Herman Cain will be a guest on The Colbert Report on Thursday, July 28, Cain’s campaign tells TPM.
That puts Cain in one of the most scorching hotseats on television just days after he said Colbert’s lead-in, Jon Stewart, “does not like me…because I’m black and conservative.”
They may be two different shows, but by appearing on Colbert, Cain is headed to Stewart’s home turf in the midst of a rhetorical fight between Stewart and Fox News that’s partially about Cain.
Fox News all but declared war on Stewart following his appearance on Fox News Sunday June 19. Suggestions that Stewart engaged in a racial attack on Cain have run rampant on Fox, leading Stewart to fight back and Cain to keep getting questions about it.
That story began on June 9, when Stewart mocked Cain thusly:
Critics at Fox said the clip reminded them of Amos and Andy — a charge Chris Wallace asked Stewart about when he appeared on Fox News Sunday. This from the transcript:
WALLACE: You’re planning a remake of “Amos ‘n’ Andy”?
STEWART: Why don’t you show — do you want to show me doing the voices for all the other people that we do? You want to see my New York voice? My Chinese guy voice?
Team Cain insists the issue is a sideshow, and says Cain has no beef with Stewart. But Cain seems willing to discuss the topic when asked, and has gotten a lot of mileage out of his “Stewart doesn’t like me because I’m black and conservative” line. Here’s a link to Cain on The O’Reilly Factor.
Cain will probably be his usual engaging, charming self on The Colbert Report July 28. But with Fox still battling Stewart over racism, it’s possible Cain might face tougher questions than he expected.
