Es wprenid p um wtras there a quid pro quo . Yeah announcer its the late show, live, with Stephen Colbert tonight not debatable and, stephen plays rugby with the new zealand all blacks. Plus, stephen welcomes live John Heilemann and alex wagner. Featuring live jon batiste and stay human. And now, live from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, its Stephen Colbert cheers and applause stephen woooo thanks for joining us band playing cheers and applause oh, yeah. Theres nothing like it. There is no feeling like it, everybody. Hello, jon you ready . Jon were ready. Lets get it lets go. Audience Stephen Stephen stephen. Stephen were piping it, were piping it right out of the pipehole, right here. Audience Stephen StephenStephen Stephen beautiful beautiful. A ap rocky. Jon yeah, i like that. Stephen hi, everybody, please, have a seat. Thank you, friends down here, up there, all across america oh, welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the late show. Im your host, Stephen Colbert. And we cheers and applause we are live, live, right there after the democratic debate. It is the fifth debate, right . This is the fifth debate. Okay, so hold on. Okay, there you go. laughter and i believe i believe america gets a free sub now. laughter and, hopefully, a new president. We cheers and applause piano riff jon oh, wow. Stephen well be talking about that in a second. But, first, this was a huge day in the ukraine scandal. There was explosive testimony from ambassador to the European Union and man who just spilled the tea on d. J. T. , o kerrr, Gordon Sondland. Ill tell you all about it in tonights live edition of don and the giant impeach. cheers and applause get me out of here roaring stephen thats an angry peach. Sondland dropped the biggest bombshell in his opening statement. I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question was there a quid pro quo . The answer is yes. Stephen yes he said it on National Television im satisfied. I yield the balance of my time to conan jack das. cheers and appoh oh mmm. Now, sondland made it clear, this whole ukrainian scheme, none of this was his idea. We all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the white house meeting reflected President Trumps desi anquirements, at the expressres direction of the president of the United States. We followed the president s orders. Stephen historically speaking, there is no defense more heroic than, we were just following orders. laughter now, after months of not knowing why the administration was withholding what ukraine was waiting for, sondland finally called trump directly. It was a very short, abrupt conversation. He was not in a good mood. Stephen that doesnt sound like trump. laughter hes usually a little miss sprayon sunshine. laughter so, on the call, sondland asked what trump wanted from the ukrainians, and sondland said that trump said. Well, illllu what he says he said. So hes going, what do you want . What do you want . I hear all these theories. What do you want . Right . And now, heres my response that ready . You have the cameras rolling . I want nothing. Thats what i want from ukraine. Thats what i said. I want nothing stephen i want something. laughter i want to know whats going on with that couple in the background. laughter what the hell are they what the hell are they doing out there . Jon what are they doing back there . Theyre just chillin, huh . Stephen honey, our neighbor is shouting on the lawn again. laughter go and get the hose. Thats the only way hell leave. Okay, sounds fairly innocent. An angry old man shouting into the phone, i want nothing. I want nothing but heres why he might have been a bit of a cranky pants that day. This phone call happened the same day the whistleblower complaint was delivered to the house intelligence committee. Oh, donnys no dummy. He knew his dingdong was in a door hinge. laughter youve got to say, thats really suspicious timing. Thats like waiting until your parents are pulling into the driveway to text them, please come home. Someone broke into the house, threw a huge party, and hid all the vodka in my stomach laughter cheers and applause jon oh, youre talking from experience, arent you . Stephen now, the president wasnt the only one sondland dropped a dime on. He also fingered mike pence. I was in a briefing with several people, and i just spoke up, and i said, it appears that everything is stalled until this statement gets made. Something words to that effect. And the Vice President nodded, like, you know, he, he heard what i said. And that was pretty much it, as i recall. Stephen now, keep in mind, nodding is the Biggest Movement if hmoves s bodyny more than that, the devil will accuse him of dancing. D laughter wanmoth therats illegal in this town. Kevin bacon applause sondland went on to explain how many senior