The Late Show host Stephen Colbert has blasted Fox News for its reporting on a segment filmed by his staffers and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog near the U.S. Capitol Building.
On Thursday, June 16, seven people, including Robert Smigel, the creator, puppeteer, and voice of Triumph, were shooting a skit for the CBS late-night show in the Longworth House Office Building when they were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police. The seven were charged with “unlawful entry” and subsequently processed and released.
“After they’d finished their interviews, [my staff] were doing some last-minute puppetry and jokey make-em-ups in a hallway, when Triumph and my folks were approached and detained by Capitol Police, which actually is not surprising,” said Colbert. “The Capitol Police are much more cautious than they were 18 months ago, and for a very good reason. If you don’t know what that reason is, I know what news network you watch.”
Colbert then took aim at Fox News, who he said had taken a “fairly simple story” and “started claiming that my puppet squad had committed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building.”
“First of all: what? Second of all: huh? Third of all, they weren’t in the Capitol building,” the host continued. “Fourth of all, and I’m shocked I have to explain the difference, but an insurrection involves interrupting the lawful action of Congress and howling for the blood of elected leaders, all to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. This was first-degree puppetry.”
Colbert added that “these TV talkers” are reporting on this simply to distract from the January 6 hearings. “Drawing any equivalency between a rioter storming the Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots and a cigar-chomping toy dog is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died and obscenely trivializes the service and the courage the Capitol police showed on that terrible day,” he said.
“But who knows? Maybe there was a vast conspiracy to overthrow the government of the U.S. with a rubber rottweiler.”
CBS previously released a statement noting that the Late Show interviews at the Capitol “were authorized and pre-arranged through Congressional aides of the members interviewed.”
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, CBS