Late night host Stephen Colbert slammed Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory birther line Monday night, repeatedly calling the GOP nominee a liar and saying he is not qualified to be president.
Colbert opened the more than 10-minute segment to boos from the crowd when he so much as mentioned Trump’s name. He called Trump’s brief acknowledgement on Friday that President Barack Obama indeed was born in the United States a “firm grasp of the obvious.”
“Next I assume he’s going to announce that water is wet, bears poop in the woods and Donald Trump is not qualified to be president,” he quipped.
Colbert said he really took issue with Trump’s blatantly false assertion that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement in 2008, and that he “finished it.”
“No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t,” Colbert said. “And I know you didn’t because I was alive and on TV. But you know what? Maybe memory is a tricky thing. Maybe I remember it one way…and Donald Trump is a liar.”
Colbert went on to play numerous clips of Trump spouting birther conspiracy theories, showing that Trump touted it for an extended period of time and slamming him for acting as if he’d put the issue to bed for everyone else. He also tied support for Trump’s campaign directly to the birther movement, saying that is why many are voting for the GOP nominee.
“You don’t get to flog this issue for five years and then act like you’re correcting everybody else,” Colbert said. “We’re not crazy. We were there. We all saw you do it. Even the people who support you saw you do it. It’s why they support you.”
Watch the full segment below:
