Stephen Colbert: Bill Taylor’s testimony confirms what Trump already confessed
By Matt Moore
Stephen Colbert’s monologue explained how the testimony of former Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor confirms what President Trump already confessed.
Tuesday marked another major day in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The testimony of Bill Taylor, former Ambassador to Ukraine, laid out evidence of a quid pro quo and cover-up effort by the White House. But for Stephen Colbert, this is old news.
Taylor’s testimony has been described as “devastating” and a “bombshell.” Some believe that it could help accelerate the impeachment process and spells out even more bad news for President Trump’s administration.
The Ukraine scandal remains the lead story for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The late night show was back on the story just a day after Colbert called out Trump and Republicans for a different scandal involving the proposed location of the G7 summit at Trump’s Doral golf resort.
As Colbert explained in his monologue, Taylor’s testimony does not reveal anything new. Instead it just confirms what we’ve already heard President Trump and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admit to since the story broke.
Colbert recaps Bill Taylor’s role in the Ukraine story after reporting that the testimony caused sighs and gasps from those who heard it. Taylor was among those who exchanged text messages about U.S. military aid to Ukraine and coordinating a White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Those text messages made headlines both in the news and in late night.
Taylor’s testimony only confirmed what Colbert assumed happened and what could be concluded from President Trump’s own words. For Colbert, it was clear since the summary of Trump’s phone conversation with Zelensky that a quid pro quo was in play.
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Bill Taylor’s testimony ended late on Tuesday so The Late Show was able to pore over the details quite as much as the would have liked. Expect more on this story on Wednesday night after Colbert and company have time to read over Taylor’s statement. We’ll also get an idea of how the White House plans to counter Taylor’s testimony, which typically results in more material for Colbert.