officials were in the know. A lot of senior officials. A lot of senior officials. Everyone was in the loop. Stephen everyone . Could you be more specific . Secretary pompeo. Secretary perry. Brian mccormick, who is secretary perrys chief of staff at the time. Ms. Kenna, who is the acting pardon me, who is the executive secretary for secretary pompeo. Chief of staff mulvaney, and mr. Mulvaneys Senior Adviser rob blair. Ambassador bolton. Counselor ulrich brechbuehl. Dr. Hill. Mr. Morrison, and their staff at the n. S. C. Stephen id also like to incriminate my agent, baby doll, i love you marcie from wardrobe. Everybody at the r. N. C. Mick mulvaney. We couldnt have pressured ukraine without you. Oh god, theyre playing me off. I want to thank the whistleblower, everybody at hbo. cheers and applause crime is crime is crime is crime. This is for you, mom. We did it good night cheers and applause supposed to go this way. Now, its no surprise who sondland says was the delicious nougat at the center of this conspiracy. Secretary perry, ambassador volker and i worked with mr. Rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the United States. We did not want to work with mr. Giuliani. laughter applause stephen get in line. laughter no one wants to work with Rudy Giuliani he spits when he talks, and he smells like the inside of a belly button. laughter now, sondland said today he didnt realize what they were doing was wrong, because no one ever told him it was wrong. No one said, back off of ukraine, this is dangerous, youre doing something thats untoward, we have concerns. I dont remember anybody sounding any alarm bell because, of course, had someone mentioned it, i would have sat up and taken notice. Stephen of course no one told you it was wrong you are the patsy thats why no one says, hey, can you take this backpack through customs for me . I would do it myself, but its so full of heroin. laughter want to take it . No . Delicious. Now applause hi watch out. Sondland also remembered that he did talk to trump on an uncured phone from a kiev restaurant, but the part he remembers might surprise you what triggered my memory was someones reference to a ap rocky, which was i believe the primary purpose of the phone call. Stephen yeah, a ap rocky was the primary purpose of the call. As in as trump zelensky better launch the biden investigation asap, or his lifes about to get pretty rocky. laughter now put a beat behind that. Now, democrats, democrats on the committee asked sondland about the colorful language that he reportedly used when talking to trump about zelensky. Well, he also testified that you confirmed to President Trump that you were in ukraine at the time, and that president zelensky, loves your ass. Do you recall saying that . Yeah, it sounds like something i would say. laughter thats how President Trump and i communicate a lot of fourletter words. In this case, three letter. laughter stephen huh. They really used fourletter words and threeletter words . What would those be . Quid. O. Quo. Oh, that checks out. cheers and applause weve got a great show for you tonight John Heileman and alex wagner from the circus on showtime are here. But when we return, idivenemy d it sticks around youre not going to want to miss this, everybody we used to love going out with julia and mike, but since they bought their new house. Which menu am i looking at here . Start with tapaz. Oh, its tapas. Tapas. Get out of town. Its like eating dinner with your parents. Sandra, are you in school . Yes, im in art school. Oh, wow. So have you thought about how youre gonna make money . At least were learning some new things. We bundled our home and auto with progressive, saved a bunch. Oh, we got a wobbler. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Thats what the extra menus for. When you bundle with us. A lot will happen in your life. Wrinkles just wont. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repairs dermproven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. Neutrogena® sleep this amazing . Thats a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. Our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no nextday grogginess. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturasuperiorleep. Everything your trip needs for everyone you love. Expedia. De for everyone you love. Ciouhierghs ibisf ra because i can. laughs make good choices. You make good choices. I am. Fiber is good for digestive health. Good choices never tasted so good. Kelloggs raisin bran. band playing cheers and applause stephen hey, everybody give it up for jon batiste and stay human, the band, the live band. The live band from television right over here. