Much of America watched former FBI Director James Comey testify in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday. Nielsen Media reported around 19.5 million watched on television, but millions more streamed the testimony online since it took place during the typical work day.
President Donald Trump was among those watching ― and he soon publicly addressed the various accusations Comey leveled against him.
“Comey was pretty rough on the president,” Stephen Colbert said “The Late Show” Friday night. “But right after the testimony, Trump sent his longtime personal lawyer and devil who has a thing he wants you to sign, Marc Kasowitz to respond.”
The host played a clip of the lawyer claiming that Comey’s testimony vindicated Trump, because in Kasowitz’s words, the former FBI director confirmed publicly what he had told Trump privately. This referred to Trump’s insistence that Comey had told him that he was not under investigation by the FBI.
As a quick refresher into this confusing mess: It is true that when Trump asked Comey whether he was personally under investigation, he was not. But Trump associates were under investigation and Comey’s testimony on Thursday indicated that Trump may be facing an investigation into whether the president obstructed justice.
This is where Kasowitz began an extremely frustrating contradiction, as Colbert explained.
“But even though, everything Comey said proved Trump wasn’t guilty, he was also a liar?”
- Stephen Colbert
“But even though, everything Comey said proved Trump wasn’t guilty, he was also a liar?” Colbert said.
He then played another part of the Kasowitz clip where the lawyer detailed the various ways Comey had allegedly lied during the testimony.
This bizarre argument tracked with what the president later tweeted.
During his testimony, Comey also called Trump a liar on multiple occasions.
It’s a classic he said, he said (American politics still being dominated by men, of course).
Now you’ve got to choose whether to believe the “Twin Peaks” character Agent Dale Cooper incarnate in Comey or... well... the apparent “liar in chief.”
