Donald Trump said in a New Hampshire speech over the weekend that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase that harkened back to Germany before World War II, which prompted Stephen Colbert to take the former president to task.
“That’s absolutely disgusting,” the CBS host said during his “Late Show” monologue Monday night. “Also not true. The blood of our country is not being poisoned by immigrants. It’s being poisoned by dipping pizza in ranch dressing.”
Colbert was particularly concerned about the history of the phrase.
“The statement is horrifying in and of itself,” the host said during his monologue Monday night. “But it gets even worse when you realize the term ‘blood poisoning’ was used by Hitler in his manifesto, ‘Mein Kampf,’” Colbert noted.
“Now, as you can imagine, people are upset that he’s quoting a genocidal maniac in his stump speeches,” Colbert continued. “But a Mike Pence aide defended Trump, saying, ‘I think it’s highly unlikely that Donald Trump has ever read Mein Kampf,’”
“Right.” Colbert deadpanned. “Because it’s a book. He probably got the version with pictures, ‘Mein First Kampf.’”
Colbert continued by noting that “Trump’s words are indefensible, so Lindsey Graham defended them.”
He showed a clip of the South Carolina senator on a Sunday morning talk show stating, “I could care less what language people use, as long as we get it right.”
“Yeah!” Colbert responded. “What language our leaders use does not and has never mattered. That’s why the Constitution starts with,’We da ploo-plees of the Untided Yabba Dabba Doo bawita bawita dang da dang homina, homina, homina homina homina.’”
“And it wasn’t just Lindsey Graham,” the host continued. “Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett also said stupid things,” playing a clip in which he said, “Do you know what, I’m from East Tennessee and we don’t usually talk like that, and he’s from New York, and that’s the way folks. He’s Trump being Trump. “
Colbert mocked that, “We here in New York all talk like authoritarians.”
“Who can forget this classic scene from ‘Midnight Cowboy?’” he added, showing the famous scene of Dustin Hoffman crossing the street when a taxi nearly hits him with the words dubbed, “I’m gooseteppin’ here! I”m goosesteppin’ here!”
You can watch Colbert’s full monologue in the video above.