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Welcome back to more of our monologue tonight. The democrats, if youre just joining us, we are live because the democrats held a debate at atlantas Tyler Perry Studios tonight. Which explains why half of the candidates were played by madea. laughter joe biden was actually celebrating his 77th birthday today. But a bit of a tough day for the birthday boy. Biden had a gaffe before he even hit the stage. He evidently sent his supporters his postdebate fundraising email eight hours too early at 3 00 today, saying im leaving the fifth democratic debate now. I hope i made you prou there, and i hope i made itd out clear to the world why our campaign is so important. No, joe laughter the debate hadnt happened oh, hold on, im being told were getting another premature email from joe. I just won the election im leaving my inauguration now laughter going to ask mae west to be my secretary of defense. Come up and see me sometime. applause piano riff did we make that up . Okay. Now, once the debate kicked off, Amy Klobuchar got things started by quoting from history. I was thinking about this when i was at the carter president ial museum, and on the wall are etched the words of walter mondale. Stephen wow. Carter and mondale . Really reaching for the stars. as klobuchar in the immortal words of michael dukakis, quoting George Mcgovern and crystal pepsi, lets all hop on the hindenberg and root for the new york jets cheers and applause then oh, the humanity then senator sanders emphasized his colleagues ability to multitask. The congress can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Senas sande fact, res a nickel. Treat yourself to a pack of bubble gum. You can use whatevers left over to hop on a trolley and go see one of those new talkies. laughter now applause take it, take it, go get out of here, kid. You bother me. All the candidates were eager to deliver the soundbite, including Kamala Harris i believe that what our nation needs right now is a nominee who can speak to all people. I spent my entire career standing mostly in a courtroom speaking five words. Stephen as harris i was that little girl nothing . That was really big at the first debate. Anything . No . Amy klobuchar had the first laugh of the night my first senate race, i literally called everyone i knew, and i set what is still an alltime senate record. I raised 17,000 from ex boyfriends. laughter stephen thats thats pretty impressive. Now, im sure you didnt mean it this way, senator, but technically, if theyre giving you cash, theyre not called boyfriends. Now jon oh, oh stephen she didnt mean that. She didnt mean that andrew yang wore a pin on his lapel that said math, which stands for make america think harder. But i say we can think bigger. Why not make everybody think harder . laughter i want america on meth jon come on come on applause stephen now, americas favorite mayor americas faormsteel mvo bom, tpeheayegti cagindidates on the stage. I never thought id be on a Forbes Magazine list, but they did one of all the candidates by wealth, and i am, literally, the least wealthy person on this stage. Stephen as pete the point is, i really need that 1,000 a month. Andrew yang 2020 laughter lets go can i get an advance . applause cant make rent. Then, Amy Klobuchar offered up a prime argument for a female president if you think a woman cant beat donald trump, nancy pelosi does it every single day. Stephen yes. cheers and applause yes, she does. And if theres any justice, shell be president by spring. Now, tom steyer made a passionate appeal for Affordable Housing when you look at inequality in the United States of america, you have to start with housing. Where you put your head at night determines so many things about your life. Stephen thats true. For instance, every night, devin nunes puts his head right up Donald Trumps keister. applause and that determines so many things about all of our lives. piano riff now moving on to the subject of international relations, joe biden pointed out that he doesnt have any fans in north korea. Kim jongun, who is a thug although, he points out that im a rabid dog and need to be beaten with a stick. Stephen are you sure you want to say points out . laughter sounds like you agree with kim jongun. as biden to quote Teddy Roosevelt speak softly, and i need to be beaten with a stick. laughter then joe biden emphasized the importance of ending violence against women, but with a really, really poor choice of words. So we have to just change the culture, period, and keep punching at it and punching at it and punching at it. Stephen as biden weve got to chain up that racism and weve got to stuff that homophobia back in the closet come on laughter come at me come at me, bro applause , no stephen then cory booker had a little fun when he lit up joe biden. I have a lot of respect for the Vice President. He is swore me into my office. Hes a hero. This week i hear him literally say that i dont think we should