Widespread protests against racism and police brutality have now entered their second week, with a poll finding the Black Lives Matter movement has gained increasing popularity. As Late Show host Stephen Colbert noted on Tuesday, 53 percent of registered voters now support the cause, up from 42 percent at the end of April.
"So just over half of Americans voters believe black people have the right to live," said Colbert. "Good news? It's a start?"
Less popular lately are "monuments to America's racist history, like confederate statues and Donald Trump," he continued. According to a CNN poll, Trump's approval rating is at a dismal 38 percent.
"These polls are a tough reality to face, and like all reality, Trump is denying it," said Colbert, calling the president's futile search for reassurance "pathetic."
The polls aren't the only reality Trump is avoiding, either. The president has also shared conspiracy theories in an attempt to smear Martin Gugino, an elderly protester who had to be hospitalised after Buffalo police pushed him to the ground.
"Let me get this straight," said Colbert, recounting Trump's tweets. "This 75-year-old man is an anti-fascist — which you somehow consider suspicious — he was somehow able to fall harder than he was pushed, fake a fractured skull, and spontaneously bleed from his ears, all the while operating a secret scanning device in order to black out all police communication equipment?"
Colbert further explained that, as drastic as it may sound, "defund the police" doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. will have no cops at all. It simply means they'll receive less money, which can then be put toward services such as mental-health care, housing, and community mediation.
"Right now, because those other services have been underfunded for years, all of that eventually falls to the police," said Colbert. "And that's way too many things for them to be doing. It's like in the Middle Ages, it wasn't a good idea that your barber was also your dentist and your surgeon. And saying 'defund the barber' doesn't mean no-one's getting haircuts."
Topics Activism Stephen Colbert Donald Trump
