Nicolle Wallace tells Colbert why she cursed at Fox News host Laura Ingraham -- and that she left the GOP

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace appeared on Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" Wednesday after spending hours analyzing the impeachment hearings that began that morning.

One of the first things Colbert asked about was the recent smackdown from Wallace about Fox News host Laura Ingraham and her guests going after Col. Alexander Vindman. Ingraham proposed that because Vindman was born in Ukraine that he was somehow a traitor to the United States for coming forward about President Donald Trump's admitted crimes.

"You were upset over Laura Ingraham’s questioning the patriotism of Vindman, who was one of the national security officials listening in on the call, and testified that this was not good," Colbert explained.

After playing the clip, Wallace got a huge round of applause she tried to quiet. It prompted Colbert to ask if she regretted it, and that was why she was trying to tamp down the applause.

"No. So, I got the swear jar in my house. And my seven-year-old is like, '$20, mom!'" Wallace said. “And it's like his favorite thing to watch! Like, 'can I see you say chickensh*t again?' Look, my problem with that specifically, and just the galling nature of that exchange was that, one, Laura Ingraham knows better. She’s a lot of things. Stupid isn’t one of them. What she teed-up there with John Yu, who you know very well. You were very aware of it at the same time. He knows better. He worked at the highest levels of the Justice Department. He knows Col. Vindman isn’t a spy. So, just to leave it out there like, 'Oh, I don’t know. Isn’t it weird they speak in another language? Ooo, maybe a spy, next question,' is so reckless, so scary. It represents the debasement not just of the right but the debasement of what happens on that program."

Colbert quoted Wallace saying in the past that she thinks the Fox hosts' souls have been kidnapped. He said he took issue with it because people kidnapped don't cooperate with their kidnappers.

"And, look, if you watched the testimony today, they had seven different ways to have their souls hijacked," Wallace said. "They were like, 'Oh, that didn’t work, try this. Calling Vindman a spy didn’t get Trump out of the trouble he was in, let’s try this. We'll say the Ukrainians didn't know we were withholding aid. Then it's not a crime.' I mean, it's just ludicrous excuse after ludicrous excuse. Yesterday’s talking points went out to the Republicans. And, like, before they hit 'Send' Donald Trump had undermined them. If I had any capacity for sympathy for my old party it would be so sad; it would be so sad it would be embarrassing. But I don’t."

"You say your old party, so you're no longer a Republican?" Colbert asked.

Wallace said she's still registered as one because reregistering is more effort she can manage, "but I'm not a practicing Republican."

Watch the interview below: