phone ringing hello laughter applause this is donald trump. Yeah . Would do you me a favor . No. laughter cheers and applause announcer its the late show with Stephen Colbert. Tonight, lowering the barr plus, stephen welcomes Rachel Maddow and thom yorke. Featuring jon batiste and stay human. And now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, its Stephen Colbert cheers and applause stephen nice to see you thank you, everybody thank you so much. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome one and all to the late show. Im your host, Stephen Colbert. cheers and applause you know its so nice to be with these people tonight. Heres the thing the news is so dark these days, id like to start off tonight with a story of hope that honors an american hero. Theres a viral video of this beverage cart at ohare airport. Jim . Its spinning. Its spinning. Its gonna hit the plane. Oh, it barely misses the plane and blam audience reacts forklift guy saves the day a tip for any passenger flying on that plane do not order anything carbonated. laughter i just love that video. I just love that video so much. Jon that video is crazy. Stephen its got everything. You know who else liked that video . Donald trump. laughter its true. Im not making that up. Trump retweeted it with the comment, great job, just in time laughter piano riff got a lot of time on his hands. cheers and applause cats got a lot of time on his hands. Jon got a lot of time stephen i agree, mr. President. I think we can all relate to the story of a dangerous, outof control thing being stopped just in time. cheers and applause i can see why trump needs something to take his mind off the news these days, because this ukraine scandal is moving faster than a chalupa through a goose. laughter and now the scrutiny has focused on trumps inner circle. Ill tell you all about it in tonights edition of don and the giant impeach. That call was perfect. It couldnt have been nicer. cheers and applause stephen glad glad we use thiagain. The first top trump official implicated in this is attorney general and cannibal at a summer camp, bill barr. laughter we found out yesterday that trump pressed australias leader to help barr investigate the mueller inquirys origins. Yes, trump wants any information the australians can give him. as trump hello . Kangaroo jack . laughter listen, you guys are 14 hours in the future. What did i tweet tomorrow . cheers and applause what did i do this time . Am i in trouble . Hello . Its just a finger. And we found out the attorney general is part of this is a highly unusual event. In fact, current and former intelligence and Law Enforcement officials have expressed frustration and alarm that barr is taking such a direct role in reexamining what they view as conspiracy theories. Bill barr is traveling the world trying to prove that all of trumps conspiracy theories are true. Hes going to find obamas birth certificate. Hes going to rescue all the people that aliens abducted from trumps inauguration crowd. laughter and finally bring help to hurricane ravaged alabama. laughter did the hurricane cheers and applause just skip this. Australia is just the tip of the crazyberg here, because barr also reached out to British Intelligence officials. And last week, the attorney general traveled to italy, where he met with senior Italian Government officials. Really . Italy . Either barr is on a worldwide collusion tour, or hes on a journey of midlife discovery called eat, pray, lie. laughter cheers and applause jon come on stephen next domino about to fall, secretary of state mike pompeo, seen here smelling the blood of an englishman. laughter yesterday this is just yesterday . We learned that pompeo took part in the trumpzelensky phone call. He was on the line even though he was asked about it two weeks ago and he played dumb. I mean, like i think someday people will forget i was a willing part of this administration dumb. I want to turn to the whistleblower complaint. The wall street journal is reporting that President Trump pressed the president of ukraine eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani to investigate joe bidens son. What do you know about those conversations . So, you just gave me a report about a, i think, whistleblower complaint, none of which ive seen. laughter stephen well, you you just gave me a report from the i oop. Elevator going down. Elevator going down. laughter cheers and applause piano riff the final member of the about tolosepower trio is trump lawyer and man shocked to find out hes still welcome on tv, Rudy Giuliani. laughter yesterday, House Democrats subpoenaed giuliani to produce documents in the impeachment inquiry. In their attached letter, the chairmen of three house committees made clear, our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the office of the president. Well, duh laughter thats what it says on giulianis tramp stamp. laughter either cheers and applause he looks good. He looks good. Jon wow, thats what it says . Stephen looks good. Jon hes been hitting the gym, huh . Stephen he looks good. Whats wrong . Give the people what they want. Either giuliani turns over the documents, or he risks obstruction charges. So last night, he went on fox news to consider his options. Oh, i dont know. Im weighing the alternatives. Im ill kind of, like, go through it. Ill get all of my evidence together. Ill get my charts. I dont know if they would let me use videotapes and tape recordings that i have, if they let me get some of the evidence that i gathered. Stephen as giuliani yes, it depends on whether they let me present all the evidence the charts, the videotapes, the balls of red twine i use to connect random newspaper clippings on the cork board in my basement, which is where i also keep my jars of urine that speak to me in the night. laughter and let me tell you, sean, they