Stephen Colbert: Wells Fargo CEO Fired 5300
on Thursday, September 29, 2016Stephen Colbert Money Quote saying about Wells Fargo Bank CEO John Stumpf blamed and fired 5300 low-level employees because they did what they were told by management. Stephen Colbert said:
“Ol’ Stumpfy here, he stepped up and took personal responsibility … by firing 5300 low level employees he blamed for the problem. It takes true leadership to stand up and say the buck stops 5300 other places” — Stephen Colbert
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In this quote, Stephen Colbert is sarcastically criticizing John Stumpf’s handling of the Wells Fargo fraud scandal. When Stumpf blamed and fired over 5,300 low-level employees, Colbert mocks this by saying it takes real leadership to claim you’re accepting responsibility but then shift the blame entirely to thousands of other workers.
The best interpretation is that Colbert is using humor and exaggeration to highlight Stumpf’s disingenuousness in pinning the fault on employees rather than properly taking accountability himself as the CEO, in an attempt to deflect from his own oversight failures that enabled the fraudulent practices.
Colbert’s satire aims to point out the insincerity in Stumpf’s public statements and actions regarding the scandal.