Stephen Colbert took time for the Late Show on Monday night to downplay the arrests of seven of his employees in a Capitol Hill building and joked that they had performed “first-degree puppetry.”
Members of the Late Show’s production team were arrested Thursday night at the Longworth House office building after filming interviews earlier in the day for a segment of the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment.
“Once they finished their interviews, [my staffers] they were doing last-minute puppetry and make-up jokes in the hallway when Triumph and my men were approached and detained by Capitol police, ”Colbert said in his opening monologue.
Capitol police said the seven officers, along with Robert Smigel, who voiced Triumph, were “unaccompanied and without an ID card from Congress” on the sixth floor of the building, which was closed to the public at the time.
“The Capitol police were just doing their job, my staff was just doing their job, everyone was very professional, everyone was very calm,” Colbert said. “My employees were detained, processed and released. A very unpleasant experience for my staff. “
The show’s last host said Capitol police were more cautious about unsupervised and unauthorized visitors to the Capitol than they were 18 months ago “and for good reason” – targeting the Capitol riots on January 6.
All seven officers were charged with illegal entry, cops said, and Colbert said the crimes were a “puppet first degree.”
CBS said the crew was in the Capitol on Thursday to conduct authorized interviews with members of the House.
But Fox News reported that officers were charged by the commission’s January 6 hearing hours before the arrests because they lacked proper press documents.
Actor and comedian Robert Smigel plays Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in the corridors in front of the House Election Commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol hearing at the Cannon House office. Getty Images
They were reportedly released back into Longworth’s building by a congressional aide who thought they needed to conduct more interviews.
The production team stayed in the building to film segments in the hallway when they were arrested around 8:30 p.m.
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