‘First-degree puppetry’: Stephen Colbert addresses staffers’ Capitol arrests

Stephen Colbert carved out time on Monday evening’s “Late Present” to downplay the arrests of seven of his staffers inside a Capitol Hill constructing and joked that they dedicated “first-degree puppetry.”

Members of the “Late Present” manufacturing crew have been busted Thursday evening contained in the Longworth Home Workplace Constructing after filming interviews there earlier within the day for a phase of Triumph the Insult Comedian Canine.

“After they’d completed their interviews, [my staffers] have been doing a little last-minute puppetry and jokey make-’em-ups in a hallway, when Triumph and my of us have been approached and detained by Capitol Police,” Colbert mentioned throughout his opening monologue.

Capitol Police mentioned the seven staffers together with Robert Smigel, who voices Triumph, have been “unescorted and with out Congressional ID” on the sixth flooring of the constructing that was closed to the general public on the time.

Stephen Colbert addressed his workers’s arrests on the US Capitol throughout his monologue on Monday evening.

CBS

“The Capitol Police have been simply doing their job, my workers was simply doing their job, everybody was very skilled, everybody was very calm,” Colbert mentioned. “My staffers have been detained, processed and launched. A really disagreeable expertise for my workers.”

The late-show host mentioned Capitol Police are extra cautious about unattended and unpermitted guests on Capitol grounds than they have been 18 months in the past “and for an excellent motive” — referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

Every of the seven workers was charged with illegal entry, cops mentioned, and Colbert quipped that the offenses have been “first-degree puppetry.”

CBS has mentioned the crew was on the Capitol on Thursday to conduct approved interviews with Home members.

However Fox Information had reported that the staffers have been booted from the Jan. 6 committee listening to hours earlier than the arrests as a result of they lacked correct press credentials.

Actor and comic Robert Smigel performs as Triumph the Insult Comedian Canine within the hallways exterior the Home Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the US Capitol listening to within the Cannon Home Workplace Constructing.

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They have been reportedly let again into the Longworth constructing by a congressional aide who thought they'd extra interviews to conduct.

The manufacturing crew stayed within the constructing to movie segments within the hallway after they have been arrested round 8:30 p.m.