Donald Trump made sweeping pardons for those involved in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol during his first day back in office, a move widely pushed back on by both sides of the aisle. House speaker Mike Johnson was not part of that pushback though, saying it wasn’t “my place” to do so — prompting Stephen Colbert to guffaw on Wednesday night.
During his monologue, the CBS host dragged just about every Republican who blindly supported the pardons, and even gave the middle finger — censored, of course — to one senator. But Colbert was particularly incensed by Johnson’s reply when asked about the pardons.
“It’s not my place,” Johnson said. “It’s the President’s sole decision. And he made a decision, so I stand with him on it.”
“Not your place?!” Colbert balked. “They attacked the House of Representatives! That is literally your place!”
From there, the host took it one step further, imitating Johnson’s voice and offering an absurd addendum.
“It’s not, no, it’s not for me to say,’” Colbert mimicked. “No, it’s not. I mean, it’s not, it’s not my place to speak. To do so, I would have to be some sort of speaker. I have to go.”
Colbert was also floored by the fact that Vice President JD Vance and other Trump team members promised that the Jan. 6 cases would be reviewed for pardon one by one but that, according to insiders, in the end, the process took too long so Trump decided to just pardon everyone.
“What? Just because it was taking a minute?” Colbert marveled. “So from now on, the TSA can just go, ‘You know what? Line’s too long, everyone on the plane! Everyone on the plane.’”
You can watch Stephen Colbert’s full monologue in the video, above.
