Stephen Colbert likes to give credit where it’s due.
The Late Show host raised a toast to the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” also known as Jake Chansley, for his potty-mouthed attack on President Donald Trump over the Epstein files.
Chansley set the internet ablaze on Thursday when he responded to an August 2023 post on X from Trump, saying, “F--- this stupid piece of s---. What a fraud.”
“F--- Donald Trump! What do you think Epstein & Isreal (sic) have on Trump???,” he added in a follow-up post. The Jan. 6 rioter either deleted his account or was suspended by the platform shortly after the first post went viral.
After reading the post, Colbert riffed: “This scandal is costing Trump a lot of allies. The latest to jump ship is the QAnon Shaman ... I haven’t agreed with what this man has said and done in the past, but now that he posted this, I just want to say this: Mr. Shaman, a toast to you,” Colbert said while holding a Champagne bottle and glass.
Chansley, one of Trump’s most infamous and controversial supporters, first rose to prominence during the Jan. 6 riots, where he appeared in photographs shirtless, covered in war paint, and donning a bison-horned headdress.
Colbert interrupted his praise of Chansley. “Let’s just see what else he wrote about this administration,” Colbert said before reading another of Chansley’s posts: “Special Presidential Envoy Richard Grenell possesses the ability to bite people and inject them with venom that allows those subjected to the venom to become under a hypnotic spell.”
“Let’s just get that back in there,” Colbert said as he poured the champagne back into the bottle. “Just get that back in there very carefully. Take your time. No need to rush. There you go.”
Trump has faced blowback from his conspiracy-minded supporters after the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded in early July that Epstein died by suicide, rather than being murdered, and that no “client list” of wealthy co-conspirators exists—the subject of whirling conspiracy theories among the president’s supporters.
QAnon conspiracy theorists believe that Trump and a person known as Q are working together to tackle a ring of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and child traffickers, among them leading Democrats. Many believed Jeffrey Epstein was part of the ring, and his death in custody in 2019 only hardened their conviction.
Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in prison over his role in the Capitol riots, was released in May 2023, and received a formal pardon from the president in January along with 1,500 participants.
