June 20, 2019

Stephen Colbert's Late Show monologue Wednesday night was a masterful deconstruction of Trump's Orlando rally. He hit many aspects, but the one that was most striking was how efficiently he debunked claims of massive overflow crowds and a sold-out venue.

As John Amato pointed out, if Trump hadn't filled that venue it would have been utterly pathetic.

Still, it's even more pathetic to almost fill it, have no overflow crowd, and lie to everyone that there actually is one.

“In the run-up to this thing, Trump and his folks kept saying that this thing was oversold,” Colbert said. “Something like 100,000 tickets or 120,000— something like that— for only 25,000 seats in the arena.”

“That’s why they said they had to have that ’45 Fest’ out in the parking lot for the overflow crowd of 75,000 people who couldn’t get in. That is impressive.”

“That is also a lie,” Colbert said. “And I know that’s a lie, because we sent a camera crew down there, with Jim Anchorton and Jill Newslady from ‘Real News Tonight,’ and this is footage they brought back from outside during the speech of that supposed overflow crowd.”

The camera pans to the overflow area where the giant screen is broadcasting the rally...you know what's coming, but stay for that supposed "sellout" crowd in the venue itself.

The best line I heard was the one after he played Trump's ridiculous line about "radical" Democrats "driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage. Democrats want to splinter us into factions and tribes. They want us divided."

"Yes, Democrats want to divide Americans into tribes that can't stand each other, says the man speaking to an angry mob all wearing the same hat," Colbert laughed.

I laughed too. It's always great to be able to deal with this shite shoveled into our faces every day with some biting, sharp humor.

(h/t Mediaite)

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