Several crew members filming a comedy segment at the US Capitol for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” were charged with illegal entry earlier this week, leading to prominent Republicans, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, falsely “rebellious” exclaimed.
“Last night, producers of Stephen Colbert’s program on CBS committed an uprising near the capital of the United States,” Carlson falsely claimed on his program Friday night.
Carlson referred to the arrest of seven production team members for Colbert’s CBS program Thursday night, which filmed a segment in the Capitol with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a harsh puppet voiced by comedian Robert Smigel. Capitol police said Friday the arrests came after the building was closed to visitors and crews had already been told to leave the building.
Colbert’s team had completed regular interviews with lawmakers and was filming “last comedy elements” in the building’s corridors when the arrests took place, CBS News said in a statement. All seven crew members were slapped with charges of illegal entry.
The arrests quickly became fodder for Republicans who wanted to divert their attention from this week’s hearings on the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 by falsely equating the arrests of crew members with the violence of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“It’s exactly what happened on January 6, so we’ll take a closer look at what the penalties are,” Carlson told his viewers Friday night.
He’s wrong. In the January 6 case, five people were killed and more than 140 officers were injured after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. In the case of Colbert’s team, they were arrested during the filming of a comedy segment with a puppet best known for hurting people’s feelings.
And there were hurt feelings. Congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene took a photo of comedian Smigel with his puppet and posted it on Twitter to whine about “targeted harassment.”
“Now you have all become involved in insurrection and targeted harassment against me and my Republican colleagues.” Greene tweeted. “I’ll tell the full story next week.”
Disinformation trader and Pizzagate hawker Mike Cernovich echoed a similar point of conversation on Twitter.
“If they are not the same as J6 defendants criminally charged, then more evidence of selective prosecution arises,” Cernovich said in a tweet. “Judges can make just as much noise before the court loses all legitimacy. Throw the book to these offenders. ”
And Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) took the opportunity to compare Colbert’s production team that was in the Capitol with a tour that Loudermilk gave to January 6 contestants one day before the violence broke out.
“So while they are accusing me of giving illegal tours through the Capitol, they are giving illegal tours through the Capitol.” Loudermilk saidwhat Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) accused him of giving the production team access.
The difference, of course, is that comedian Smigel was armed with a microphone, and one of the men for whom Loudermilk gave a tour was later seen marching on the Capitol while filming an accomplice armed with ‘a spear while making targeted threats against lawmakers.
