When Cockburn heard the news of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show staffers being arrested at the Capitol, he knew this case was no joke (unlike Colbert’s show). On June 16, seven of them were arrested for trespassing in the Longworth House Office Building.
The Washington Examiner reports that the Capitol Police said, “Responding officers observed seven individuals, unescorted and without Congressional ID, in a sixth-floor hallway. …The building was closed to visitors, and these individuals were determined to be a part of a group that had been directed by the USCP to leave the building earlier in the day.”
However, this testimony contradicts what Stephen Colbert himself said when he brought it up on his show Monday night.
“On Wednesday, June 15 and Thursday, June 16, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was on-site at the Capitol with a production team to record interviews for a comedy segment on behalf of ‘The Late Show.’ Their interviews at the Capitol were authorized and pre-arranged through congressional aides of the members interviewed.”
He also said, “My staffers were detained, processed, then released.” How quaint. Cockburn remembers when trespassing was an offense that warranted imprisonment without a trial and up to three years in prison. Cockburn attempted to give the Capitol Police’s Public Information Office a call, but nobody answered. The plot thickens.
In a recent letter, Republican congressmen Jim Jordan and Rodney Davis accused Colbert’s staff of “causing ‘disturbances’ at the offices of several Republican members, including ‘banging’ on their office doors.” That included the doors of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Jordan himself. Their letter also called for the release of camera footage during the event along with photographs and witness statements.
Yet Cockburn can’t help but think this isn’t enough. If the government genuinely wants to find the underlying cause of this event, America needs hearings, even a commission. Stephen Colbert is nothing less than a danger to democracy (him and his little dog, too)!