legalize marijuana. I thought you might have been high when you said it. laughter stephen to which biden said why . Do i look high . Can you tell . I feel like everyone can tell laughter are you a cop . Yotell me if youre a hap. O tu you going to finish that . Are you going to could i . applause then, biden tried to brag about his appeal to African Americans. I come out of the black community in terms of my support. Stephen as biden but i come out of the White Community in terms of my confidence to say that. laughter now, unfortunately, biden kept on joeing three former chairs of the black caucus, the only bl African American woman whos ever been elected to the United States senate a whole range of people. No, thats not true. The other one is here. Thats not true. laughing look, my point is stephen as biden my point is, i was also endorsed by rosa parks, Sojourner Truth and black panther himself. Wakanda forever laughter cheers and applause wakanda for Wakanda Forever you know, somewhere out there, donald trump is going, oh my god, i cant believe i risked impeachment over joe. Someone please tell me theres a hunter buttigieg. laughter dont go away, folks. When we come back, ill be down in new zealand, playing rugby with new zealands all blacks. Im your 70lb st. Bernard puppy, and my lack of impulse control, isut to become your problem. Ppy, ahh no, come on. I saw you eating poop earlier. Hey my focus is on the road, and thats saving me cash with drivewise. Whos the dummy now . Whoof whoof so get allstate where good drivers save 40 for avoiding mayhem, like me. Sorry hes a baby its not getting in my way. . I had enough joint pain, swelling, tenderness. Much better. My psoriasis, clearer. Cosentyx works on all of this. Four years and counting. So watch out. I got this watch me. Real people with active Psoriatic Arthritis are elinelfeal rki ndreff taosrgieeted biowilothgc it treats the multiple symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis to help you look and feel better. It even helps stop further joint damage. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability. To fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen. Or if youve had a vaccine, or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. I just look and feel better. I got real relief with cosentyx. Watch me feel real relief. Ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. Fthe prilosec otc twoweekymore. Challenge is helping people love what they love again. Ju zero heartburn. Because life starts when heartburn stops. Takeosecc dot m. But we figure it out. In fact, people are always doing impressive things. So how come all these people who do wildly challenging things feel like they cant do their taxes . Were talking about a bunch of babybirthing, officediscoing, zerogravitytoothbrushing, latenightchainsawsculpting, dogwalking people. We believe people can be good at anything. Yes, even taxes. Intuit. Turbotax. Trumpand total disaster. Mplete let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. Ive been a nurse in new york for thirty years. I know the difference leadership can make because i saw what Mike Bloomberg did as mayor. Vo mayor bloomberg helped lower the number of uninsured by 40 , covering 700,000 more new yorkers, Life Expectancy increased. He helped expand Health Coverage to 200,000 more kids and upgraded pediatric care infant mortality rates dropped to record lows. And as mayor, Mike Bloomberg always championed Reproductive Health for women. So when you hear Mike Bloomberg on health care. Mrb this is america. We can certainly afford to make sure that everybody that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor, everybody that needs medicines to stay healthy can get those medicines. Nurse you should know, he did it as mayor, hell get it done as president. Mrb im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. band playing cheers and applause stephen a little cuban. A little afrocuban beat over there . Very nice. Very nice. Jon yeah stephen welcome back, everybody. You know, we love doing the live shows. Were live right here from the ed sullivan theater in new york, new york, the big city of dreams. And cheers and applause thats a Live Audience, jon. Thats a Live Audience. You cant fake a Live Audience legally, you cant fake it. Now, but heres the thing we love doing the live shows after the debates, but watching all this coverage of the impeachment today and the political infighting tonight reminds me that i recently traveled to the other side of the world to get away from all that. And all this week, im so excited, because were celebrating new zealand. And tonight i want to tackle something near and dear to all kiwis their national sport, rugby. When i was down there, i met up with some legends of the Winningest Team in the history of sports, the new zealand all