--- title: Stephen Colbert Mocks Jeff Flake Kavanaugh Hearing Face description: Stephen Colbert took soon-to-be-retiring Republican senator Jeff Flake to task for his role in the Kavanaugh Hearings on the Late Show. canonical: https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-02T16:01:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:12.795Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Mocks Jeff Flake's 'What Have I Become' Face og:description: Following the Kavanaugh hearings og:url: https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt806ccfbd6c99828a/69893b9b7cdbac805dd5e125/jeff-flake-face-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Vote On Brett Kavanaugh Nomination og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Mocks Jeff Flake's 'What Have I Become' Face twitter:description: Following the Kavanaugh hearings twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt806ccfbd6c99828a/69893b9b7cdbac805dd5e125/jeff-flake-face-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Really Lays Into Jeff Flake's 'What Have I Become' Face > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 2, 2018 4:01 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 28: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) listens to Democratic senators speak during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on September 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. The committee met to discuss and later vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court prior to the nomination proceeding to a vote in the full U.S. Senate. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 28: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) listens to Democratic senators speak during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on September 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. The committee met to discuss and later vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court prior to the nomination proceeding to a vote in the full U.S. Senate. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 2, 2018 4:01 PM UTC Don’t expect [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4011585/stephen-colbert-interview-transcripts/) to hand out a gold star to [Senator Jeff Flake](http://time.com/5042705/donald-trump-jeff-flake-not-going-quietly/) any time soon. The _Late Night_ host sounded off on last week’s [Senate Judiciary hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh](http://time.com/5408177/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-testimony/), where both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanuagh testified. However, as Colbert descriptively voiced it, that’s where “retiring Republican senator and man with [‘what have I become’ face](http://time.com/5410740/jeff-flake-kavanaugh-vote-photo/), Jeff Flake” decided to speak out. After Blasey Ford testified about how Kavanuagh allegedly sexually assaulted her, Flake released a statement that he planned on voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Following this admission, Flake was [confronted on his way back to the chambers in an elevator by two sexual assault survivors](http://time.com/5409734/jeff-flake-vote-confirm-kavanaugh/), which seemingly affected stipulation that he would only vote Kavanaugh out of the committee if there was an FBI investigation into the assault allegations against the judge. Colbert thinks Flake’s actions hardly make him a hero in light imminent retirement, but felt his activities during the hearings drew a parallel to a popular superhero. During the committee vote, Flake huddled in a phone booth with Democrat senator Chris Coons. “Jeff Flake may have gone into that phone booth as Clark Kent,” Colbert said, “but he came out as Clark Kent who is retiring from the Senate so it’s OK if he stands up to Donald Trump.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Really Lays Into Jeff Flake's 'What Have I Become' Face","datePublished":"2018-10-02T16:01:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:12.795Z","description":"Following the Kavanaugh hearings","url":"https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt806ccfbd6c99828a/69893b9b7cdbac805dd5e125/jeff-flake-face-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt806ccfbd6c99828a/69893b9b7cdbac805dd5e125/jeff-flake-face-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Vote On Brett Kavanaugh Nomination","caption":"Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Vote On Brett Kavanaugh Nomination","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5412526/stephen-colbert-jeff-flake-face-kavanaugh-hearing/","name":"Stephen Colbert Really Lays Into Jeff Flake's 'What Have I Become' Face"}}]}] ```