If Thursday night’s show is any guide, Stephen Colbert is not pulling punches just because CBS is pandering to Donald Trump by cancelling the show. Just hosting Trump nemesis Sen. Adam Schiff on the same night Colbert announced his show’s cancellation was a bit of a middle finger to CBS and Trump authoritarianism.
Schiff didn’t pull any punches, either, to put it mildly. He talked about the climate of fear and menace Donald Trump is deliberately stoking in order to increase his power. “You can’t find a member of the House or Senate that hasn't gotten death threats,” Schiff told Colbert. “Probably can't find any that haven't gotten death threats against their spouses, against their children.”
This has escalated in Trump's second term, Schiff said. In the first term, he said he “only” got threatened two or three times a week. But now, it’s not just Democrats. “Once you unleash this idea that it's okay to use political violence and threats of violence, it doesn't end up discriminating just against one party,” he added. “Judges are getting threatened. City councilmen are getting threatened. Election workers are getting threatened. And so, this is all part of this quite deliberate campaign to frighten people into submission.”
Schiff very publicly made it clear he will not be frightened into submission and neither should we.
“The only way to push back on that is to say, ‘Piss off, piss off.’" Schiff continued.
The crowd roared its approval.
Then, after Schiff told viewers that Trump has been threatening him with persecution and jail ever since he led the first impeachment, the senator looked into the camera in order to directly address the p**sy-grabbing, Epstein-pal in chief:
“Donald, piss off,” Schiff reiterated. This time the crowd roared even louder with cheers, whistles and applause.
Colbert said, “I am just notarizing that,” as he looked at his watch and seemed to write on a note card.
Schiff had one more message for Trump. After the crowd finally quieted, Schiff said, “But Donald, before you piss off, would you release the Epstein riles? Come on!”
The crowd roared again.
This is the badassery we need now.
