Sen. Jon Ossoff | Bad Jean Pool

Summary

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode Summary: Sen. Jon Ossoff | Bad Jean Pool

Date: February 19, 2026
Guest: Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Stephen Colbert welcomes Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff for an insightful and candid conversation. The discussion centers around political corruption, the legacy of the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, recent controversial Justice Department actions in Georgia, and the continuing influence of the “Epstein class”—a phrase coined by Ossoff. The pair also reflect on the enduring impact of Congressman John Lewis as America approaches pivotal midterm elections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Opening Monologue: Lent, Mortality, and the News

[01:06–06:24]

• Colbert’s Ash Wednesday Observations:

  • Stephen jokes about giving up “the ability to speak” for Lent due to his hoarse voice, blending self-deprecation with Catholic tradition humor.
  • Quips about the morbid reminder of mortality from Ash Wednesday (“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”).

• Political Satire:

  • Colbert reports the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson, heralding his civil rights leadership, and juxtaposes this loss with President Trump’s tone-deaf celebration of Black History Month.
    • Notable quip: Trump’s awkward recollection of Herschel Walker’s ambassadorship:
      Trump (impersonated): “Herschel Walker. Now he's ambassador to the Bahamas. I don’t know. Bahamas. Bermuda, is he. Bahamas. Whatever. It's nice, a nice place.” [04:13]
  • Poll results lampooned: A majority see Trump as corrupt, cruel, or dangerous.

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2. RFK Jr., Kid Rock, and the “Bad Jean Pool”

[06:24–10:02]

• Colbert lampoons an odd viral workout video starring RFK Jr. and Kid Rock, highlighting its surreal qualities (“senior softcore”) and poking fun at their jeans-clad sauna antics.
• Colbert zinger: “Is he one of those action figures where his jeans are his legs—they don’t come off?” [08:53]

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3. Monkey News Break: Punch the Macaque

[10:02–12:55]

• Light-hearted update on Punch, a six-month-old Japanese macaque comforted by an IKEA stuffed animal after being rejected by his mother.
• Colbert punchline: “Hurt monkeys hurt monkeys. They say that, right? They say that.” [11:49]

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4. Interview: Senator Jon Ossoff

[14:38–26:49]

a. The “Epstein Class” & Political Corruption

[15:05–19:50]

• Colbert introduces Ossoff and references a recent speech where Ossoff coined the term “the Epstein class.”

• Ossoff explains:

  • “This whole Epstein saga has exposed the lie at the very core of Donald Trump's political project... this is in fact, a government of, by, and for the ultra rich and the ultra elite.” [15:39–16:49]

  • Trump’s circle and the “Epstein class” illustrate the entrenched power of corrupt, unaccountable elites.

  • Hypocrisy of MAGA movement: Using supposed populism to benefit the wealthy while cutting health care and slashing taxes for the rich.

  • Deep systemic corruption enables a class that pours “billions into political campaigns, who are unaccountable and who have captured our political system.” [17:12]

  • Colbert’s take: The phrase resonated not only due to its connection with Trump but because it exposes the bipartisan nature of elite impunity: “There are people... who believe that rules are to constrain other people, laws are to constrain other people, but never apply to them.” [17:31]

• Ossoff’s background:

  • Led investigative teams exposing global corruption, war crimes, and authoritarian abuses.
  • Connects rise of Trump-era America to patterns seen in repressive societies: “More and more, Donald Trump’s America reminds me of those places and those societies, and that should chill us all to the bone.” [18:10]
  • Trump as “symptom” of a rigged system: “He’s not unrigging it, he’s re-rigging it for himself.” [19:16]
  • On Citizens United:
    • “Corporations, the ultra rich, unlimited money and in secret... bent Congress against the public interest and toward narrow private interests. That is one of the reasons…that wealth and power have become more and more unequal in our society. And that is what gave rise to someone like Donald Trump.” [19:50–20:27]

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b. Fulton County Election Raid

[22:10–24:32]

• Colbert: Questions Ossoff on the FBI raid in Fulton County, Georgia, which seized 700 boxes of 2020 election materials.

