Rather than subject herself to an actual news interview, on Thursday, shortly after the vote in Congress to formally endorse an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went directly to liberal Late Show host Stephen Colbert to celebrate the radically partisan move. She was predictably treated to a hero’s welcome and even thanked Colbert for his supposed “patriotism.”

The CBS late night host offered this gushing introduction for Pelosi: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to say that my first guest is a congresswoman from California and the first woman elected Speaker of the House. Her latest project is impeaching the President of the United States. Please welcome Speaker Nancy Pelosi!”

After Pelosi walked out to raucous cheers and applause from the liberal audience, Colbert began their friendly chat by remarking: “Madam Speaker, thank you for being here today. I know you’ve had a busy one. This is truly an historic day. Thank you for making time to be on our silly show.”

The Democratic leader eagerly returned the gratitude by showering the comedian with similar adulation: “Well, It is a busy day. But I wanted to thank you for your patriotism...” As the crowd cheered again, Colbert replied: “Oh, thank you very much. Thank you.”

Despite the very unserious venue, Pelosi claimed: “This is a sad thing for our country. We do this prayerfully with great seriousness. Nobody goes to Congress to impeach a president.” Colbert excitedly wondered: “So the House voted today. Are we done? Is the President impeached?” Pelosi quipped: “No. No, but thank you for asking.”

Moments later, the Colbert explained:

And you have said before that this is a sad occasion, in a way, because you don’t want to have to take these – these steps. The reason why people do get happy, why you hear the applause sometimes, is because people want to know that actions have consequences. And there have been so few consequences for this president, when he’s admitting on the White House lawn the crimes that he has been willing to do in order to help himself.

Pelosi chimed in: “Well, I think what’s most important, the most important thing for the American people to realize and understand is no one is above the law.”

Colbert went on to compare the President’s alleged impeachable offenses to the scene of a brutal murder: “It seems like it’s an investigation truly in reverse, in that we found the guy with the bloody knife in his hand and the dead body, now the investigation is defined if enough people care.”

After admitting that he was initially opposed to impeaching Trump because “it lets the American people off too easy,” Colbert argued: “...but when it became tampering with our election using a foreign policy, which is very on brand for him, it undermines the idea that you have to wait for the election if he’s willing to undermine the election using a foreign power.”

Pelosi responded: “Well, as I say, there are many – and you have amused us all, as I say, with your patriotic approach to calling it – making people aware....I thank you for your patriotism, because it is a civics lesson, people have to know you can’t do this.”

She also laughably asserted that impeachment “had nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with partisanship” and was “only about patriotism.”

In his final question, after talking to Pelosi for nearly half of the Thursday night show, part of which was aired early Friday morning, Colbert imagined the House Speaker being some kind of Dirty Harry figure:

Now, every Republican has rolled the bones that you don’t have enough to impeach the President....They all voted against it, they’ve all said she’s got nothing, they don’t have what it takes to impeach the President. Are you looking at Kevin McCarthy and the rest of the Republicans and saying, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”

He further asked: “Can you street fight?”

“So if you want to go into the arena, you have to be prepared to take a punch. But you also have to be prepared to throw a punch for the children, for the children,” Pelosi proclaimed. Colbert laughed and repeated her bizarre line: “Throw a punch for the children.”

Wrapping up the fawning exchange, he declared: “Madam Speaker, thank you so much for being here on this momentous day. Good luck to the Constitution.”

Unfortunately, even if Pelosi actually sat down with a network journalist, it’s hard to imagine she would have gotten much tougher treatment.

Help fight against the liberal media’s impeachment crusade

Here are excerpts of lengthy October 31 interview, aired early on the morning of November 1: