Stephen Colbert mocks the Oregon 'militia' asking for coffee creamer and pillow cases to sustain 'revolution'
Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night's episode of "The Late Show" ripped the lengthy supply list put out by the self-styled Oregon militia.
The 80-plus item list, which was reportedly sent out by the mother of Ammon Bundy, the armed occupation's de-facto leader, asked for people to send the group such items as coffee creamer, pillow cases, and Copenhagen chewing tobacco, ABC News reported.
"She would bring the supplies herself," Colbert said of Bundy's mother. "But their clubhouse clearly says, 'No girls allowed!'"
He said the "rugged" men are "either starting a revolution or opening a bed and breakfast" based on their list of supply requests.
"They're not asking for anything extravagant, just the basics needed for a revolution like French vanilla creamer," he quipped. "It's just like Patrick Henry's cry at the Boston Tea Party: 'Give me French vanilla or give me hazelnut! They're both yummy.'"
He added that the men could just come and go from the federal-nature preserve where they have been stationed at for nearly two weeks, since they aren't surrounded by police.
"I don't know, maybe they just don't have Google Maps," he said.
The armed occupiers have received plenty of mail since making the list of supply requests public - including, apparently, multiple packages of sex toys.
"It's really ridiculous," occupier Joe Ritzheimer said in a video. "This one is really funny, it's a bag of d---s. They spend and waste their money on all this hateful stuff right here."
The group will be announcing its plan to depart from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon later this week, Time reported.
The armed occupation of the refuge entered its 12th day Wednesday. Earlier this month, about two-dozen armed protesters broke into the refuge's unoccupied building and refused to leave. It followed a march in protest of new prison sentences for two ranchers who were convicted and previously served time for setting fire to federal grazing land.
Those two ranchers - Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46 - reported to prison last Monday, Reuters reported. A judge ruled in October that their prior terms for the arson - three months for the father and one year for the son - were too short under federal law. They will now serve about four more years each.
The Hammonds said they set fires in 2001 and 2006 to stop invasive plants from spreading on their ranch, which is adjacent to the refuge near Burns, Oregon, according to The Associated Press. Prosecutors said the Hammonds set the fire to cover up poaching in the area.
The group of anti-government protesters - which is calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom - believes the Hammonds have been treated unfairly and exposed to double jeopardy for having to serve multiple sentences. They're demanding that federal lands be turned over to local authorities and that the Hammonds be freed.