are pissed laughter giuliani cheers and applause nothing like giuliani. That sounds nothing like mayor giuliani, 100 . More like gilbert gottfried. Giuliani continued to rail against joe biden, and then had a warning for the other side wake up, democrats you are covering up corruption, and by the time this is over, you are going to be the party of corruption. I prosecuted corruption, democrats and republicans. I can smell this. Stephen as giuliani i can smell this, and you can smell it too, because i yanked this corruption story straight out of my keister. laughter applause cheers now, if trumps defense seems scatter shot and chaotic, its because it is. The white house hasnt developed a unified strategy yet. Instead, trump is testing out diff it are difrent ways to bake the cake, depending on what sort of cake you want. Different flavoring, different temperatures, different ingredients yield different types of cake, and the president as the master baker is testing recipes and deciding what type of cake he wants. laughter yes, trump is holed up in the white house, furiously master baking. laughter thats cheers and applause he said jon ewww stephen thats what it says. I think thats what executive time is. laughter just trump alone in the room whipping the batter and somehow making frosting at the same time. audience reacts stephen well. I liked it. laughter that metaphor says a lot about trumps impeachment strategy, because cake isnt the kind of thing you can improvise. When you make a cake, you need a very specific plan. Thats why the back of the Betty Crocker box doesnt say, step one heat oven to, i dont know, 200 maybe . laughter step two mix eggs, and i think, powder is this where the sprinkles go . Definitely baking soda. Were baking. Step three cook until cake. So cheers and applause mmmm mmmm jon give me that cake that old Betty Crocker. Stephen yum. So, trump is struggling to find a coherent defense against his impeachment. But on the other hand, so is every other republican. Take florida senator and hypnotized cobra, rick scott. laughter when senator scott was asked about the ukraine call, he answered, what i saw, he asked him to look into something. But i im new. laughter really . Ly you were the governor of florida. Im new . So this is how the g. O. P. Is going to respond now . Yet, thats why when the constitution rolls behind the couch, we no longer have civil rights. Uh, googoo and i want to state this very clearly ga ga. laughter but not all of trumps defenders are feigning ignorance. Some are sincerely ignorant, like fox friend, Ainsley Earhardt i think it gets too much in the weeds. I think, first, theyre going after the president with impeachment. Then they are going after Rudy Giuliani. Now its bill barr. And americans are saying, what . How are they all connected . Connect the dots for us. What are you talking about . Its just so much information. Stephen ainsleys right laughter its so much information how are we supposed to remember up to three people . laughter i mean its just its just confusing. Marco marco look, it is a lot of information, so ill connect the dots for her in my new segment the late shows explainsley to ainsley its just so much information. Stephen okay, ainsley. You might want to push record because there are a lot of moving parts to this. Okay, here we go. All right, all right. If you want to connect the dots of the abuse of power at the heart of the trump administration, its very complicated. Trump. Asked for dirt on biden from the ukraine. cheers and applause just keep playing this back until it sinks in. Weve got a great show for you tonight. When we return, Rachel Maddow is here stick around. New emergenc protein fuel packed with plantbased protein antioxidants and real superfoods new protein shake new snack break new emergenc protein fuel superfoods. Emerge see a new buick . For me . To james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. I shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. I love it. I love it. This year, turn black friday into buick friday, all month long. Current eligible nongm owners and lessees get 20 below msrp on most of these 2019 buick models. 20 below msrp i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush. But my hygienist said going electric could lead to way cleaner teeth. She said, get the one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. Go pro with oralb. 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Blow a kiss, into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss, into the sun all we need is somebody to lean on cheers and applause stephen give it up for jon batiste and stay human, everybody hey, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen folks, my first guest tonight is an author and emmywinning journalist who hosts the Rachel Maddow show. Her new book is called blowout. Please welcome back to the late show, Rachel Maddow cheers and applause cheers and applause hi cheers and applause stephen there you go. Okay. I watch your show most nights, but youre behind a desk. Uhhuh. Stephen what gives . Did hannity try to kneecap you . laughter what happened here, rachel . I just keep telling people, you ought to see the other guy. Its amazing how that cuts off all further questions. Because everybody imagines a different guy. Stephen sure, sure. I just fell down. That was all it is. Im an old person now, and when you fall down you break three ligaments and get an avulsion fracture. Stephen an avulsion fracture . Stephen which means the ligament rips off a piece of the bone while its tearing. Stephen wow if anyone ever offers you an avulsion fracture say no. laughter its a terrible idea. So, i did this like three months ago and im still on crutches. Stephen oh my god. Surgery . No, but i have incredibly ripped armpits. laughter stephen sure, because your lats get so tight. Exactly. Stephen