Last night, Stephen Colbert praised Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler for staying true to his constituents.

Earlier this week, Wheeler responded to a criticism that “he was so weak, if they wanted him to, he would vote for slavery,” by saying “if the citizens of District 39 wanted to make slavery legal, I would vote for slavery.”

“That’s right,” Colbert said, “when elect someone, we become his master and he must do what we say under the threat of violence. There’s only one word for that: democracy.”

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After playing clips of Assemblyman Wheeler’s critics condemning his statements, Colbert declared that “this is nothing more than a liberal hit job. The media twisted Wheeler’s statement all around.”

“As he made clear on his web site in a carefully worded ‘Explaination,’ the accusations against him are ‘absurd’ to ‘anyone that views the comments in context.'”

“Exactly,” Colbert said. “So let me give you the entire context to clear this up: someone said he would vote to bring back slavery, and he responded, ‘Yes, I would.'”

Watch the entire segment below.