blacks. Jim . Stephen new zealand the land of rugby. But what is a rugby . I met with broadcaster Laura Mcgoldrick, and retired all black stars piri weepu and d. J. Forbes to find out. What does the name all blacks mean . It has to do with the uniform. Because the guys wear all black. So, we keep it simple. Stephen oh, okay. We have a team in the United States called the all whites, and its the republican party. laughter how important is rugby to new zealand . Its hugely important playing rugby. Because everyone can play it. It doesnt matter shape, size stephen really, everybody can play . Even you. laughter stephen thank you, thank you. I take that as a compliment. What are the positions in rugby . So, d. J. Is a forward. There are eight forwards and then seven backs. Two props, a hooker, two locks, three loose forwards, a halfht, a center, two wingers, and a fullback. And the forwards are one to eight, backs are nine to 15. Stephen okay, i didnt get all of that. laughter we can write that down for you. Stephen write that down. We have a diagram, flowchart, maybe a felt board . D. J. , youre a rugby player. Youre an olympian. Yup. Stephen youre an underwear model. Is that true . Yes. Stephen i have a message im supposed to deliver to you, on behalf of all regular men knock it off. laughter knock it off. Can you teach me how to rugby . We can deni ght, ls get p on. It was time. And i was ready. Lets do some sports, kiwi style. First up, i learned how to tackle things. If you get into feetto feet. Tephen cake, my friend. All right. I want you to know, i played football for my high school. For one day. laughter one person clapping thank you, thank you. We did two a day. One in the morning, i threw up for most of it. And then i could barely get up in the afternoon for the afternoon, i threw up through most of that. I went in the next morning, i said to my coach, i want to thank you for the opportunity, but i dont think this is my game. And he said, well, colbert. I dont think so, either. laughter all right, lets do it come on wooooo wooowooo wooowooo oh oh cheers and applause oh, my god got it. He hit me back. Yellow card laughter yellow card on the tackling dummy. Did he give you a forearm . Stephen he punched me in the face. laughter he will have two minutes on the sideline. Stephen yeah, hes out. Hes. Youut. Do you want to tackle d. J. Now . Stephen sure. Also, my producer is fired. laughter all right, d. J. , you ready for it . Im going to give you a merit badge in pain, my man wooo here we go you want to call your mommy before we do this . Say goodbye . Byebye, mommy. laughter you have no killer animals down here. Nothing can kill you on this island. You let a bear in a colbert here it comes watch out cheers and applause wooo wooo thats not fair thats not how is that fair . Come on laughter applause thats pretty good stephen thats good. Time out. Advi ph ste laughter next i learned the subtle art of the line out. I think you would be a perfect jumper. Stephen great, sure. Do you agree . Stephen i have about a six inch vertical. You are trying to gain position of the ball, and they are trying to steal. Stephen if hes on my team why wouldnt they just throw it to me . Stephen you have got to throw the ball straight down the middle of the two teams. Youre trying to regain position. Stephen so this is like a jump ball in basketball. Yeah. Three, two, one. I had the time of my life cheers and applause and i owe it all to you stephen nobody puts baby in the corner laughter now it was time to master the kick. Hes going to places i have never seen before. I have never seen anyone going to practice it for three times. Hes asking for quiet. Or applause. Im not sure which one hes asking for. Hes asking for applause. applause now, were applauding again. applause now, were applauding again. applause this half and half. A half and half. Im not sure what half this is very this is one heck of a buildup to a relatively easy kick right in front of the posts. He looks nervous. Rightly so. Tough day. Tou oh, hes going back to the ball now. Hes not happy hes kicking were doing it again. Were going through it. Here we go. Maybe this time . Oh, twinkle toes. This time there it is straight over the well done cheers and applause rewas at was one of the that alre, ncally urtly laughter stephen finally, piri and d. J. Taught me something called scrum. What do we have here, guys . This is a scrum machine. Stephen were going to push this sled . Is that what were going to do . Were going to try. Stephen can i see what its supposed to look like . Ill try to move it. Not bad not bad feet up. Squeeze yeah cheers and applause that was good stephen wooo yeah woooo thats how you do it you want a cup of tea . You okay . Stephen i need a break. These men were no longer my teammates. They were my brothers, brothers with obvious