Stephen Colbert took up for Mitch McConnell primary challenger, Matt Bevin and his list of excuses for being confused about attending a cockfighting rally and whether he actually supports cockfighting or not. Apparently Bevin wants his supporters to believe that he thought a cockfighting rally was a states' rights rally.
Or, as Stephen suggested, maybe he was just being driven around between events by his staff with a black bag over his head.
As Colbert also discussed, Bevin attempted to defend himself by pointing out that cockfighting has been around for a very long time and even the founding fathers supported it: McConnell Challenger Bevin: The Founding Fathers Were 'Very Involved' In Cockfighting:
Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Matt Bevin continued to address his presence at a rally for supporters of legalizing cockfighting by saying America's Founding Fathers were very involved in the cockfighting world too.
"But it's interesting when you look at cockfighting and dogfighting as well," Bevin said in an interview on the Terry Meiners Show on Louisville's WHAS on Thursday. "This isn't something new, it wasn't invented in Kentucky for example. I mean the Founding Fathers were all many of them very involved in this and always have been [sic.]"
The comments come less than a week after Bevin attended the rally. He's since said that he thought the rally was actually for supporters of states' rights. Bevin's presence there has also provoked the Humane Society Legislative Fund to call for Bevin, who is challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), to withdraw from the Republican Senate primary.
In the same interview Bevin said he's never "been to a cockfight" and doesn't "condone cockfighting."
Which Colbert summed up nicely at the end of the segment above.
COLBERT: And as a member of the tea party, Bevin wants everyone to know that the repugnant practice of cockfighting, which he in no way condones, is also a proud American tradition. [...]
The point is, our founders did it. It is our heritage and should continue today. The same reason we should all be dueling with pistols and boning our slaves. So lay off Matt Bevin. He does not condone it, but if you're going to hold a rally to support cockfighting, he will be there and not know why.
