The media won't ask Susan Rice about her history of lying about national security matters like the Benghazi attacks. Instead, they just keep inviting her on television to lie some more with zero pushback. The former UN ambassador and top Obama adviser was invited to spew lies about President Trump suppressing votes by "disabling the postal system" on The Late Show Monday night. Meanwhile, she only had to answer one easy question about Joe Biden, the man she worked with for eight years in the Obama administration.
After some chit chat gushing about the DNC which kicked off that evening, host Stephen Colbert dove into a lengthy interview exclusively devoted to trashing President Trump. Echoing the Democrat’s dystopian projections, Colbert implored Rice to warn us “what’s at stake for the U.S. role in the world with a second Trump term versus a Biden presidency?
Rice, who went all over morning television lying about the Benghazi attacks, actually had the audacity to complain about the “lying from the [Trump] White House:”
I think people may not fully appreciate just how much we have lost in terms of our national security and our standing in the world over the last four years. Our allies don't know what to make of us. We're not leading them with confidence based on principle and shared values. We're lying from the White House. The President of the United States is a liar and the whole world knows it. We are incompetent...
She tried to scare viewers with a dystopian message of what America would look like with four more years of Trump: “ It’s really a life or death situation we're in. It's not too extreme a statement to make both domestically and internationally.”
Colbert also teed up Rice to warn Americans we were going to lose the right to free and fair elections with Trump:
Can you speak to the importance of America's soft power and our moral example around the world and the example of being able to point at free and fair elections in the United States?
And clutched his pearls at Rice falsely claiming that China wants President Trump to win the election:
COLBERT: Who benefits from a second term of Donald Trump internationally?
RICE: Vladimir Putin and XI Jinping.
COLBERT: Okay. That's chilling.
After more questions from Colbert fretting Russia was helping Trump steal the election, the talk show host invited her to share another Democrat conspiracy theory about Trump trying to rig the election by claiming he was removing mailboxes to keep people from voting.
The former Obama adviser also misled viewers by hyping how Seniors weren’t getting their Social Security checks in the mail because of Trump. The SSA issues over 99% of these checks through direct deposit into a bank account, not paper mail. In fact, the phaseout of paper checks was started in 2011 by the Obama administration! But of course Rice did not get any pushback for her deceptive spin and loony conspiracies from Colbert:
COLBERT: There's another threat to a fair election and that's Donald Trump's attacks on the post office. What do people need to know about that?
RICE: Well, what Donald Trump is trying to do is, first of all, discredit the safety and security of voting by mail. Whether absentee or mail-in voting. And there's absolutely no credible evidence to suggest that it’s any less secure to vote by mail or absentee, which is why Donald Trump himself is voting by absentee ballot.
COLBERT: [mocking] But as Mark Meadows said to Jake Tapper, there is no evidence that there isn't fraud.
RICE: That is the most dishonest statement that I've even actually heard out of mark meadows, which is saying something. But in any event, now Donald Trump is taking it to another level, which is to disable the postal system -- ripping out post boxes, taking out sorting machines, putting in place rules that make it impossible for postal workers to do their jobs efficiently. It’s unbelievable, and the American people need to call BS on this because not only does it undermine and corrupt our democracy, which, by the way, hurts Republicans as well as Democrats, that's everybody up and down the ballot, rural, urban, you name it. But it also means veterans aren't getting medicines and seniors aren't getting their social security checks, and all of us aren't getting our birthday cards and the packages we need. And small businesses are suffering. I mean it’s just ridiculous!
Colbert ended the interview asking Rice what Biden's "top priority should be" in bringing back the Obama policies that Trump reversed.
The Late Show host has high profile Democrats scheduled to appear every night this week, so there’s sure to be plenty more Trump-trashing and covering for Biden to come.
This Biden campaign commercial was paid for by Target and Progressive.
Read transcript excerpts below:
The Late Show
8/18/2020
12:30 AM ET
COLBERT: Now, a lot of the speeches and a lot of the videos rolled in tonight were about what things are like, you know, here at home in America. The trump administration's failure to address the covid crisis, the economic disaster that came in the wake of that, protests in the streets. Not a lot looking outward toward the rest of the world. As a former U.N. Ambassador and national security advisor, what's at stake for the U.S. role in the world with a second Trump term versus a Biden presidency.
