"Earlier today Senate leaders agreed to a short-term debt ceiling increase!" Stephen Colbert cheered on Thursday's Late Show. "This means America will remain solvent and free from financial calamity — until Dec. 3." But "we almost didn't have a government to save," he added, turning to a new Senate report on former President Donald Trump's concerted attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Senate report details how close Trump came to firing acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and replacing him with his more pliant deputy, Jeffrey Clark. "So, on Jan. 3, Clark and Rosen went to the Oval Office for a meeting where the former president began that meeting with this snide comment: 'One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election' — that was his idea of a negative employee review," Colbert said. "But Rosen had an ace in the hole: If he was fired, the DOJ's leaders had agreed to resign," so Trump backed down. "He was worried one awful thing would be overshadowed by another awful thing," Colbert said. "Kind of like Don Jr. and Eric."
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