Comedian Stephen Colbert took aim at President Donald Trump Monday night, poking fun at his pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS News' Margaret Brennan.
Splicing together actual Face The Nation footage with questions from Colbert in place of Brennan, The Late Show aired a mock interview—billed as "exclusive"—between the comedian and the president.
Colbert "asked" the commander-in-chief such questions as: "With the Mueller investigation wrapping up, when do you think you'll be leaving office?"
Lifting footage from Trump's answer to a real question about a potential government shutdown, the president "responded": "February 15."
Colbert parodied a long segment of the original interview, in which the president discusses foreign policy regarding countries such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, at some length.
"You've recently disagreed with your intelligence chiefs on the threats posed by Iran, North Korea and, I see here, birds?" Colbert "asked."
Splicing in a real pre-Super Bowl quote about military spending in Afghanistan, Trump "responded": "If I see nests forming, I'll do something about it."
"So you find birds threatening?" Colbert "asked," before the president "responded" in the affirmative.
After discussing processed food and Trump's age, the mock interview showed the president "interject" with: "Excuse me. We're going to be watching and watching closely."
"Wait, are you talking about birds again?" Colbert said. "Just for the sake of argument, how would you fight these birds?"
"We have very fast airplanes," the president "responded," before "describing" the threat America faces from soccer. "A lot of people including me thought soccer would probably never make it in this country but it really is moving forward rapidly."
Colbert "asked" how Trump would stop soccer, to which the president "responded": "59 Tomahawk missiles."
In the real interview, Trump discussed soccer after Brennan asked him if he would let his son Barron play football—a comparatively dangerous sport.
Trump's "59 Tomahawk missiles" quote referred to the president's activities in Syria. Criticizing President Barack Obama for failing to "violate the red line" in the country, Trump told Brennan he "was the one that actually violated the red line when I hit Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles."
On April 7 2017, the U.S. launched the Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Airbase in west Syria in response to a suspected massive civilian chemical poisoning that occurred in the Idlib Governorate three days before.
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Katherine Hignett is a reporter based in London. She currently covers current affairs, health and science. Prior to joining Newsweek ... Read more
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