• Ossoff:

  • Frames the raid as part of Trump’s ongoing “obsession with overturning the 2020 election,” linking it to threats made to Georgia’s secretary of state and the Capitol attack.
  • Asserts the unprecedented nature and danger of federal law enforcement seizing ballots in a state with a long history of voting rights struggles: “This has really shaken people in Georgia, where we have such a deep history of attacks on voting rights... to have a federal raid seizing voters’ ballots.” [23:37]
  • Recounts that Georgia’s ballots were counted and recounted multiple times: “Over and over again, court case after court case.” [24:04]

• Colbert: Points out Tulsi Gabbard's suspicious presence at the raid as Director of National Intelligence, violating standard operating procedure: “If you live in a major democracy and the nation’s spy chief is showing up at raids on sensitive election sites, something has gone wrong.” (Paraphrased) [24:32]

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c. The Legacy of John Lewis

[24:55–26:49]

• Colbert: Brings up Congressman John Lewis, including personal recollections and photos of a youthful Ossoff with Lewis.
• Ossoff:
  • First met Lewis at 16 after reading his memoir; that meeting led to a job and lifelong mentorship.
  • “I never would have pursued elected office without his encouragement and his support. But I’ll tell you what, he would have very high expectations of all of us at this moment in our country’s history.” [25:51]
  • On Lewis’s advice for today:
    • “We have the power to right the ship. No one’s going to do it for us. Theirs was the most successful nonviolent mass mobilization in American history… We can deal with this, but I’m telling you, these midterm elections are the whole ball game. There is a lot riding on what happens in November.” [26:04–26:49]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Stephen Colbert [01:25]:
  “This year, I have apparently given up the ability to speak. You may have noticed my voice is not the best this evening. Right now, I’m somewhere between Kathleen Turner and Cookie Monster.”
• Sen. Jon Ossoff [15:39]:
  “This whole Epstein saga has exposed the lie at the very core of Donald Trump’s political project… a government of, by, and for the ultra rich and the ultra elite.”
• Stephen Colbert [17:31]:
  “There are people in the United States who believe that rules are to constrain other people, laws are to constrain other people, but never apply to them.”
• Sen. Jon Ossoff [18:10]:
  “More and more, Donald Trump’s America reminds me of those places and those societies, and that should chill us all to the bone.”
• Sen. Jon Ossoff [19:16]:
  “He’s not unrigging it, he’s re-rigging it for himself.”
• Sen. Jon Ossoff [23:37]:
  “This has really shaken people in Georgia, where we have such a deep history of attacks on voting rights... to have a federal raid seizing voters’ ballots.”
• Sen. Jon Ossoff [26:04]:
  “We have the power to right the ship. No one’s going to do it for us… These midterm elections are the whole ball game.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:06] – Colbert’s Lent/voice jokes and mortality musings
• [03:55]–[05:44] – Trump’s awkward Black History Month moments, poll results
• [06:24] – RFK Jr. and Kid Rock “bad jean pool” video
• [10:02] – Monkey News: Punch the macaque
• [14:38] – Senator Jon Ossoff introduction
• [15:10]–[20:27] – The “Epstein class” and systemic corruption discussion
• [22:10]–[24:32] – FBI raid in Fulton County, Georgia
• [24:55]–[26:49] – The legacy of John Lewis and call to civic action

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Tone & Style

The conversation maintains Colbert’s signature blend of sharp wit, pointed satire, and earnest inquiry. Ossoff matches the tone with frank, accessible explanations and reflects a sense of urgency while maintaining optimism about citizen action.

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For New Listeners

This episode exemplifies The Late Show Pod Show’s ability to fuse humor with substance. Colbert delivers biting, informed satire, then cedes the floor to Senator Ossoff for a robust discussion about corruption, democracy, and responsibility—anchored by memorable stories and urgent calls to action. Even without prior context, listeners will gain insight into both the headline news and the underlying systemic forces shaping America.

Transcript

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[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, in here, out there, all around the world to the late show. I'm your host, Stephen Colbert. It's Ash Wednesday, which kicks off the 40 days of Lent with its fasting and its abstinence. Catholics like myself are supposed to give something up every year. This year, I have apparently given up the ability to speak. You may have noticed my voice is not the best this evening. It's. I know. Thank you. Thank you. Right now, I'm somewhere between Kathleen Turner and Cookie Monster.

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[Stephen Colbert]

It's better than it was when I got here this morning. This morning, I could not talk at all. I'm on cold and sinus medication. Hot tea, Tom Yum soup and enough steroids to be named the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Show must go on. Show must go on. Anyway, Ash Wednesday reminds us of our own mortality. In fact, when you receive the ashes, the priest says, remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And what a great way to start the day. Just like that old coffee commercial.

[Late Show Announcer]

Don't bother waking up.

