President Obama wasn’t the only politician to give a speech in Washington Tuesday night. Former GOP presidential candidate and current Tea Party darling — as well as Stephen Colbert‘s bestie — Herman Cain gave his response to Obama’s State of the Union at the National Press Club representing the group Tea Party Express. There, Cain shed some light on his South Carolina shenanigans with the Comedy Central host. Turns out, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO is just interested in energizing the youth vote.
“I think Stephen Colbert’s endorsement of me is a marvelous thing,” Cain told the 30 or so folks who gathered at the Press Club to watch his webcasted address. “And here’s why — one of the things that my organization has as an objective is to keep the youth vote inspired…they’re not going to watch the shows that some of us more mature people watch to find out what’s going on in the race, we have to go to where they are, they are watching the Stephen Colberts, they are watching the Jon Stewarts, so, yes, I accept this endorsement.”
Cain and Colbert appeared together Friday at the College of Charleston in front of a mostly liberal crowd. While Cain was generally treated respectfully, when he mentioned that folks should consider joining the Tea Party movement, he was treated with groans from the crowd, according to reports. Despite that, he considered the experience a good one. “It was energizing,” he grinned.
So will we be seeing more of this unlikely duo?
“I asked Stephen about doing some rallies with me and he said, well I got 167 TV shows to do a year,” Cain admitted, saying that Colbert agreed to tape an introduction for Cain that the businessman could use at events or rallies. “He really does want to try and energize the college vote and the youth vote, so we’ll be doing that.”
