This may take three weeks. Whats happening . And schiff has sent a tow truck to drag your as to the House Intelligence Committee. This conversation never happened. cheers and applause announcer its the late show with Stephen Colbert tonight quid pro quo. Plus stephen welcomes senator Bernie Sanders and musical guest Brittany Howard, featuring jon batiste and stay human. And now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, its stephen colus laying stephen whoo hello cheers and applause beautiful. Beautiful. My friends, thank you for being here. piano riff welcome to the late show. Im your host, Stephen Colbert. It has been a hell of a week. cheers and applause really fast, things are happening. To paraphrase our president , the news has been moving on us like a bitch. laughter a lot of people are celebrating because donald trump is in serious trouble, but trump has shown over and over again that when hes cornered, hell fight like that rabid weasel on his head. laughter piano riff cheers and applause and the republicans have shown theyll go along with him no matter what. So this isnt going to be so much light at the end of the tunnel as a long fall down a dark and dirty pit. laughter dark and dirty pit laughter applause this morning, the House Intelligence Committee released the whistleblowers complaint about trump and ukraine. And whoever blew this whistle does not mince words, stating very plainly that i have received information from multiple u. S. Government officials that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u. S. Election. audience reacts soliciting interference from a foreign power to influence a u. S. Election. You know what they say, if at first you do succeed, try, try that again. laughter cheers and applause its a saying. Its a saying. You cant say trump didnt warn us, remember this exchange from june. Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if russia, if china, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the fbi . I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. I dont theres nothing wrong with listening. Stephen as trump theres nothing wrong with listening. Unless youre listening to that phone call i had with the ukrainian president , because what phone call . laughter there was no phone call. laughter the whistleblowers main concern was trumps phone call with zelensky, but they were also concerned about what happened after that call. In the days following the phone call, i learned from multiple u. S. Officials that senior white house officials had intervened to lock down all records of the phone call. This set of actions underscored to me that white house officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call. It was a perfect call. No pressure. No quid pro quo. Now, take it and bury it at the bottom of the ocean. Put it in a lead capsule and sink it down into the marianas trench, cover it in concrete, then dig it up and shoot it into the heart of the sun. Perfect. Perfect call. cheers and applause perfect, perfect perfect in other words, white house officials tried to move records of president trumps efforts to press ukraine for dirt on joe biden to a different computer server. Ah ha . laughter a different computer server . Is everything trump accuses someone else of is something hes done . laughter he used a secret computer server, he colluded with ukraine, he probably cheated on robert pattinson. Robert, you can do so much better innocent people dont do things like this. Thats why people hide their porn on their computer in files labeled vacation pics instead of porn for later. laughter cheers and applause its never really for later, its for now. laughter according to the whistleblower, they hid a lot of stuff this way, but some on the right claim the whistleblower shouldnt be trusted because the Inspector General who oversaw the report found reason to believe that the whistleblower might not support the reelection of mr. Trump. Well, yeah applause applause laughter because he knows he committed a bunch of crimes its the same reason you dont invite the guy who tried to kill you to your dinner party. Look, frank, wed love to have you and brenda over, but remember when you stabbed me in the trachea . Im still having trust issues. The whistleblowers complaint describes several instances of clear quid pro quo. For instance, the whistleblower says, multiple u. S. Officials told me that the ukrainian leadership was led to believe that a meeting or phone call between the president and president zelensky would depend on whether zelensky showed willingness to play ball. as trump okay, ukraine. You gotta play ball, and let me get to second base. Over the bra, under the constitution. laughter applause trump reacted to his bad news the same way as he always does, tweeting. Democrats trying to destroy the Republican Party and all it stands for but you beat him to it. applause nicely done. Stick together and plays their game, fight hard, republicans, our country is at stake. Does that mean fight hard republicans or fight, hard republicans. Because theres a big difference. Im sure one doesnt include wilbur ross. Theyre playing a game called pin the crime on your generous kiester. Even for donald trump, this mornings tweets were off the rails, like this one is there ak score impeachment . Absolutely not. There is no high crimes or misdemeanors, no treason, no extortion, no treason, r. D. Robert ray respected. I dont know what that means. Fox news actually identifies robert ray as a former whitewater independent counsel, not a respected. Respected isnt a title, its just a description. Thats like calling me stephen