CNN host Michael Smerconish criticized Stephen Colbert for going “too far” with an anti-Trump monologue last week that has caught the attention of the Federal Communications Commission.
On his program Saturday, Smerconish discussed the “increasingly harsh rhetoric” coming from progressives that threaten to “overshadow any message Trump’s opponents wish to convey.”
As an example, he brought up Colbert’s monologue on CBS’s “Late Show,” in which he mocked Trump over abruptly ending an interview with CBS’s John Dickerson on “Face the Nation” when he was pressed on his unverified claims that President Obama wiretapped his office. After calling the episode “Disgrace the Nation,” Colbert went on to say that Trump’s “mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.”
“Consider Stephen Colbert’s monologue last Monday, the late-night comedian whose new show initially struggled, has sharpened his attacks against the newly elected president and he’s been rewarded with ratings,” Smerconish said. “But Monday he went too far with his Trump/Putin oral sex reference which crossed the line.
After playing a clip of Colbert’s monologue, ending with the “cock holster” line, Smerconish said that such vulgar words are not meant to network television, but rather better suited for cable channels, like HBO.
Is the left "overplaying its hand in opposing President Trump?" @smerconish says "intolerance" is foolish politics https://t.co/6RUl1iIUf3— CNN (@CNN) May 6, 2017
He listed two reasons why the monologue was a bad move for Colbert.
“First, it was crass and in bad taste, quite a departure for the Sunday school teaching Colbert and a far cry from the democratic campaign mantra, when they go low, we go high,” Smerconish said. “But second, it’s foolish politics. On President Obama’s watch, the right lost credibility with all but themselves when they allowed their discomfort with President Obama’s background to devolve into charges of birtherism.”
Smerconish went on to list other examples of “intolerance” catching up with people politically, including UC Berkeley canceling a speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter, which elevated the “bombastic nuisance into a martyr.”
