The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

7/25/19

12:08:28 AM

STEPHEN COLBERT:...I want to talk about the hearings today.

CHRIS WALLACE: Yes.

COLBERT: I know you were on the air a few times today with Fox News giving your own analysis. And-uh- the President- uh knew that also because uh at 10:11 this morning he tweeted this statement that you had made, "This has been a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller." Now you said that at 10:07 this morning. An hour and a half into a six hour series of hearings. So is Fox News motto, we report and decide before the things over?

WALLACE: There was a break in the hearing.

COLBERT: Yes.

WALLACE: We were asked for our reaction and let me simply say, nothing in your monologue disproved that description.

COLBERT: In what way was it a disaster? I don't understand.

WALLACE: Yes you do.

COLBERT: No. I promise you I don't. It seemed like a well-organized and choreographed recitation of the moral, ethical, and criminal failings of the President of the United States. Now, interjected, interjected between those- between those you had Republicans undermining- attempting to undermine the credibility of the man and the mission which was the report. But of course you're going to expect that. You kind of knew the way Robert Mueller was going to answer and you knew the Republicans were going to attack him. But-

WALLACE: Listen.

COLBERT: But it doesn't take away the impact of the factual statements from the report.

WALLACE: But we heard the factual statements from the report back in March when the report was released. Lawrence Tribe, who is a distinguished Harvard law professor and a fierce critic of Donald Trump said, also- I must say it was after I said it- that the hearing was a disaster and that instead of breathing life into the report, he sucked the life out of the report. I mean the report stands and I'm not saying- you know the report is what the report is and it raises some very troubling questions about the President's behavior. But the whole reason that the Democrats, the House majority, the Democratic majority in the House, wanted to have this hearing is they kept saying quote was "people aren't going to read the book. They'll watch the movie." The movie was a snore. And part of it was, frankly, because Robert Mueller was- seemed not in control of his brief. He didn't seem in charge. I think it raised questions as to how much he actually ran the investigation. And as you showed in some of your clips, I mean, you were making light of it, but it was actually kind of-

COLBERT: I'm sorry I made light. I'm sorry I made light.

WALLACE: You didn't make that much light of it so you're ok. I- I thought that it was sad, actually. I thought- you know, because he's a very distinguished man. He has had a great career in law enforcement and at least on the basis of today, he seemed like a fellow who wasn't- who didn't quite know what he was about, what was being said. He had trouble finding the various congressmen, let- where they were on the podium, let alone, answering their questions.

COLBERT: Have you ever testified before a congressional committee?

WALLACE: No.I have had a life beyond reproach.

COLBERT: I have. I have. And that's just the mechanics of it. You don't know who's speaking to you because you hear the speaker not their faces. These are all performance notes you're giving.

WALLACE: Yes, it is.

COLBERT: And they only mean something because we've been- we've become desensitized to the shock of the information that they were laying out for us. That in some ways has nothing to do with the information. That's- it's like you don't like the dance of it, as opposed to what the actual import of the information was.

WALLACE: But all of that was in the report.

COLBERT: They're right. I'll let you finish when I do. That just proves my point that- do you think that the things that were said, the enumerated moral and ethical and criminal failings of the President as described in those two reports, the part one and part two, do you think they're shocking in any way.

WALLACE: Of course.

COLBERT: Do you think people read the whole report?

WALLACE: But I don't think they were any more shocking today than they were when the report was released in March.

COLBERT: They hadn't been laid out so succinctly with the man himself right there.

WALLACE: I understand.

COLBERT: I'm not saying anything is going to happen. I'm not saying there is going to be impeachment or anything like that.

WALLACE: Look, we all talk about our politics being too tribal, right?

COLBERT: I'm not sure if I say that but go ahead.

WALLACE: Yeah, well you probably don't because you're part of a tribe and this is the anti- Trump tribe. And you represent the anti- Trump tribe and so do alot of people in this audience. There's a pro- Trump tribe. My job- ok and there's nothing wrong with being in one tribe or the other.

COLBERT: I'm in the don't lie to prosecutors tribe. That's the tribe I'm in. I am in the- I am in the do not welcome the help of a foreign country to win our election tribe. Those are my tribes. What tribe- what tribe are you in? If we're talking tribes, I'd like to know what tribe you’re in when in comes to those two things.

WALLACE: I'm in the journalist tribe which is sitting there calling the shots, each pitch, as it comes in- is that a ball? Is it a strike?