“Biden debated as well as Abe Lincoln … if you dug him up right now,” he said before shredding the White House spin on Biden’s terrible, awful debate performance as being due to a cold. He had the kind of cold “where your voice gets hoarse and your brain explodes.”

“I guess you could say he’s … Sleepy Joe,” he added, referencing Trump’s nickname for Biden with a comical wince.

On and on it went, as if Colbert hadn’t pretended all was well in Biden land up until five minutes ago. No apologies. No self-reflection.

Except…