t. Colbert, aging. laughter now he who whistle blew says he learned of trumps abuse of power from multiple concerned administration officials. Trump jumped on that this morning at the u. N. Whos the person who gave the whistle blower information . Because thats close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart . Right . With spies and treason . We used to handle it a little differently than we do now. audience reacts stephen so hes saying it would be better if why ever white house insider revealed his crimes were dead. Thats gonna make the next allstaff meeting interesting. as trump hey everyone, my good friend vlad sent us some free sushi. Whoever wants some, just whistle. laughter cheers and applause theres a word in there, a couple of words in there. Trumps already turned on one employee that was the second conversation i think you should ask for the first conversation, also. I cant believe they havent. Although, i heard there is a rumor out there. They want the first conversation. It was beautiful. It was just a perfect conversation. But i think you should do that. I think you should ask for Vice President pences conversations, because he had a couple of conversations also. Stephen wow. audience reacts he just threw pence under the bus. Mother, hes betrayed me quick to the root cellar. Thank god we stocked up on emergency mayonnaise laughter applause piano riff things are looking bad for trump, but luckily his closest political allies are shambling to his defense. Starting with South Carolina senator and man who cant believe what the devil gave him for his worthless soul, lindsey graham. cheers and applause its worth nothing i cant believe it graham was asked what he thought would constitute inappropriate quid pro quo, and he put on a oneman show to describe trumps conduct in this theoretical scenario, saying, uh, hey pal, you know, you need to like, go after the bidens or i aint gonna give you any money, . hed be really, like, thuggish about it. Lindsey graham knows that guys and dolls isnt reallife, right . Put the squeeze on diamond joe, zelensky. Or youll be sleeping with the fishes faster than you can say 23 skidoo. singing your country needs some dough, lets do a quid pro quo. You gotta go. And get me dirt on joe. Ukraine, ukraine, i hope this dont cause me pain. Ran out of lyrics, but i still wanted to sing that. Thats all right. Jon that was good Stephen LindseyHouse Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy attacked the entire premise of this impeachment inquiry. The phone call is now put forth. There is nothing in that phone call that rises to the level of impeachment. Did the president do anything wrong . Yes. laughter cheers and applause jon whoa whoa stephen oh my im sorry that was so quiet. Sorry, kevin, could you speak up . I couldnt hear you over the death rattle of democracy. Of course, maybe were being unfair. Maybe. Jim, play the rest of his answer. Yes. You know, the question the question the democrats ar not asking, did he do something wrong . They have raised this to impeachment. Thats the question thats taking place. Ste sayingthor hearinthey sulmpeachment did ump ething wrong . Fair enough. Kevin mccarthy, did he do something wrong . Yes. Stephen okay. Impeach away. Impeach away cheers and applause kind of sad. Today, the House Intelligence Committee heard testimony from acting director of national intelligence, joseph maguire. At one point, maguire touted his professional qualifications, or rather, the lack thereof. I am not political, i am not partisan, and i did not look to be sitting here as the acting director of national intelligence. I thought that there were perhaps more people who would be best and more qualified to do that, but the president asked me to do this. Stephen as maguire and i was the only sucker dumb enough to take it. Do i at least get to keep this tiny bottle of water . Even though the whistleblowers complaint is disturbing, maguire took it in stride. When you read the complaint, were you shocked at all by what you read . Congressman. Congresswoman excuse me as i said, i had a lot of have a lot of life experience. Stephen as maguire oh, ive seen things you people wouldnt believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of orion. Ive seen eric trump eat spaghetti with his bare hands. Time to die. laughter then, the questioning turned to maguires conversations with the president. Did you ever speak to the president about this complaint . My conversations with the president are privileged and it would be inappropriate for me because it would destroy my relationship with the president. Stephen oh, i think that ship has sailed. laughter when he sees your testimony, i think youre going on the olddayswhenweweresmart list. laughter yone took the whistleblowers complaint seriously. Like California Republican devin nunes, seen here unsuccessfully blowing smoke up the president s butt. laughter nunes accused the majority of acting in bad faith. Democrats on this very committee negotiated with people who they thought were ukrainians in order to obtain nude pictures of trump. Stephen this is where i call b. S. laughter no one, no matter how badly they want trump impeached, wants to see him naked. laughter cheers and applause piano riff weve a great show for you tonight. When we return, Bernie Sanders stick around. cheers and applause band playing with advil liquigels, you have fastacting power over pain, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength and speed of advil liquigels. What pain . [trumpet plays] [gust of wind] [sounds of items hitting phone] [trumpet plays] [thud] [spray of sprinklers] [trumpet plays] performance comes in lots of flavors. dramatic orchestra theres the ampedup, overtuned, feedingfrenzyof sheetmetalkind. And then theres performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. Thats the kind lincolns about. Kohls lowest prices of the season prices so low no coupons needed womens tops 6. 