[Stephen Colbert]

We shall return to dust. Yeah. Gotta remember. Got to remember, you can't compare them. Any moment, Any moment, Any moment. One person making this day is Chicago's own Pope Leo, seen here saying that he would really prefer not to have the middle seat. His Holiness is In the news today because we just learned that Pope Leo has turned down an offer to join Trump's Board of Peace. Don't jump. Yeah, Leo turned him down, but Trump says he's found a replacement, the FIFA pope. Speaking of religious leaders, we got some sad News. Yesterday, the Reverend Jesse Jackson passed away at age 84. Jackson was a giant of the civil rights movement. He was an advisor and friend to Dr. King. He founded the Raybow Coalition to Serve the Poor and Forgotten and blazed the trail for black candidates with his historic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. Reverend Jackson will be remembered as a compassionate leader, something we're in short supply of these days. And his death, his death comes in the middle of black History Month. Earlier today, President Trump held an event at the White House and kept bragging about all the black people he knew, like hall of Fame running back turned hall of Shame politician Herschel Walker, who Trump named as an ambassador last year, though he couldn't quite remember where to.

[Commentator]

Herschel Walker. Speaking about loyal, how good a football player was Herschel? Herschel Walker? Now he's ambassador to the Bahamas. I don't know. Bahamas. Bermuda, is he. Bahamas. Whatever. It's nice, a nice place.

[Stephen Colbert]

We looked it up. He's ambassador to Margaritaville. Later. Didn't get all those words out, but it's all right. Seems like a nice place. Later, Trump thought of another football man, former Cleveland Browns great Jim Brown. Though his description of Brown was unusual.

[Commentator]

A guy became really. He liked Trump. Jim Brown. He was tough. He'd come in, he was very silent. He was silent but deadly.

[Stephen Colbert]

What a moving tribute. I'm tearing up. Someone crack a window. It is so important for Donald Trump that he celebrate Black History Month, not only because it's what presidents traditionally do, but according to a new Economist YouGov Me Tarzan poll, 47% of Americans say that Donald Trump is racist. Okay, not a great sign that it seems reasonable to include that question in the poll. It's like if a wedding invitation said chicken, fish. Or do you think Donald Trump is a racist? And that's not going fish. Can I check, too? Can I check, too?

[Late Show Announcer]

Definitely.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's not the only word the poll found people associated with Trump. 49% say he's corrupt, 46% say he's cruel, and 50% say he's dangerous. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. The other 50% say, ladies love a bad boy. Trump. Oh, yeah? Do you ladies? Do you love a bad. Why do they. You love me.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Ma'?

[Late Show Announcer]

Am?

[Angie.com Announcer]

No.

[Stephen Colbert]

No, ma'. Am. That's because You've never seen just how bad I can be. Trump is at rock bottom with the majority of Americans in surveys from Marist, Quinnipiac and A.P. nork. Not to mention he's got one star on Yelp, 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a frowny face outside the men's bathroom at LaGuardia. Oh, we just got. We just got an unexpected offering from Health and Human Services secretary and screaming coconut falling from a palm tree. RFK Jr. Bobby Jr. Has been touring the nation promoting his Make America Healthy Again agenda. Recently, he visited MAGA halftime show icon Kid Rock, and the two of them released this workout video. Now, brace yourself. Brace yourself for some senior softcore. Okay, this raises a lot of questions. Mainly, why does this make you feel like you dropped acid at a cracker Barrel and then made a PowerPoint presentation? Let's keep going. Pure cinema. They really captured the feeling when no one can babysit you but Pee Pop. And when your mom gets home, you're crying because he called you a wuss and made you shoot a gun at the neighbor's lawn gnome. Want more? Too bad. That is madness. Working out in tight jeans is not what a sauna is for. Saunas are for accidentally seeing your dad's friends playing and then never getting out of your head for the rest of your life. Now, I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. It's got a chafe in all that damp sauna steamed denim. Which is why RFK Jr walks down the hall to soak those gams in the ice plunge. What is the deal with those jeans? Why won't he wear shorts? Is he one of those action figures where his jeans are? His legs, they don't come off. You can change the shirt, but you can't change the pants. Is he a robot? Their workout ends with the boys relaxing in a hot tub with a glass of thick, creamy whole milk. The whole video looks less like two friends working out and more like RFK Jr picked up a drifter at the carnival and is fattening him up to eat. Oh, Ladies and gentlemen, you know what that sound means. We have breaking monkey news. This is a new update.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Welcome.

