John Kerry And Colbert Agree On Taylor Swift As Secretary of State

Appearing on The Late Show Thursday night, beleaguered Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Iran nuclear deal and the current tensions between the U.S. and Russia. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time a talk-show host has invoked Neville Chamberlain to make a point, and also found common ground with an Obama administration official about the singer of “Bad Blood.”

Colbert suggested that the recent Iran agreement “kicks the nuclear can down the road” to a time 15 years from now when “Secretary of State Taylor Swift” would have to clean up a diplomatic mess: it was a joke with a serious point.
Kerry prefaced his serious response with a joke in return: “She would be very pleasant to deal with,” he imagined, chuckling. Sure, said Colbert: “You could be part of her girl squad.”

Kerry undertook some serious answers to Colbert’s questions, which at one point found the host asking pointedly: “What is the plan in Syria, and as a follow-up question, is there a plan in Syria?”

“Both questions are fair,” said Kerry, looking a little startled at Colbert’s bluntness. “Yes and yes. The plan is that we are going to continue to put pressure on ISIL. We’ve made it clear to Russia, we will continue to fly, we will continue to do what we’ve been doing for a year,” which was, Kerry said, “The only way in the end that [the crisis] will be solved is for [President Bashar al] Assad to transition out over a period of time in a structured, managed way.”

Nearly all of Kerry’s answers were vague—out of diplomatic necessity? Because of a failure of the administration to have something more concrete? Because he was on a late-night comedy talk show?

Whatever the reason, Colbert’s comparison early in the interview of Kerry to Neville Chamberlain must have stung. Talking about the Iran deal, Colbert compared the effort to Chamberlain, the British prime minister whose appeasement with Germany and Adolph Hitler brought him scorn. Kerry countered, “Neville Chamberlain relied on words… There was no agreement. He simply listened to what Hitler said.”

Kerry also said that the administration’s current phrase for dealing with Russia, one that’s become an instant media buzz-word—“deconflicting”—is “a lousy word.”

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs on CBS weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.