Fire alarm puller, whacky conspiracy theorist, anti-Semite, and far-left Congressman Jamaal Bowman is facing a tough primary challenge, and in an attempt to turn his political fortunes around, he journeyed over to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, where the eponymous host helped sanitize his history of spouting Hamas propaganda while also attacking Republicans for their opposition to Critical Race Theory.
Colbert asked Bowman, who is also a former principal, “One of the biggest fights going on, sort of, culture fights going on in the United States right now is in some school districts, generally controlled by Republican legislatures, have outlawed the teaching of what they call or consider Critical Race Theory, but rarely is, lessons on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. As somebody who used a head of school, what's your response to that? What are the values—what is the value of keeping that in schools?”
For Bowman, proper education is learning less about George Washington and more about cop killers. Still, despite the softball nature of Colbert’s question, Bowman couldn’t manage to answer it. Instead, he waxed poetic about diversity, “First of all, Republicans are bullies, man. They’re trying to bully the entire country into one singular way of thinking and our strength is our diversity as a nation. The fact that we come from different countries, have different backgrounds, different experiences, we need to learn more about each other because that's how you bring the country together and people together.”
He also spread disinformation about Republicans, “We have to do everything in our power to push back against banning of books, you know, taking over school districts, fighting back against DEI. We’re not going to be our most aspirational selves as a nation unless we embrace diversity, so that's what we have to do.”
Speaking of disinformation, Colbert followed up, “Spoiler, the polling is a little rough right now. You’re down by 17 points in some polls. Your opponent has criticized your opposition to U.S. support for Israel’s military response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Okay, that’s a point of tension all across America right now. Especially in the Democratic Party in the primaries right now. Can you clarify where you stand and do you understand why some people have gotten upset about what you said?”
Bowman is down in the polls, so he is desperately trying to get people to forget that he called reports of rape by Hamas “propaganda” and attended a fundraiser with someone who “was happy to see” the attacks on October 7 and Colbert is helping him do it, allowing Bowman to claim:
Yes, October 7th was incredibly traumatic. It was a war crime, it was a terrorist attack. We condemned it right away because they killed innocent civilians. It was horrible. However, the response has been collective punishment and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and that's why we called very early on for a ceasefire and for us a permanent cease-fire, it means stop the fighting, release the hostages, get humanitarian aid in there because famine is setting in and children are starving to death, and please, please, please, let's find a pathway to peace.
Colbert would spend the rest of the segment projecting his belief that the war in Gaza is one giant tragedy onto Bowman, allowing him to portray himself as someone who simply wants to find a ceasefire and a two-state solution instead of what he really is, which is an anti-Semitic Hamas propagandist.
Here is a transcript for the June 19-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
6/20/2024
12:20 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Okay I want to talk to the former principal here. One of the biggest fights going on, sort of, culture fights going on in the United States right now is in some school districts, generally controlled by Republican legislatures, have outlawed the teaching of what they call or consider Critical Race Theory, but rarely is, lessons on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. As somebody who used to head a school, what's your response to that? What are the values—what is the value of keeping that in schools?
JAMAAL BOWMAN: First of all, Republicans are bullies, man. They’re trying to bully the entire country into one singular way of thinking and our strength is our diversity as a nation. The fact that we come from different countries, have different backgrounds, different experiences, we need to learn more about each other because that's how you bring the country together and people together and so we have to do everything in our power to push back against banning of books, you know, taking over school districts, fighting back against DEI. We’re not going to be our most aspirational selves as a nation unless we embrace diversity, so that's what we have to do.
COLBERT: Okay, your primary is this Tuesday?
BOWMAN: Yes.
COLBERT: Is this Tuesday. Spoiler, the polling is a little rough right now. You’re down by 17 points in some polls. Your opponent has criticized your opposition to U.S. support for Israel’s military response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Okay, that’s a point of tension all across America right now.
BOWMAN: Yes.
COLBERT: Especially in the Democratic Party in the primaries right now. Can you clarify where you stand and do you understand why some people have gotten upset about what you said?
BOWMAN: Yes, October 7th was incredibly traumatic. It was a war crime, it was a terrorist attack. We condemned it right away because they killed innocent civilians. It was horrible. However, the response has been collective punishment and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and that's why we called very early on for a ceasefire and for us a permanent cease-fire, it means stop the fighting, release the hostages, get humanitarian aid in there because famine is setting in and children are starving to death, and please, please, please, let's find a pathway to peace.
Because this is -- and this is not just about, you know, Gaza and Israel in the Middle East, my entire life it seems like we've been engaged in some kind of war and conflict. We continue to spend trillions of dollars killing people and we can't even find enough money to provide food and clean water to children all of the world and so my hope is peace, my hope is a two-state solution, but we have to put the guns down to come to the table to negotiate for peace.
COLBERT: And what do you think -- what do you think -- the world sees what's happening in Gaza right now and their heart breaks for the tragedy for the Palestinian people and the innocent people who have died and their heart breaks for the horror that was inflicted on the Israeli people on October 7th. What do you think the United States’s role is in exercising what power and influence we have two make the peace come about or to achieve the two-state solution?
We've been trying it for so many years, we've been involved for so many years. Ultimately, what do you think our job is and how can we best use our position in the world?
BOWMAN: Yeah, we have a foreign policy that pretty much follows the idea of peace through strength and what that means is we need to have a very strong military so that we can scare other countries into doing what we say. I wish we would use our wealth and our resources and our means to lead with diplomacy. That's what I wish.
We already have the mightiest military, can we use our resources to fight climate change? Can we use our resources to make sure every child has clean water? Can we use our resources, in this particular case, to actually build the Palestinian state through policy, but also through resources? Don't just talk about it, take the steps to ensure this to ensure a two-state solution so that the Israelis are safe and they have self-determination Palestinians are safe and have self-determination.