repressed anger issues, who taught me their sport with grace. But, sadly, it was time to say goodbye. Okay fellas, come on in. Bring it in. Grab a knee. Grab a knee yall. Okay, i want everybody out there to be bearing down, okay. Youve got to hunker down. Youve got to want it. How much are we going to give . All of it. Stephen no, not all of it. More than all. 110 . Do you understand . Do you understand . Yes, sir yes, sir laughter stephen you are the all blacks, okay . Youre not some black. Youre not mostly blacks. Youre all blacks. Okay, bring it in. Bring it in right here, okay. I just want you boys to know i believe in every single one of you, okay . Clear eyes, full heart, cant lose, lets go yeah i just want you to know that out here today with you folks, i left it all out on the field. And i mean that literally, because im not sure if my quads have enough strength to carry me back to that building over there. laughter so if you guys could just give me a lift back, that would be great. All right. applause stephen well be right back. You did a good job. applause stephen thank you piri weepu, d. J. Forbes, and Laura Mcgoldrick tomorrow night, Peter Jackson and i make the lord of the well be right back with John Heilemann and alex wagner from well be right back with John Heilemann and alex wagner from showtimes the circus. Rohrgh. Youve tried retinol, but you have never tried one like this. Olays retinol24 complex hydrates better than the 1 retinol. Visibly smoother brighter skin in just 24 hours. A skin upgrade . Crushed it. Face anything. Olay. Now available with retinol serum and retinol eye cream. Oh, oh, announcer ® onceweekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. A majority of adul reached an a1c under 7 who oktoic ozemp®s heres your a1c. Oh my a1c is under 7 announcer and you may lose weight. Adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. I lost almost 12 pounds oh announcer ozempic®ease the risk of major cardiovascular events d oelike heart attacs k, crstroket , inor death. Theres no increased risk. 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Oh, oh, oh, ozempic® announcer you may pay as little as 25 per prescription. Ask your Health Care Provider today about onceweekly ozempic®. [ turn around, look at me there is someone walking behind you turn around look at me there is someone look at me band playing cheers and applause stephen hey, everybody, my first guests tonight my first guests tonight are cohosts of showtimes political documentary series, the circus. Please welcome back to the late show, John Heilemann and alex wagner. cheers and applause oh, sprinting sprinting out bring it in. Take a knee. Get in there. Stephen friends, good to see e d bate nyou liv ight. Goo now, i want to remind you, alex, of something you said last time you were here. You said, especially in these debates, dems eat their own. Yeah. Stephen in the primary. Yeah. I mean, i think overall, people peoples appetites were not as robust as they could have ennk. Y saw mayor pete take some incoming fire, in large part because the polls have him up in iowa and new hampshire, and thats a threat to the rest of the field. Elizabeth warren, surprisingly, did not get much in the way of incoming fire, which i think is a testament to the fact that democrats are feeling like perhaps she wont be the nominee. But in terms of outright cannibalization and the feasting on other eyeballs, we didnt really see it that much tonight. Theyre leaving that to the trump white house, the cannibalization thing. The eating of the own. Stephen but there was a little there were some sparks out there tonight. Who who did mix it up a little bit tonight . I mean, well, there were weird, odd bedfellows, like tom steyer and joe biden going after each other. Tulsi gabbard was, like, yosemite sam in a white pantsuit kind of, like, aiming her fire at anybody who was standing. laughter stephen i think she always wares a white pantsuit so she can just eventually sneak into the white house and they wont know shes there. laughter just blend in. Andrew yang and tom steyer bonded over its okay to be really rich. Yeah, listen stephen bold statement. And, you know, theyre the ones to make it. Andrew yang i will just take this moment to say, andrew yang is going to be in this fight longer than people think he is. scattered cheers and applause stephen yang gang . Yang gang is here. Stephen a yang gang of two, i think here tonight. laughter they are small, but they are mighty they are like they are like sort of the inverse beehive. Beyonce has her beehive and they will sting you if you cross beyonce. The yang gang will find you on the internet machine and they will kill you on the internet machine if you say bad things about andrew yang. That aside stephen he should wear a tie come at me they will come at you for