Late night comedian Stephen Colbert took a break from pillorying the president Wednesday evening, and turned his attention to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and her botched report on Donald Trump’s tax returns.
Beside nailing the nature of Maddow’s media misfire, Colbert’s impression of the cable news hostess is frighteningly accurate.
The Maddow fiasco started Tuesday evening when she tweeted: “BREAKING: We’ve got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC. (Seriously).”
Trump refused to release his tax returns during the campaign. It has been a major, ongoing source of interest to many people, and the president and his team continue to use an assortment of questionable excuses to skirt the issue.
However, when Maddow tweeted “tax returns,” she actually meant just two pages from the president’s 2005 tax filings.
Maddow didn’t even secure the documents, which, by the way, are client copies. Daily Beast columnist David Cay Johnston, who appeared that evening on her show, did that.
It was nearly an hour before she followed up with a clarifying tweet that read, “What we’ve got is from 2005… the President’s 1040 form… details to come tonight 9PM ET, MSNBC.”
Despite this obvious letdown, many tuned into her program anyway, hoping to learn something about the president’s oft-discussed, but secretive, personal taxes.
Maddow’s program began, and she immediately launched into a 15-minute-plus, seemingly endless monologue about American politics, the Russians, transparency, etc.
It felt like it would go on forever. Then, when it seemed like she would finally address the tax documents, she cut to a commercial break. When the ads finally ended, Maddow made the big reveal.
It was a total debacle.
All Maddow had were two pages that showed Trump paid more than $30 million in taxes in 2005. He also saved a lot of cash by declaring business losses. Her supposed scoop drew criticism immediately from politicos, pundits and entertainers on both sides of the aisle.
Viewers were understandably irate, as many felt Maddow had baited them with a non-story.
However, the story and the tweets alone could probably be forgiven. For those who sat through Maddow’s program, the real sin is that she built up the eventual “reveal” with a rambling, self-indulgent monologue that felt like it would never end.
On Wednesday, Colbert used his late night program to lampoon the MSNBC disaster.
Along with parodying the general failure of Maddow’s supposed scoop, Colbert’s impression was also spot-on. He has her mannerisms down, including her flailing gesticulations, her eyebrow tick and her tendency to spit words out like a machine gun, only to be followed by an abrupt silence.
Enjoy.