[Stephen Colbert]

Today's update comes from a Japanese zoo where the Internet has become obsessed with a six month old macaque named Punch. Really brings a whole new meaning to the phrase. Punch macaque. You know that common phrase? You know that common phrase Punch macaque. All the kids are saying it. Specifically, after Punch was rejected by his mother after birth, he found solace in a Stuffed toy. Show me the monkey. Oh, my God. He's so cute. He thinks that's his mommy. Well, clearly we have to update our update. This isn't ooh, ah, ah. It's.

[Audience Member]

Ah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Good job. Good job. After his mom abandoned him, she said she was going out for a pack of bananas. I'm sure she'll be back. I'm sure she'll be back. Punch struggled to make friends with other monkeys in the exhibit, which is why they gave him the stuff Orangutan. And now he takes it everywhere. Take a look. There he is. So sweet. Just hanging out and. Wait, what? He abandoned his stuffed mother? Well, I guess it's true what they say. Hurt monkeys. Hurt monkeys. They say that, right? They say that. They say that, and then they say Punch macaque is what they say. The specific stuffed animal supply to Punch is the Jungle Skog from ikea. And if you think Punch is sympathetic, wait till you see the official pictures of Jungle Skog. She looks like she's regretting all of her life choices. Here's the thing. We looked it up, and the Jungleskog retails for only $19.99. And honestly, we could all use a little comfort right about now. So I bought one. Look at that.

[Late Show Announcer]

Look at that. Woo. What's. What's that?

[Stephen Colbert]

You'll. You'll never leave me, right? Jungle Skag. And if this isn't enough to cheer you up, Jungle Skog has her own Jungle Skag. I love you. I love you, monkey mommy. Clearly she regrets being part of this bitch. We got a great show for you tonight.

[Late Show Announcer]

Coming up.

[Stephen Colbert]

Senator Jon Ossoff.

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[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome back everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, my first guest tonight is the youngest member of the United States Senate where he represents the great state of Georgia. Please welcome to the Late Show Senator Jon Ossoff.

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[Stephen Colbert]

How are you? I'm okay.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

How are you doing?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

I'm doing well. I'm glad to be here.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, I'm glad, glad to have you here. This is your first time on a late night show.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

It sure is.

[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the friendly conference.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

I am honored. Great to be here with all of you.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, it's a pleasure to have you. I want to talk to you about a speech you gave last week that got a lot of attention. Very specifically for one phrase that just made a lot of sense to a lot of people. You used this phrase, the Epstein class. First of all, what did you mean by using that term and why do you think that just automatically made visceral sense to so many people? Why do you think that's catching on?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

I think there's a couple things going on. The first is that this whole Epstein saga has exposed the lie at the very core of Donald Trump's political project. And it's been a lie.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's been a lie.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

It's been a lie since he came down the golden escalator, which is that this guy cares about or ever wanted to do anything to help working class and middle class Americans. They work so hard to suppress all of this. They didn't want any of this to come out because Trump world is all over it and so closely connected to Jeffrey Epstein, because this is in fact, a government of, by, and for the ultra rich and the ultra elite. And it's not just. It's not just about who they are, but look at what they've done. They have cut health care in order to slash taxes for the wealthy. And well connected people across the country are suffering. And so it just speaks to the hypocrisy of the MAGA movement and of the President. I also think there's a deeper issue here, which is that the corruption underlying Trump's rise in American politics and a class of elites who pour billions into political campaigns, who are unaccountable and who have captured our political system.

[Stephen Colbert]

I think one of the reasons, I think all that is true, I think all of that was true, but I think there's something even beyond that when people hear the Epstein class, because what we're finding out from the Epstein files is that that type of corruption, while Trump might be a peak avatar of that, it crosses political boundaries. There are people in the United States who believe that rules are to constrain other people, laws are to constrain other people, but never apply to them. And deep down, I think on both sides of the aisle, people have felt that for so many years. And you crystallize it with that phrase. And that leads me to the last job that you did before you were a senator. I want to get this right. You investigated international corruption.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

That's right.

[Stephen Colbert]

Is that true? Okay. What was it about witnessing corruption on a global scale that said to you, I should get involved in American politics?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

So, first of all, I led a team, ran a business that exposed official corruption, war crimes, abuses of power all over the world. And we worked with people who smuggled the truth out of repressive societies with authoritarian governments, places where opposition figures were rounded up and arrested, places where journalists critical of the government faced official persecution, places where television hosts had to deal with official censorship. And. And I'll just say that more and more, Donald Trump's America reminds me of those places and those societies, and that should chill us all to the bone.

