Stephen Colbert compares Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to a comedy skit.
Stephen Colbert told CBS host John Dickerson that Donald Trump is “my old character with ten billion dollars,” during a Sunday interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Dickerson asked Colbert his “view about the fact,” and Colbert responded: “I’m all — I’m a big fan of facts. I’m not sure they have any bearing on what a person’s popularity is, because Donald Trump is like — I’m not the first person to say this, but I completely agree that he’s my old character with $10 billion.”
“He doesn’t — he’s completely playing on an emotional level, and so beautifully,” Colbert continued. “I mean, it’s one of the reasons why I just can’t do that old character anymore, because he’s doing it better than I ever could, because he’s willing to drink his own Kool-Aid and manufacture it and distribute it, because he has got all the cash.”
Colbert also pointed out that Trump doesn’t let facts get in the way of his campaign: “He’s this very interesting, like, Frankenstein of the idea that facts don’t matter and only money does, because, if money is speech, he’s got a $10 billion mouth, and doesn’t have to spend any of it, because everyone will point a camera at him.”
Colbert went on to discuss politics in general, expressing an interest in a less adversarial atmosphere: “But, boy, it would be lovely if we all could have a conversation that does not involve demonizing the other side. I think that is worth doing. I don’t know if it’s my job, but I would say that that is certainly an objective of mine.”
Colbert conceded that he does have some respect for Trump’s ability to reach his audience: “Well, I mean, I have respect for Trump for knowing who the real audience is, that if you really want to win, you got to get the people. The people get to make the call, especially now, because the parties are so beholden to big money, that the party apparatus itself has been dismantled in favor of just cash.”
“And so there aren’t wise old people who get to make the call, because that’s been farmed out to super PACs, which don’t seem to be that powerful themselves, really, but in giving the power over to the super PACs, they have actually completely defanged the party themselves,” he continued, adding: “That’s why you can’t stop a Trump. That’s a real blowback to the idea that we’re going to take power away from the party and just give it to cash.”
“What I do respect is that he knows that it is an emotional appeal. And it might be emotional appeals that I don’t — can’t respect. But he knows that you have to appeal to the voter. And that’s why I may be wrong. I made a big deal about, there’s no way he’s going to win.”
You can watch Colbert speaking about Trump, below:
Here’s another version if the clip above doesn’t work for your device:
https://youtu.be/dEoEMrP3PSI?t=2m
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