CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed Rep. Maxwell Frost to Thursday’s taping of The Late Show for a discussion that appeared to be a challenge on whether Frost could continue to one-up himself with his hysterical labels for the Trump Administration.
Colbert began by asking Frost to, “Compare and contrast your experience from the first year to now in the middle of your third year, and please support your answer with specific examples.”
For Frost, the answer is that the current administration is fascist, “Look, obviously we’re in just so much chaos right now in this country, and when I think back to when I first got into Congress, I felt like we were doing such good work with the administration, it was a different administration, by the way… But I felt like, you know, this fight against the far-right neo-fascism, for me at least, was mainly taking stage in my home in Florida, fighting against Ron DeSantis and the extremism there. And something I always told people was that Project 2025 is actually Florida 2022, Florida 2020, and the stuff that's going around the country we have been dealing with in the South for a long time. Especially in my state of Florida. So, the difference is, it's like the struggle in my state has been spread throughout the nation.”
After claiming that people like him need to choose to be hopeful, Colbert tried to help him out:
A lot of people chose to be hopeful last week. Five million people plus turned out for the No Kings rally… Thousands of people turned out in your district in Central Florida on the heels of the president sending in both the National Guard, nationalized Army National Guard, so Army members into Los Angeles and Marines in their using—violating posse comitatus, arresting people, and that was all in response to ICE doing raids around Los Angeles, somewhat indiscriminately. And even going into courts where people are trying to do the right thing and pulling them out and trying to get them out of the country without due process. You’ve described that as taxpayer-funded kidnapping operation. What do you mean by that?
Frost alleged, “Donald Trump ran on this mass deportation thing, but the thing that everyone needs to realize is deportation is a process. It is a legal process. Oftentimes it can take weeks, if not months, up to a year, depending on the case, and what’s going on right now is actually not mass deportation even because people aren't being given due process. There is no legal process for people. We have ICE federal agents pulling up, terrorizing our communities, hopping out of unmarked vans, stealing, and yes, kidnapping people.”
He added, “Not giving them their day in court and, yes, human trafficking them to other nations, other countries around the entire world. And I want to be very—I like to be very clear about what's going on right now, so people understand that what is going on, I believe, is outside the bounds of the law. Due process is something that applies to every person in this country regardless of your status. And this is from the party that likes to talk a lot about American exceptionalism, but they want to rip away the few things that make our country exceptional, and part of that is that our rights are for everybody.”
As if callously throwing the word “fascism” and comparing immigration enforcement to kidnapping weren’t bad enough, The Late Show really wanted to emphasize that Frost believes the Big Beautiful Bill is “evil.” Such comments are typical for Colbert-Frost segments. The last time Frost was on The Late Show, he claimed the GOP was “okay” with kids getting shot.
Here is a transcript for the June 19-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
6/20/2025
12:15 AM ET
COLBERT: Last time you were here; you’d been in office for nine months or something along those lines. It's been two and a half years now. Compare and contrast your experience from the first year to now in the middle of your third year, and please support your answer with specific examples.
FROST: What's different now than two years ago? Look, obviously we’re in just so much chaos right now in this country, and when I think back to when I first got into Congress, I felt like we were doing such good work with the administration, it was a different administration, by the way.
COLBERT: Yes, different Congress too.
FROST: Different Congress and— but I felt like, you know, this fight against the far-right neo-fascism, for me at least, was mainly taking stage in my home in Florida, fighting against Ron DeSantis and the extremism there. And something I always told people was that Project 2025 is actually Florida 2022, Florida 2020, and the stuff that's going around the country we have been dealing with in the South for a long time. Especially in my state of Florida. So, the difference is, it's like the struggle in my state has been spread throughout the nation.
And honestly, that day after Election Day I had a hard time getting up, probably like a lot of other people. And I wasn't automatically feeling hope. You know, we think of hope as a feeling. But I think about something I learned which is like long marriages, something people say that love is not always a feeling, a lot of times it is a choice you make actively. And I just thought, well, hope is the same. I'm not always going to feel it when I wake up in the morning, but I'm actively going to choose it. So we're definitely in a different time.
COLBERT: Well, a lot of people—
FROST: Yeah.
COLBERT: — a lot of people chose to be hopeful last week. Five million people plus turned out for the No Kings rally, which was really—it was an active hope, it was hopeful to see. Thousands of people turned out in your district in Central Florida on the heels of the president sending in both the National Guard, nationalized Army National Guard, so Army members into Los Angeles and Marines in their using—violating posse comitatus, arresting people—
FROST: Yeah.
COLBERT: —and that was all in response to ICE doing raids around Los Angeles, somewhat indiscriminately. And even going into courts where people are trying to do the right thing and pulling them out and trying to get them out of the country without due process. You’ve described that as taxpayer-funded kidnapping operation. What do you mean by that?
FROST: Well, because Donald Trump ran on this mass deportation thing, but the thing that everyone needs to realize is deportation is a process. It is a legal process. Oftentimes it can take weeks, if not months, up to a year, depending on the case, and what’s going on right now is actually not mass deportation even because people aren't being given due process. There is no legal process for people. We have ICE federal agents pulling up, terrorizing our communities, hopping out of unmarked vans, stealing, and yes, kidnapping people.
Not giving them their day in court and, yes, human trafficking them to other nations, other countries around the entire world. And I want to be very—I like to be very clear about what's going on right now, so people understand that what is going on, I believe, is outside the bounds of the law. Due process is something that applies to every person in this country regardless of your status. And this is from the party that likes to talk a lot about American exceptionalism, but they want to rip away the few things that make our country exceptional and, part of that is that our rights are for everybody.
