CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert has admitted that although he disagrees with almost everything that comes out of the mouth of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, there's one thing that he finds "appealing," something that has been the real estate mogul's "one saving grace."
"There's a populism to Trump that I found very appealing," Colbert said in an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. "The party elders would like him to go away but the people have decided that he is not going to."
However, Colbert clarified that despite that bit of admiration, Trump's proposals are "more than a little shocking."
"I may disagree with anything that he's saying and think that his proposals are a little...well, more than a little shocking," said added, The Wall Street Journal reported. "But there is something really hopeful about the fact that, well, 36 percent of the likely voters want him so the people in the machine don't get to say otherwise. That's the one saving grace, I think, of his candidacy."
Face The Nation host John Dickerson noted that Colbert's words sounded like respect. "What I do respect is that he knows it is an emotional appeal," Colbert replied, CNN reported. "And it might be emotional appeals that I can't respect. But he knows that you have to appeal to the voter. And that's why, I may be wrong - I made a big deal about there's no way he's gonna win."
Colbert said that misreading of Trump's popularity has to do with not "know[ing] anything about politics."
"Yeah, but you do know about the country," Dickerson replied. "You have a sense of where the country is. You have a sense. And I wonder how you get that now."
Colbert said that the reason he ended his popular satire show on Comedy Central, "The Colbert Report," because of a loss of appetite for that type of humor.
"That's one of the reasons I stopped the old show is that I had a sense where the country is," said Colbert. He added: "I think people don't really want constant divisiveness. I really don't think they want that. And that's what I was aping. And I thought, 'Ah, I can't really drink that cup anymore. Cause I don't think people really want to hear it.'"
