Comedian turned late-night liberal propagandist Stephen Colbert actually said something funny on his show last night, except he was completely serious.
While plugging John Boehner’s new book, Colbert took umbrage at the former House Speaker claiming the media enabled the radical left as well as right-wing "crazies."
Before this, the talk show host salivated over the anti-Republican vitriol in Boehner's memoir. Besides delighting in Boehner's hatred for Ted Cruz and asking if he thought Trump was a "political terrorist." Colbert also obsessed over the GOP being full of right-wing "crazies:"
You said in 2011, when you were elected to the top job, you became "The mayor of crazy town." I remember living in downtown crazy town, starting around 2010. What do you mean by that? Do you think you contained the crazies?
(...)
Do you think Biden has any hope of getting people to compromise? Since you write in the book that many of the Republicans -- for many of the Republicans, it's not about principle, it's about chaos, can you negotiate with agents of chaos?
(...)Why do you think that your own party jumped so far in a crazy direction? I'm not saying it's necessarily your responsibility, but it was certainly while you were a member of the leadership of your own party. Do you see a -- an inflection point within the party where they started to go so crazy right?
To this last question, Boehner blamed social media, talk radio and the rise of “cable people” giving voice to the “noisemakers" on both sides:
“It's gotten a lot worse since, and the problem is not just on the far right. It's on the far left as well. People get elected, know how to use social media, know how to use talk radio and the cable people to build their brand, if you will. They're noise-makers,” the former Republican politician argued.
But Colbert balked at Boehner claiming that media helped the radical left:
“Well, I’ll uh let me just--- for a moment I’ll accept your premise both sides do this, though I think the Republicans have gotten better at having a media arm that helps inflate their worst instincts than the Democrats do,” the liberal talk show host, who’s spent the last five years spreading hate towards conservatives, seriously said.
He continued: “[B]ut if both sides do this, how come Nancy Pelosi can corral her crazies and you can’t corral yours?”
The idea that the radical left doesn’t have the media helping their cause on the daily, is absurd. All one has to do is turn on the television and see how CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC or CBS covered last year’s riots or the violent riots happening right now in Minnesota.
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Read the transcript portions below:
The Late Show
4/12/2021
STEPHEN COLBERT: How do you corral people who don't have any particularly loyalty to you as the speaker because they've all got to answer to their constituents. You said in 2011, when you were elected to the top job, you became "The mayor of crazy town." I remember living in downtown crazy town, starting around 2010. What do you mean by that? Do you think you contained the crazies?
(...)
STEPHEN COLBERT: Why do you think that you were going for a walk? Why do you think that your own party jumped so far in a crazy direction? I'm not saying it's necessarily your responsibility, but it was certainly while you were a member of the leadership of your own party. Do you see a -- an inflection point within the party where they started to go so crazy right?
JOHN BOEHNER: Well, listen, we were just at the beginning of -- we had the internet, but all the social media stuff was just starting to come on to the scene, but we had talk radio, mostly conservative, all these cable news channels, all they did were politics all night, and what happened around 2009, 2010, '11, is that the right-wing media just went really -- they wanted noise and they wanted more noise, and these people were only too happy to give them noise and they got a lot of air time. So I saw the beginnings of this. It's gotten a lot worse since, and the problem is not just on the far right. It's on the far left as well. People get elected, know how to use social media, know how to use talk radio and the cable people to build their brand, if you will. They're noise-makers. Gets them a lot of attention. Helps them raise money, but doesn't do anything on behalf of the country.
COLBERT: Well, i’ll uh let me just--- for a moment I’ll accept your premise both sides do this, though I think the Republicans have gotten better at having a media arm that helps inflate their worst instincts than the Democrats do, but if both sides do this, how come Nancy Pelosi can corral her crazies and you can’t corral yours?
BOEHNER: She's done frankly a better job of holding her party together. I've watched it over the 30 years I’ve been around Congress. Democrats are always more willing to stick together than Republicans are.
COLBERT: Wait a second. I don't think that's true.
BOEHNER: The very nature --
COLBERT: The Republicans have a monolithic quality, the Democrats are always a coalition of diverse interests.
BOEHNER: Uh, Republicans tend to be more independent-minded than Democrats. I've just seen it over the years. Anyway, Pelosi's done a pretty good job of holding them together thus far.
