TONIGHT: @JoeBiden talks about the state of affairs in Washington, and whether Trump has changed the American presidency forever. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/LtHH7fr8zP
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 14, 2017
Vice President Joe Biden has kicked off his book tour for his new book, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, the story of the year that followed his son’s brain cancer diagnosis. Biden is calling his promotional tour the American Promise Tour and while it is sure to create thoughts about the former veep and 2020, the focus of this interview is our current president. While Colbert asks if Trump has changed the presidency going forward, Biden replies that he hopes the current administration and the environment that bred it goes down “as the single exception in American history.”
Biden points out how Trump started as a joke that distracted from the same political drama we’d seen for years, bringing a reality TV flair to the earlier days of Election 2016. Then he was elected and the joke started to lose its luster until the current point where some people are worried he will spark the end of society. That’s what Biden hits on during the chat:
“I lay you 8-to-5 – how many of you are now worried about the stability of the republic? How many are now worried about this new phony nationalism and its ‘us against them’? How many are worried about this populism designed to essentially undermine the essence of the Bill of Rights?
“I think people are worried…And, by the way, it goes beyond President Trump, in my view.”
Colbert also asked Biden if he regrets not challenging Hillary Clinton and Trump for the presidency in 2016, saying that he instead regretted “the circumstance that led me not to be able to run.”
(Via The Late Show)