Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton appeared as the guest on probably the most unabashedly anti-Trump, pro-Clinton late night talk show on the networks right now, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After having to answer questions she didn’t like from NPR, PBS and Jedediah Bila on The View, Colbert made sure that Clinton had a comfortable and easy interview, with loads of mutual moaning over Clinton losing the election.
“It must not have been easy to write this book,” Colbert sympathetically stated, to start off the segment.
“It wasn't easy. It was painful. It was horrible reliving it,” Clinton gushed, before boasting that she had to be as “open” and “candid” as she could about the “mistakes she made.” Funny enough, she never seems to mention any of those mistakes in any one of the multiple interviews she’s done in the past two weeks, and didn't this time either.
But she did have time to mention again, all the things and people she blames for losing the election: James Comey, sexism, voter suppression, Russia, etc:
CLINTON: And, you know, being as candid, open as I could be about the mistakes I made and talking about those. But, also, trying to come to grips, as I write in the book, about everything from, you know, sexism and misogyny, to voter suppression, to the unusual behavior of the former director of the F.B.I., and the Russians, and the Russians. And you have been sounding the alarm about this, because I believe so strongly that they think they succeeded in messing with our democracy. And I just can't abide that.
COLBERT: Do you think they succeeded in messing with our democracy?
CLINTON: Yes I do. I do. I do.
After talking about Russia, and Putin’s “personal grudge” against Clinton because, she said, as Secretary of State she questioned the legitimacy of their 2011 parliamentary elections, and because she was a woman, Colbert wondered “what grounds” there would be to use the Russia hacking excuse as a reason to debate the legitimacy of the election results:
Now, one of the things that happened is, as you said, it's clear the Russians were trying to influence our election. You said when you were on with Terry Gross at NPR, if it's proven, if there's a deeper connection, some sort of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, that would be grounds to question the legitimacy of the election of the President of the United States. ( Cheers and applause )
The audience loved that idea and responded enthusiastically.The CBS host admitted he had “fantasies” about the election results getting overturned, but wondered how it could get done:
My question is, my question is-- I mean, I have these fantasies, but my question is [laughter] -- --[to audience] seriously-- my question is what then? There is no constitutional mechanism to question the election.
Clinton agreed there was no way to contest the election results constitutionally. She laughably claimed that “nobody” was talking about contesting the election results, including herself, to which the audience reacted sympathetically with some wailing:
CLINTON: So as I say in the book, yeah, right. ( Laughter ) Nobody's talking about contesting the election, including me. [audience reacts with “awws”] But I do think-- no, because there is no mechanism.
COLBERT: [to audience] This is someone who believes in the Constitution, unlike the guy who got the job! [applause]
Nothing groundbreaking was asked by the host or admitted by Clinton during the tepid interview, just more excuse making by Clinton and gushy questions from the host. The show ended with Colbert pouring wine for Clinton and moaning again about her not being president.
“How did you get out of bed in the morning? Because I did not run for president, and I could barely do it,” he whined before joking:
“In 2000-- I don't think Al Gore shaved for a year,” he stated.
She laughed, “Yeah, that wasn't an option for me,” as the audience chuckled.
