Stephen Colbert took his own network to task on Thursday for hiring former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney, whom he called a “craven toady to a tyrant,” as a paid on-air political commentator for CBS News.
“You know I’m a company man — I love CBS, our parent company Paramount, and its parent company, probably a defense contractor who makes b-ner pills, there’s no way of knowing,” Colbert said during his monologue on Thursday’s CBS “Late Show.”
“Recently, my network got a lot of criticism, much of it from itself, because CBS News has hired the ex-president’s former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to ‘provide political analysis across the network’s broadcasts and platforms.'”
Colbert then turned to the camera and said: “What the f–k?”
He continued: “I for one can’t wait to hear Mulvaney’s trenchant and objective political analysis considering that back in 2020, he suggested that ‘coronavirus was the media hoax of the day,’ and after his boss extorted [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] for dirt on the Bidens, he said, ‘Get over it.'”
During his time with the Trump administration, Mulvaney ruffled journalists’ feathers on several occasions. He accused the media of seeking to bring down the Trump presidency with its coverage during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mulvaney also told reporters to “get over it” after President Donald Trump withheld vital military aid to Ukraine while seeking incriminating information about Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Colbert also lambasted Mulvaney for a Wall Street Journal op-ed from November 2020 in which the former acting White House chief of staff incorrectly predicted that Trump would graciously concede defeat and facilitate an orderly transfer of power.
“Is Mick Mulvaney psychic? Get this man to Vegas! He’s Nostradumbass!” Colbert joked.
Trump has long claimed that he is the winner of the 2020 presidential election and that President Biden’s victory was fraudulent, though the courts have rejected the claims of widespread voting irregularities.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, Mulvaney resigned from his position as special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Colbert criticized his network’s news division for the decision to “put this craven toady to a tyrant on their payroll.”
He quipped that the Mulvaney hire was part of a strategy by the network to appeal to conservative-leaning viewers.
CBS was “reworking our programming in the hopes of cozying up the GOP, so get ready for our new spring lineup: ‘Young QShaman,’ ‘Bob Restricts the Reproductive Rights of Abishola,’ and ‘Blue Bloods,'” Colbert joked.
Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC and ESPN SportsCenter star, wasn’t impressed with Colbert’s “tedious jokes.” He tweeted that the late-night star should use his clout at the network and force executives to fire Mulvaney.
“Give them a choice — keep him or [Mulvaney],” Olbermann tweeted. He then claimed that he forced MSNBC executives to fire talk show host Michael Savage, who was let go from the network after a brief, four-month stint for making homophobic comments in 2003.
Colbert, who earns an estimated $15 million annual salary from CBS, isn’t the only Tiffany Network employee who is reportedly upset over the Mulvaney hire.
“I know everyone I talked to today was embarrassed about the hiring,” a CBS News employee told the Washington Post on Thursday.
Another anonymous employee at the network told the paper: “Everyone is baffled.”
“CBS News is continuing to build up its roster of contributors on both sides of the aisle ahead of the midterms and the 2024 election,” a CBS spokesperson said.