Stephen Colbert savagely lays out Lindsey Graham's 5 stages of Trump 'impeachment grief'

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

last updated 7 November 2019

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday that the House impeachment inquiry will hold its first public hearings in a week. "There you have it, the Schiff hits the fan next Wednesday," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. "And if the transcripts they've already released are any indication, this is going to be très cray, beybey."

The testimony released Wednesday was from William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and it "undermines every argument the president has made so far," Colbert said, pointing, for example, to Taylor's "clear understanding" that Ukraine would not get U.S. military aid until it agreed to conduct Trump's political investigations, which he understood to be a "quid pro quo." Trump "has been saying 'no quid pro quo' all this time, and now his own diplomat is saying 'yeah huh pro quo,'" Colbert said. "What else has the president been lying about? Is Mexico not gonna pay for the border wall?"

Gordon Sondland, Trump's ambassador to the European Union, belatedly acknowledged the quid pro quo in an amended statement Monday, and "now, Sondland's sudden awareness that he didn't want to go to jail has put Trump's Republican defenders in a bit of a bind," Colbert said. "When the facts aren't on your side, your only hope is ignorance," and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was more than up to the task, he added, showing Graham insisting he won't read any of the transcripts. "How tragic. Graham is clearly working through the five stages of Republican impeachment grief: Anger, denial, won't read, can't read, no hablo inglés." Watch Colbert try to educate Graham 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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