On Monday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert brought up the still-developing scandal involving Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and his relationship with a billionaire GOP donor. But, the CBS star joked, at least one aspect of the apparent corruption is a mark in Thomas’ favor, because it means he “has won Mother’s Day.”
To recap: Thomas was recently revealed to have a decades-long relationship with billionaire Harlan Crow that involved hugely expensive gifts that he has failed to report, violating the law he is sworn to uphold and interpret.
At first, it came out that Thomas has for years taken opulently expensive vacations on Crow’s dime. But late last week it got worse, as it turns out in 2014, Thomas made more than $130,000 when he sold several parcels of property to Crow — an amount far in excess of their value. This included the house Thomas’ mother lives in.
Note we said lives. That’s because she still lives there to this day, rent-free, according to multiple reports. And what’s more, Crow has paid to have her house renovated, extravagances that he also failed to report.
This has led to calls to investigate Thomas’ conduct — even from Fox News personalities — and well-founded concerns that these gifts and financial transactions constitute a conflict of interest and may even indicate much deeper corruption.
During his monologue, Colbert made a pretty good point about why those concerns are valid.
“That might give him a little influence,” Colbert said of Crow’s relationship to Thomas. Then he switched into an impersonation of the billionaire.
“No, Clarence, you vote however your conscience dictates, but remember, I am your mother’s landlord,” Colbert said, imitating Crow. “Ope, mom’s power just went out. Oh, now it’s back on. Seriously, vote however you want — oh, mommy’s in the dark again. Hope she can find the fridge, isn’t that where she keeps her insulin?”
“Yeah, he’s the villain in this story,” Colbert said.
“Now, not only did Crow buy the house, but let Thomas’ mother continue to live there, made renovations including a carport, a repaired roof, new fence and gates, and she lives rent free. Say what you will, Clarence Thomas has won Mother’s Day,” Colbert continued.
“Oh, chocolate covered strawberries again, that’s nice. I hear Mrs. Thomas’ son betrayed the justice system to get her a carport,” Colbert added, imitating an imaginary, jealous mother.
“Now, Crow claims there’s nothing corrupt about this, saying, ‘My intention is to one day create a public museum at the Thomas home,’” Colbert said, quoting Crow directly.
“Just a reminder, Harlan Crow has Hitler’s napkins and a statue of Stalin in his garden, so building you a museum? Not a huge compliment,” Colbert said. And yes, this is true, Crow collects Nazi memorabilia.
Watch the whole segment from Colbert’s Monday monologue at the top of the page.