SUSAN RICE: I'm so glad you asked that, Stephen, because I think people may not fully appreciate just how much we have lost in terms of our national security and our standing in the world over the last four years. Our allies don't know what to make of us. We're not leading them with confidence based on principle and shared values. We're lying from the White House. The president of the United States is a liar and the whole world knows it. We are incompetent. We are supposed to be the most scientifically advanced country in the world, and we have been at the bottom of the heap in dealing with the pandemic. The president praises Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and thinks XI Jinping, the leader of China, is the great leader to be emulated. It's just nuts. Everything is upside down, and I'm deeply, deeply concerned that, if we had four more years of this, we would not be an America that anybody can recognize, the situation would be unsalvageable, our national security and standing in the world irreparably damaged. It’s really a life or death situation we're in. It's not too extreme a statement to make both domestically and internationally.
COLBERT: As a former ambassador, can you speak to the importance of America's soft power and our moral example around the world and the example of being able to point at free and fair elections in the United States?
RICE: Well, we profess to believe in the dignity and the equality and the humanity of every human being. We profess to believe in freedom to have the press, free speech, democracy and fair elections, and we are modeling all the opposite straight out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And it appears to the world to be utterly hypocritical. When we look to a place like Belarus, for example, where the people are finally standing up against decades of dictatorship, the White House is silent, and our example is not one that is inspiring in the way it once was. We've got to change that because, when countries don't and peoples don't trust us, don't admire us, don't want to study here, don't want to emigrate here, it means our ability to bring countries together in causes that serve our interests, whether its fighting terrorism or fighting a pandemic or dealing with climate change is far diminished. We can't lead if others don't want to follow us, and that the the risk we face with four more years of Donald Trump.
COLBERT: Who benefits from a second term of Donald Trump internationally?
RICE: Vladimir Putin and XI Jinping.
COLBERT: Okay. That's chilling.
…
COLBERT: How do you feel when you hear him say no one could have seen this [coronavirus] coming, when you personally worked on preparing for this?
….
COLBERT: Ambassador Rice, you said recently that Donald Trump is essentially giving Russia his blessing to interfere with our election. What do we know about foreign interference so far?
….
COLBERT: There's another threat to a fair election and that's Donald Trump's attacks on the post office. What do people need to know about that?
RICE: Well, what Donald Trump is trying to do is, first of all, discredit the safety and security of voting by mail. Whether absentee or mail-in voting. And there's absolutely no credible evidence to suggest that it’s any less secure to vote by mail or absentee, which is why Donald Trump himself is voting by absentee ballot.
COLBERT: [mocking] But as Mark Meadows said to Jake Tapper, there is no evidence that there isn't fraud.
RICE: That is the most dishonest statement that I've even actually heard out of mark meadows, which is saying something. But in any event, now Donald Trump is taking it to another level, which is to disable the postal system -- ripping out post boxes, taking out sorting machines, putting in place rules that make it impossible for postal workers to do their jobs efficiently. It’s unbelievable, and the American people need to call BS on this because not only does it undermine and corrupt our democracy, which, by the way, hurts Republicans as well as Democrats, that's everybody up and down the ballot, rural, urban, you name it. But it also means veterans aren't getting medicines and seniors aren't getting their social security checks, and all of us aren't getting our birthday cards and the packages we need. And small businesses are suffering. I mean it’s just ridiculous!
COLBERT: I need my $5 from my grandmother.
RICE: Exactly!
COLBERT: Trump has disrupted major relations with foreign countries, left the Iran deal, negotiated with Kim Jong Un, launched a trade war against China, pulled out of the Paris agreement, got out of the trans-pacific partnership. If Biden wins, what should his top priority be?
RICE: He's going to have many simultaneously, but the first with respect to international relations is renewing and repairing the trust that we have lost with our allies and making sure that they again know that we have shared interests and shared values. It's being clear about who our adversaries are, getting back into the Paris climate agreement and dealing with this pandemic globally because Stephen, I don’t think Americans fully understand: We could vaccinate every American tomorrow, and that's a hugely high hurdle that we are far from meeting, but if the rest of the world does not have the vaccine and the ability to stamp out this virus, it can mutate and come back and hit us again. So we have that challenge as well and that's going to require global leadership.
