Stephen Colbert doesn't buy Mike Pence as Trump's op-ed mole. Jimmy Kimmel is convinced he knows who is.

Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert hunt down Trump op-ed mole
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show)

Washington is still reeling from Wednesday's New York Times op-ed from a member of the self-described White House "resistance," Stephen Colbert said on Thursday's Late Show. All the news reports are describing it as "explosive," but "the word I would have used for this op-ed is confusing," Colbert said. "Because if you're inside the White House, pretending to be loyal to the president but secretly thwarting the president to protect the rest of us from him, why would you tell us? Now he'll try to stop you."

"Well, now the hunt for the author is on — the op-ed has sent tremors through the West Wing and launched a frantic guessing game," Colbert said. He wasn't persuaded by the argument that, due to the word "lodestar," the author was Vice President Mike Pence — though "it's so unlike Mike Pence to make a strange word choice," he deadpanned. "Just ask his wife, 'Mother.'"

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.