that. Stephen theyre in it for the cash, though. They know theyre getting paid off after this. Isnt that bribery . Isnt that illegal to bribe voters to vote for you by saying vote for me and ill give you 1,000 . Its Donald Trumps america, stephen. Stephen all right, sorry about that. Okay, who had the best night, in your opinion, heilemann . Well, in a weird way, i think both of those two candidates we just talked about. You think about Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, Pete Buttigieg on the rise in iowa, on the rise in new hampshire, and although he took some incoming tonight, nothing really happened to halt his momentum as he is going forward. I think the buttigieg people walk out thinking they had akam, and if youre any of these candidate under 5 , youre looking for moments. And she had a couple strong moments. And cory booker, if you think about how these debates arewhici e teon umtomorrnsowco, the thing you pd earlier, cory booker going after joe biden on pot will get some play, because youre talking about weed. And then you have biden stumbling into which is a popular topic, at least in my household actually just in my office. laughter and then he made a mistake on a subject which always gets a lot of traction, which is race. So when joe biden made the mistake, saying there was only one African American female senator before while standing next to Kamala Harris on the stage, it is not a good thing when your political strength if youre the frontrunner and joe biden still thinks he is its built on the backs of African American support. To be on the debate stage and being openly mocked by the two African American candidates is not a great place to be. And i think that for both booker and harris will rebound for their benefit, or at least they hope it will. Stephen if i got this right, when buttigieg was on the circus, he said he thought it was going to come down to him and Elizabeth Warren. Yeah. Stephen what is that based on . Well, i think, first of all, theres good polling to support that, right . I mean, they are ahead and he has good intel on that front. But i think it speaks to a larger truth about this race. There is an intraparty war that is quietly happening that we are not perhaps attuned to, between the moderate wing of the Democratic Party and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. And and the issue about which kind of candidate is best suited to lead the party in 2020 is very unresolved. And if anything, i think that that will propel this race much longer than democratic voters would perhaps like it to. Stephen do you think obama coming out and saying, like, dont go too crazy, dont go too left. Americans dont really like huge change. Do you think thats going to have effect on the candidates strategy . Because obamas endorsement or obamas blessing is going to be enormous to these people. It is, although, theres no world in which barack obama is going to endorse any of these candidates in a democratic nomination fight. But it is the case that there is already a widespread sense of panic among establishment democrats within if you swing a dead cat in the vicinity of this theater, if you could hit, you know, 5,000 democratic donors who are all, like, going mentally theyre unhinged, unbalanced over the prospect that Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders could be the nominee both because they could lose a losehe eleion. N that situation tk analthso so tinhere is y already ththis c that is happening they are already looking for somebody to guide the party back to what they see as the middle. Obamas words for those people is something to cling to because the president basically seems to be saying, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, an unsubtle shot at those two candidates. I think if you go back to petes comments, it turned out to be prescient. He got a lot of flack for it, for saying it would be a two person race. But a couple of weeks after that he took the lead in iowa and now it looks like he might be in the d reine alexaid a moderate winga progressive wing i think of it more temperamentally though. There is a barack obama bring everybody together lets all get along unity wing. And there is the itchy and scratchy fightfightfight wing. And the fightfightfightfight wing is Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Stephen we have to go to commercial here because were live. I dont mean to cut you off. But before we go to commercial i want to point out its 75 days until iowa. And at this point in 2004, the leader was, of course, future president dick gephardt. laughter well be right back with more with John Heilemann and alex wagner from showtimes the circus. Were going to talk about the impeachment hearing today. 