No talent. Filthy. Not funny.
These were the words Donald Trump used to attack comedian Stephen Colbert, along with members of the media, in his latest blast against those he believes are pitted against him.
“There’s nothing funny about what he says,” Mr Trump told Time magazine.
“And what he says is filthy. And you have kids watching. And it only builds up my base. It only helps me, people like him. The guy was dying. By the way they were going to take him off television, then he started attacking me and he started doing better.”
He added: “But his show was dying. I’ve done his show. But when I did his show, which by the way was very highly rated. It was high highest rating. The highest rating he’s ever had.”
The Hollywood Reporter said Mr Trump appeared to be overstating his claim about the Colbert’s failing ratings. It said this week’s episode had the highest ratings in 19 months.
The New York billionaire has frequently featured as the subject of Colbert’s jokes on The Late Show. He said he had learned to turn off those channels he did not like.
“For instance I don’t watch CNN. I don’t watch MSNBC. Scarborough used to treat me great. But because I don’t do interviews and stuff and want to… he went the other way. Which is fine,” he said.
“He’s got some problems. But I don’t watch the show anymore. It drives him crazy.”
He went on to say he liked to watch Fox News, which he claimed was not only nicer to him, but also more accurate. He was disparaging about CNN and several of its journalists.
“CNN in the morning, Chris Cuomo, he’s sitting there like a chained lunatic. He’s like a boiler ready to explode, the level of hatred,” he said.
“And the entire, you know the entire CNN platform is that way. This Don Lemon who’s perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting.”