99. Shoes for the family 39. 99 and under. The big one bath towel or pillow 2. 99 plus get 5 kohls cash for every 25 spent its the lowest prices of the season. 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Im so glad youre here tonights your ninth appearance on the show tenth appearance, ninth interview. You get a free sub after this, actually. And i knew you before you were Stephen Colbert. Stephen what was i . One of your former shows. Stephen back then i was just Stephen Colbert. Now im Stephen Colbert. Totally different guy. laughter im glad youre here. Y, wento tt your campaign. But i just want to hit you here as a senator. Are you at all intolted that trump didnt try to get dirt on you from ukraine . cheers and applause what am i, chopped liver . What are you thinking when you hear this . Well, what im thinking is hes probably the most corrupt president in the modern history of this country. cheers and applause and that the impeachment inquiry has got to move as quickly as possible. He is really an embarrassment to our country. applause and lets get moving on the impeachment inquiry. Stephen one of the things people are saying is that the white house is caught a little flatfooted by how fast this story is moving and maybe they could get out some sort of redacted transcript or slow walk this for a while until things came off the boil, but nancy pelosi immediately went to impeachment inquiry. Do you think thats the right thing to do, to move that fast . I do. I have been calling for an impeachment inquiry for months. cheers and applause and i think this ukrainian business using National Security money designed to protect the people of America Stephen its our money. And use that as leverage to try to get dirt on a political opponent and then trying to cover that it up, this is an outrage on top of an outrage, and i think this is kind of taking millions of people to say, you know what . Enough is enough with this guy. cheers and applause stephen one of the things, i want to know what you think about this, is that some of the republicans, some of the president s allies are saying oh, this thing is so so complicated. Its simple. You hear what the president has to say, you understand the motivation completely and there isnt that much to explain. He wanted this dirt, he had some leverage and he used it. I agree, its not complicated, and its consistent with his behavior. Stephen right, its on brand. It is. laughter i honestly believe im not a psychiatrist here but i honestly believe stephen you look like a psychiatrist, i want you to know. Lie down and well talk about your problems. laughter im not sure he knows the difference between lying and truth telling. I doubt very much that he understands what the constitution of the United States of america is about, i dont think he understands that we have an emolument clause which says you cannot enrich yourself when youre president , i dont know that he understands that. He grew up as a very rich kid, i think hes a spoiled brat, and i think he thinks he can do anything that he wants to do. cheers and applause and it is you know, other people work hard, they tell the truth, they pay their taxes, thats not donald trump, and i think weve got to explain to him what the constitution of the United States is about. cheers and applause stephen now, since last we were together, you have announced your candidacy for president of the United States. Youre running. Weve had the debates. In 2016, four years ago, you were the progressive. Now a lot of people have picked up your banner and are running with a lot of your original ideas. Do you ever want to turn to somebody and say, hey, i put my name on that yogurt, you cant take that thats my medicare for all with fruit on the bottom laughter no, what im proud of, the ideas i talked about four years ago throughout this country, raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour applause s and universities tuition free applause canceling student debt in this country which is something ease i think we have to do, making sure that we understand that Climate Change is in fact a major National Security issue, and im very proud to introduce the most comprehensive Climate Change program that any candidate for president has ever introduced, and then youve got the issue of healthcare. Four years ago, i was here saying healthcare is a human right, it is not a privilege, we have got to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and of the Insurance Companies and guarantee healthcare to every man, woman and child in this country as a human right. cheers and applause stephen now, senator warren was on here last week, and i asked her about her plans for medicare for all. Im going to ask you the question that i asked her at the risk of being accused of trumping republican talking points, is there an increase in taxes on the middle class to pay for medicare for all . Or, rather where would the tax burned go to pay for that . Okay. Under my legislation, 15 cosponsors, i believe, in the senate now nobody in america will pay any more premiums. I just talked to a womant paid a month, 20,000 a year, gone. No more copayments, gone. No more out of pocket expenses, gone. Nobody will go bankrupt. Right now 500,000 people in america go bankrupt because of medical bills, all