Stephen Colbert Breaks Down During Monologue Over Trump’s Unsubstantiated Claims Of Voter Fraud

Stephen Colbert broke down while giving his The Late Show monologue on Thursday, calling on Republicans to denounce President Donald Trump‘s evidence-free claims that Democrats are stealing the election.

The president took the podium in the White House briefing room at around 7 p.m. on Thursday, right before Colbert was set to record the monologue. Trump told reporters “If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” in his 17-minute speech. Many television news channels cut away from the president. On CNN former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum called the speech “disappointing and shocking.” On ABC News, adviser to the president and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, “This kind of thing — all it does is inflame without informing.”

“We all knew he would do this,” Colbert said before looking down and shaking his head, “what I didn’t know is that it would hurt so much. I didn’t expect this to break my heart.”

“This is heartbreaking for the same reason that I didn’t want him to get COVID, certainly why I wanted him to survive, because he is the president of the United States,” Colbert said while standing in front of his desk. “That office means something, and that office should have some shred of decency.”

Colbert continued: “Now we always knew he would leave a stain there, and not just from his butt bronzer, because everything he did is now in someway presidential behavior including this, unless, unless every single person rejects what he just did.”

Colbert eventually moved to call on Republicans to reject the president’s lies. Many Republicans on the local and national stage have called out the president’s claims that it is illegal for states to continue to count ballots, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said in a tweet, “every legal vote should be counted.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham defended the president’s claims, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Philadelphia’s elections were “as crooked as a snake,” and pledged $500,000 to Trump’s legal defense fund.

“Republicans have to speak up. All of them. Because for evil to succeed all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing,” Colbert said before calling Trump a fascist.

“By the way if Donald Trump is right, if Joe Biden did pull the strings behind the scenes in Republican states like Arizona and Georgia, while coordinating with Democratic states like Pennsylvania and Nevada and Wisconsin and Michigan and throwing in the red-herring of letting the Republicans keep the Senate and gain a few seats in the House while just barely removing Donald Trump,” Colbert said and then mimed his head exploding, “Wow, I mean, Kudos to that level of interstate coordination. Anyone who could accomplish that many things at once right now really would be the president we need during a global pandemic.”