Donald Trump may be a light-night comedian’s meal ticket, but Stephen Colbert also salutes a serious angle to the GOP front-runner.
“I may disagree with anything that he’s saying and think that his proposals are a little — well, more than a little shocking,” Colbert told CBS stablemate John Dickerson for an interview airing Sunday.
“But there is something really hopeful about the fact that, well, 36 percent of the likely voters want him, so the people in the machine don’t get to say otherwise. That’s the one saving grace, I think, of his candidacy.”
“The Late Show” host also says one of the reasons he stopped “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central “is that I had a sense where the country is. I think people don’t really want constant divisiveness. I really don’t think they want that. And that’s what I was aping. And I thought, ‘I can’t really drink that cup anymore. Because I don’t think people really want to hear it.’”
Asked if he has “respect” for Trump’s populist appeal, Colbert said, “What I do respect is that he knows it is an emotional appeal. And it might be emotional appeals that I can’t respect, but he knows that you have to appeal to the voter. And that’s why, I may be wrong — I made a big deal about there’s no way he’s gonna win.”
.@StephenAtHome says the @realDonaldTrump campaign is “appealing” https://t.co/bT5v33YXTO
— Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) December 23, 2015