Stephen Colbert riffed Paramount International’s $16 million settlement of Donald Trump‘s lawsuit, calling the cost a “large fats bribe” and joking concerning the prospects that new proprietor Skydance will attempt stress him to again off from humor directed on the president.
In a clip from Monday’s The Late Present posted on social media, Colbert joked in his monologue, “As somebody who has all the time been a proud worker of this community, I’m offended, and I don’t know if something will ever restore my belief on this firm. However simply taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would assist.”
Colbert was off when Paramount and Trump’s crew introduced the settlement earlier this month. Trump had sued CBS over the way in which that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris within the lead as much as the 2024 election. Many authorized specialists noticed the lawsuit as meritless, and so did the Paramount-CBS’ authorized crew, however the firm wants Trump administration approval for its merger with Skydance.
Colbert additionally mentioned in his monologue, “This settlement is for a nuisance lawsuit Trump filed, claiming that 60 Minutes deceptively edited their interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris final fall. Paramount is aware of they may have simply fought it as a result of in their very own phrases, the lawsuit was ‘utterly with out benefit.’ And take note, Paramount produced Transformers: Rise of the Beast. They know utterly with out benefit.”
Colbert added, “Now, in contrast to the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount’s settlement didn’t embody an apology. That’s good. As an alternative, the company launched a press release the place they mentioned, ‘It’s possible you’ll take our cash, however you’ll by no means take our dignity. It’s possible you’ll, nevertheless, buy our dignity for the low, low worth of $16 million. We’d like the money.’”
“Now, I imagine this type of difficult monetary settlement with a sitting authorities official has a technical identify in authorized circles: It’s large fats bribe, as a result of this all comes as Paramount’s house owners try to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our community to a brand new proprietor, Skydance.”
Colbert additionally confirmed a headline from Puck. “Among the TV typers on the market are running a blog that after Skydance will get CBS, the brand new proprietor’s need to please Trump may put stress on late night time host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.” Colbert then pointed to his new mustache. “However how are they going to place stress on Stephen Colbert if they will’t discover him?”
In saying the settlement, Paramount mentioned the “lawsuit is totally separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval course of.” The transaction continues to be pending earlier than the FCC. Some lawmakers, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have referred to as for an investigation to see if anti-bribery legal guidelines have been damaged.