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So get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. paul sprintern the hspeaking of magic, are ti turned my iphone 6s into the new iphone 11. paul its true, trade in an iphone 6s or newer in any condition and youll get the powerful new iphone 11 for just 0 a month when you switch to sprint. sprintern yeah, an iphone 6s for an iphone 11. Or trade in your beloved iphone 7, trusty iphone 8, amazing iphone x. paul . Take them all to 11. sprintern see, i told you, magic. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com stephen hey, everybody, welcome back to our special live late show here at the ed sullivan theater were here live tonight with editor in chief of the recount John Heilemann and cbs news special correspondent alex wagner. Okay, guys, did you watch the testimony today from capitol hill when sondland was testifying . Yes, sir. My eyes are filled with blood, biden style, as evidence of how Much Television i have been watching today. Stephen okay, theres, like, two different takeaways here. One is that these were bombshells. Says there right on the cover of drudge bombshell president implicated. And then you go across the street over to fox news, though drudge is conservative, fox news says this is a big nothing burger. What do you make of it . Do you think this changes anything . Please. Oh, no. You have the more optimistic i think sondland woke up this morning and had a choice, which was either plead the fifth and still face the charges for perjury and bribery, or go in and burn the house down. And so, he was like, i think im going to go burn the house down. And what happens when sondland, who was the fall guy, right . Thats the guy stephen yeah. They were going to throw him under the bus, and he showed up today like Sandy Bullock in speed, just driving over everything in sight. laughter im not the fall guy. So whos the fall guy now . The people hes flipped its a mob case, is all this they flip and who is the next. Is one up the chain . Rudy giuliani, mike pompeo and donald trump. Those are the ones who are left. So now, these guys who ran the United States government, including john bolton, who are kind of around the edges, are now center stage. And the question of what happens nexts whof ione gh hose tuys and when they become the fall guy, what do they do when they flip on someone above them . Because pretty soon theres no one to flip on, except donald trump. Can i offer a slightly more cynical point of view . Stephen of course. I feel like Gordon Sondland went in there to burn the house down, but maybe only set fire to the living room drapes. Because the first part of the testimony yeah, it was all there, there was a quid pro quo, everyone was in the loop. But by the end of it, the republicans were getting the talking points they needed. Which is, you had a conversation with the president , what did he say . Well, sondland says, he said no quid pro quo, tell zelensky to do the right thing, i dont want anything from him. You saw the president outside of the white house moments later repeating that over and over and over again. There is widespread belief, conviction among the president s supporters, that this is a witch hunt. And if they wanted corroboration from that, they got that in the latter half of sondlands testimony. Stephen even though thats sort of easily refutable, if you want to hear it if you want to hear it. Sure. S ph stephen and the president stood on the white house lawn and said, i wanted them to launch an investigation of the bidens. Id like china to investigate the bidens. Stephen exactly. But doesnt this lead to the house of representatives being able to go to the Supreme Court and saying youe to g the subpoena power, you have to make giuliani come in, you have to make pompeo. You have to give us the documents they wouldnt give to sondland. Or else were not a coequal branch, and by extension, neither are you, judiciary, and do you really want that . You have to give us a ap rocky laughter but this is this is this is my view. And i think thats where were headed next. Stephen well, where were headed next, unfortunately, is a commercial. Thank you so much for being here. Hard break. We made the hard break stephen the circus returns to showtime in january. John heilemann and alex wagner, everybody well be right back. cheers and applause hard as they come. Stephen well, thats it for the late show, everybody. Tune in tomorrow when ill be joined by senator Kamala Harris and musical guest lady antebellum. And down in new zealand, i hang out with Peter Jackson and star in my own lord of the rings movie. Stick around for james. Good night captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org are you ready yall to have some fun feel the love tonight dont you worry where it is you come from itll be all right its the late late show reggie ladies and gentlemeny that you remember, give it up