well, as i have said to you many times before, i think that you are americas premiere explainer. Something complicated going on in the day, you come out cheers and applause and you as ive said before you lay the story out like parts on a lawn and then you put it together and say, this is how the engine works. Are you at all frustrated that the present scandal is so damn simple . laughter let me lay out the parts trump called ukraine and im done. Exactly. laughter yeah, you cant even sleuth your way through it, too. Because in order to find out that trump called ukraine, what we had to do was ask trump, did you call ukraine . And he said, yes, heres the evidence. laughter so there wasnt even like a whodunit . How can we prove it . Its over. I mean there is stuff toin uk . And why did he think he could get that . And whats going to happen to ukraine . I mean there are a lot of other contextual stuff i can make long segments about. Stephen sure, right. But in terms of whodunnit, he did it, and he admits it, and now hes going to be impeached for it. cheers and applause stephen thats interesting. Thats interesting. Um. This is the fourth fourth impeachment inquiry, possibly the third Impeachment Vote weve ever had, if it actually goes to a vote, in u. S. History. Yeah. Stephen this is your first impeachment at the rodeo. laughter this is this is this is maddow time. This is your superbowl, right . Because everybody cares about whats going on right now. Do you do you feel um, do you feel the audiences need for this to be explained simply every day . Is this an exciting time to do your job . I do think theres a lot of people interested in this as news. This is a huge thing that never happens in american history. As you said, weve had three impeachment inquiries before. Weve had two president s impeached, one in 1868, andrew johnson. One in the 90s, that was bill clinton. They were both impeached by the house and not removed by the senate. Nixon resigned before he was ever impeached. And thats it, thats our whole history of this as a country. And so, i think part of what is important now and what im enthused about in terms of people being so into it, is that we really know nothing about what will happen once he gets impeached. I do think hes going to be impeached, but what is the result of that politically . You know, what does it do to the two parties . What does it do to the next election . We have no idea. Stephen or what even happens with the trial in the senate . Because Mitch Mcconnell says the senate rules are clear, wed have to actually have the trial in the senate. But what that can be, can be almost anything because its not written down what that trial should be. Every time its happened, they kind of made it up as they went along. Yes, and Mitch Mcconnell has been perfectly willing to say, senate . What senate . Whenever there is something he doesnt want them to engage with. laughter i mean, literally, a Supreme Court justice died and there was a vacancy, and Mitch Mcconnell was in charge of the senate and he just pretended he wasntuntiu get a new Supreme Court justice. Hes perfectly happy to just not act if need be. In this case he says, yeah, were going to have a trial. Now, we dont know what that trial might be. But i do think that this behavior by the president is so simple and its so indefensible you cant go to another country and ask them for help against your likely opponent in the next election. You just cant. And it may be that republicans decide either to save their own skins or because of their conscience or their patriotism that they want to be on the right side of history on this. And i dont think theyre deciding now. I think theyll decide as it plays out. Stephen the interesting thing to me is the ways in which the administration is trying to throw chaff up in the air around the story. Yeah. Stephen because as i said before, it is so simple he called ukraine and said, hey, can you dig up some dirt if you want those javelin missiles. Totally simple. But now they say, theres a ot of, like, there was no quid pro quo. What is a quid pro quo . Do you think journalists or reporters should stop asking republicans and congressmen do usitt ce ht. Stephen just asking the leader of another country to interfere with our election by digging up dirt on our opponent is the crime. The ask is the crime. And if this were being prosecuted as a crime, you would not all you would have to prove is that you were trying to solicit this thing of value to use in your campaign. You dont actually have to get it. You dont have to promise to trade something for it. Its done. Stephen i guess what im asking is do journalists, are they falling into a trap by accepting that criteria of quid pro quo in the questioning of these senators . I think stephen because thats just like, who knows what quid pro quo and thats debatable. When at the heart of it, it is not debatable what happened. Yeah. I mean, its like debating the interior logic of Rudy Giulianis arguments. Well, once you said you were his lawyer, now you said youre not acting as his lawyer. You id y askim abo biden and then you admitted you di like, Rudy Giuliani says things. You can just put it in a file, and then set is aside. laughter you dont need to engage with it internally. Theres a lot that theyre doing cheers and applause that is not designed to convey factual information. Stephen no, its to create, as ainsley was so easily confused laughter to create the idea there is something confusing around a simple story. Yes. Stephen because now you have barr going to italy. You have got giuliani going god knows where. You have pompeo being on the phone call, pompeo going to italy. Are these all just, sort of, political sacrificial lambs . Let anything happen to them because thats just ordinary badness. Thats not this extraordinary badness. The badness th