[Stephen Colbert]

But.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

As for why I think Donald Trump's rise, Donald Trump himself, is a symptom of a deeper disease in our society. I mean, how is it that a demagogue who promised to tear it all down was twice elected to the presidency on false promises? And it's because the system really is rigged. He's not unrigging it, he's re rigging it for himself. But especially since the Citizens United decision which was such a deeply destructive court decision.

[Stephen Colbert]

And for the people who don't know, Citizens United said that corporations should be able to pour unlimited money into political action committees to influence elections.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Corporations, the ultra rich, unlimited money and in secret. And so that bent Congress against the public interest and toward narrow private interests. That is one of the reasons that even though the American economy has been in drive, life for the working class and the middle class has been in reverse. It's one of the reasons that wealth and power have become more and more unequal in our society. And that is what gave rise to someone like Donald Trump.

[Stephen Colbert]

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[Stephen Colbert]

Hey everybody. We're back with Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia. I want to talk about the action that Donald Trump and his Justice Department have taken down in Fulton County, Georgia. Three weeks ago, the FBI raided the county election offices and seized 700 boxes of material from the 2020 election in a part of Georgia that he had contested fiercely. What do we know about why this happened?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Look, this all goes back to the president's obsession with overturning the 2020 election. And you all will recall that so many of his conspiracy theories began in the state of Georgia. Remember, he called Georgia's secretary of state, our top elections official, Raffensperger. And he asked him, he intimidated him, he pressured him to, quote, find him exactly the number of votes that he needed to win in a state that he had lost. And his lies about Georgia were part of what ginned up that mob that sacked the US Capitol and tried to hang his own vice president. So he has been obsessed with Georgia ever since. And I think what we're seeing is that he is wielding official power and wielding federal law enforcement in order to try to pursue his obsession with overturning the 2020 election.

[Stephen Colbert]

Do we know what was in those boxes?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

It was ballots. Ballots for Fulton county voters. And, you know, this has really shaken people in Georgia, where we have such a deep history of attacks on voting rights. So much given, so much lost to secure voting rights, to have a federal raid seizing voters, ballots.

[Stephen Colbert]

And just so people who may have forgotten how many times were the ballots.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

In Georgia recounted, recounted over and over again, court case after court case. And then you've got Tulsi Gabbard, the.

[Stephen Colbert]

Nation'S there she is in the raid, looking like a spy, which I think she is. She is Director of National Intelligence and they're not supposed to be doing anything within the borders of the United States. She's spying on the FBI for Donald Trump, apparently.

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

Let me say, if you live in a major democracy and the nation's spy chief is showing up at raids on sensitive election sites, something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong.

[Late Show Announcer]

Well.

[Stephen Colbert]

One of your mentors is a man I greatly admire, and that was John Lewis. And matter of fact, the last time I talked to John Lewis, he was here. He actually surfed the crowd. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. And here you are with John Lewis. I'm just curious, how old were you when you met?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

I was 16 when I met Congressman Lewis. And I had read his memoir, Walking with the Wind. You know, growing up in Georgia, you're steeped in civil rights history. And of course, he was a legend. He was my congressman. I read his autobiography. I wrote him a letter asking if I could meet him. That meeting led to a job. That job led to a lifelong friendship. And I never would have pursued elected office without his encouragement and his support. But I'll tell you what, He would have very high expectations of all of us at this moment in our country's history.

[Stephen Colbert]

What do you think he would say to us?

[Senator Jon Ossoff]

I think that, you know, and we all know that there are some folks who are sort of doom scrolling in the fetal position every day. There's a new outrage. And it's easy, I know, to fear that maybe we could lose our republic. And I think that what Congressman Lewis would tell us is that it's up to us. We have the power to right the ship. No one's going to do it for us. Theirs was the most successful non violent mass mobilization in American history, arguably in world history. The civil rights movement, they dealt with an awful lot. We can deal with this, but I'm telling you, these midterm elections are the whole ball game. There is a lot riding on what happens in November.

[Stephen Colbert]

Senator, thank you so much for being here.

[Late Show Announcer]

Thank you.

[LEGO/TripAdvisor Announcer]

Absolutely.

[Stephen Colbert]

A pleasure to talk to you. Senator Jon Ossoff, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Late Show Pod show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel channel for more clips and exclusives.

[Late Show Announcer]

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[LEGO/TripAdvisor Announcer]

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