Following the #FireColbert backlash that followed his rather crude monologue about Donald Trump earlier this week, Stephen Colbert has responded strongly and unapologetically to the controversy.

On Monday’s edition of ‘The Late Show’ (May 1st), the late night talk show heavyweight made a joke referring to oral sex, Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin in his opening monologue that got many viewers, many of them Trump supporters, incredibly angry.

Stephen ColbertStephen Colbert with his wife Evelyn at the Met Gala 2017

A campaign to have him sacked from his post, ‘#FireColbert’, went viral on Twitter and a boycott of advertisers of his CBS chat show was also launched.

“Welcome to ‘The Late Show,’ I’m your host Stephen Colbert,” he announced at the start of Wednesday’s broadcast, two days after the furore kicked off. “Still? Am I still the host?” he said off camera. “I’m still the host!”

“Now,” he continued, “folks, if you saw my monologue Monday, you know that I was a little upset with Donald Trump for insulting a friend of mine. So, at the end of that monologue, I had a few choice insults for the president in return. I don’t regret that. I believe he can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight.”

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The original joke came after Trump, who is just over 100 days into his controversial presidency, walked out of an interview with CBS’ political correspondent John Dickerson, whom Colbert counts as his friend.

“Mr. Trump, your presidency, I love your presidency; I call it ‘Disgrace the Nation,'” Colbert joked. “The only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c*** holster.”

Colbert stayed silent about the controversy on social media, and on Tuesday’s show, but he discussed it at the start of Wednesday’s show.

“While I would do it again, I would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be,” he said. “I’m not going to repeat the phrase. But I just want to say, for the record, life is short, and anyone who expresses their love in their own way, is to me an American hero. I think we can all agree on that. I hope even the president and I can agree on that. Nothing else. But, that.”

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