When Stephen Colbert had Nancy Pelosi on last night, he thanked her for "making time to be on our silly show."
“When you heard what was said in that (Ukraine)telephone call, what was your first reaction?” he asked.
“I prayed for the United States of America," she replied. “We don’t want to impeach a president. We don’t want the reality that a president has done something that is in violation of the Constitution.”
She thanked Colbert for his patriotism, and discussed how neither of them was really in favor of impeachment for a long time.
"As you said, and you have said before, this is a sad occasion in a way, because you don't want to have to take these steps," Colbert said.
"The reason why people do get happy 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."
"Well, I do think what's most important, the most important thing for the American people to realize and understand no one is above the law. Not the president of the United States, or not," Pelosi said.
"In the earlier stage of our revolution, Thomas Paine wrote, 'The times have found us.' Here they were, they declared independence, they fought a war, they established a country, they wrote a constitution that was to free them and to establish a democracy, a republic, as you know from history when, September 17, 1787, was the day that the Constitution was adopted.
"On that day, When Benjamin Franklin walked out of Independence Hall, they said, 'What do we have, Mr. Franklin? monarchy or a republic?' He said, 'A republic, if we can keep it."
