Thursday night, late night comedians on CBS took special aim at former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, in preparation for his interview airing Sunday on the same network with anchor Charlie Rose. This will be his first televised interview since leaving the White House, and in it, the Catholic Bannon admits that he disagrees with the Catholic Church on DACA. While late night comics have never had an interest in defending the Catholic Church, (in fact, quite the opposite,) because the criticism was coming from Bannon, both CBS late night shows decided to attack him for it.
The criticism came after CBS This Morning played excerpts from the interview this week. In one part, Bannon admitted he disagreed with the Catholic Church’s stance on DACA. He went further to explain that in his opinion, the church supported illegal immigration because “they need illegal aliens to fill their churches.” That take, along with his defense of Trump, earned him ire on both The Late Late Show with James Corden, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thursday night.
James Corden had the quickest but nastiest take, calling Bannon “the antichrist:”
CORDEN: And finally former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon gave an odd interview to Charlie Rose where he criticized the Catholic church saying they had been terrible on the issue of immigration and that they need illegal aliens to fill their churches. This is just in case you had any doubt that Steve Bannon is literally the antichrist.
Stephen Colbert spent much more time attacking Bannon for his looks, than he did on his comments on DACA. After mocking Bannon as looking like a “corpse,” and a “pre-Proactiv commercial model” he bashed Bannon for implying the church had ulterior motives for wanting to help “strangers who desperately need help.”
COLBERT: Yeah, it's obvious on the face of it that the church is just cynically welcoming in strangers who desperately need help so the bishops can get into heaven. The fix is in. They're just buttering up the big guy. Jesus laid out the whole marketing strategy: "Blessed are the meek, for they will really fill up the pews. I'll take anybody. Peacemakers, lepers, Mexicans. Ka-ching." ( Applause ) Bannon went on to clarify why he disagrees with his church on this.
BANNON: I totally respect the Pope and the Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine. This is not about doctrine. This is about the sovereignty of the nation. And in that regard, they're just another guy with an opinion.
COLBERT: Yeah, Steve, and now that you're not at the White House, so are you. ( Cheers and applause ) Very much like the Pope. Very much like the Pope. ( Applause )
Colbert then got more nasty, portraying a cartoon Bannon in a video game where he turns him into a Nazi street fighter. After more mocking about Bannon defending Trump as his “wingmen,” Colbert went for the Nazi take again, this time being more overt:
COLBERT: But Bannon is a staunch Trump supporter. He even defended Trump after Trump failed to call out violent white supremacists in Charlottesville.
BANNON: By the way, after the Charlottesville situation, that's what I told General Kelly. I was the only guy that came out and tried to defend him. I was the only guy that said, ‘he's talking about talking about something, taking it up to a higher level.’
COLBERT: He's definitely taking it to a higher level. I'd say his support is about up there Right around here. [Makes Nazi salute] ( Applause )
