trump has passed 10,000 lies! Man, I gotta tell you, if Trump had a dollar for ever lie he's told, he would say he had $1 billion." Watch for dropping balloons 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.
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