Stephen Colbert may have offered the definitive takedown Monday night of Donald Trump’s effort to rewrite history on the whole birther saga.
In a more than 10-minute segment, Colbert repeatedly called Trump a liar without directly saying so, using clips of Trump himself saying “liar” and “world-class liar” and talking in exasperated tones about Trump’s bogus birtherism claims in a Friday news conference.
Trump said Friday in a five-sentence statement that he ended the birther controversy in 2011 by getting President Obama to release his birth certificate and that Hillary Clinton and her campaign actually first raised the questions about whether Obama was born in the United States. Neither is correct.
After playing video of Trump saying he “finished” the birther controversy, Colbert went off.
“No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t,” Colbert said. “And I know you didn’t because I was alive and on TV.”
He added: “But you know what? Maybe memory is a tricky thing. Maybe I remember it one way … and Donald Trump is a liar.”
Colbert then played a montage of Trump raising questions about Obama’s birth certificate — even after 2011. While it’s airing, he carves a wooden statuette of Rodin’s “The Thinker.” Afterward, he talked to the statue.
“What are you thinking about?” Colbert asked. “I’m thinking he’s a liar,” Colbert-as-the-statuette responded.
Colbert concluded: “You don’t get to flog this issue for five years and then act like you’re correcting everybody else. We’re not crazy. We were there. We all saw you do it. Even the people who support you saw you do it. It’s why they support you.”
(via: Washington Post)
