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00:01President Trump delivering his State of the Union address.
00:04All this as his overall approval rating sits at just 39% right now.
00:09Adding into the State of the Union.
00:10Donald Trump in America is unpopular.
00:13There's a lot of reasons why Donald Trump is unpopular.
00:16Broadly unpopular.
00:17This is a really do-or-die moment for President Trump.
00:21He has never been this unpopular.
00:28Unpopular.
00:29You're deeply unpopular.
00:32Dictators make you smile.
00:34So does this pedophile.
00:35You send ice to the heartland.
00:38You tweet racist memes and make children scream.
00:41With your hideous corpse-like hand.
00:44Unpopular.
00:46Historically unpopular.
00:48You trashed Bad Bunny and the economy.
00:51And tore the East Wing down.
00:54So let's start turning your phone numbers around.
01:00These people are crazy.
01:02Never mind.
01:03It's the Late Show.
01:05Live with Stephen Colbert.
01:09Tonight, State of Late.
01:12Plus, Stephen welcomes.
01:14Live, John Dickerson.
01:16And musical guest, Vitsky.
01:20Featuring.
01:20Live, Louis Kato and the Great Big Joy Machine.
01:24And now, live from the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City, it's Stephen Colbert.
01:32There!
01:35Come on!
01:38Yeah, right there!
01:40Hello, guys.
01:41Hey, you guys.
01:43Get out live.
01:44I hope it's live.
01:45I hope it's live.
01:46Come on.
01:47Come on, let's get out.
01:51Whoo!
01:53Happy live.
01:54Happy life.
01:55Happy live.
01:55Happy life.
01:56Happy live.
01:57Happy live.
01:57Let's keep it live-y.
02:00Let's keep you alive, my friends.
02:03Thank you, friends.
02:07Thank you very much.
02:08Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, down here, up there.
02:13Woo!
02:25Welcome.
02:26Welcome, my friend.
02:27Hello.
02:28Hello, Marcus.
02:29Hey, sit down.
02:30We gotta go.
02:32You're live, baby.
02:33You're live.
02:34Sit, sit.
02:37Woo!
02:38Welcome.
02:40Oh, you feel the electricity in this room.
02:43Welcome to the show, everybody.
02:46Welcome to the Late Show, my friends.
02:47In here and out there, I'm your host, Stephen Colbert.
02:50Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see from the official bug,
02:54we are live right there following the State of the Union.
02:57I didn't know what to expect.
02:59These are always kind of rough with Trump.
03:02So, just to smooth things out, right before the speech, I dropped an edible and strapped
03:07in.
03:09Just like, just following Michelle Obama's advice, when they go low, we get high.
03:14Now, I'm joking.
03:17Obviously, I'm joking.
03:20It was incredibly long.
03:22In fact, tonight, Trump broke the record for the longest State of the Union address in history.
03:28Yeah.
03:30It went on so long that this was Senator John Ossoff at the beginning, and this is him after.
03:37Still kind of hot, though.
03:39Still kind of sexy.
03:40According to...
03:43I can appreciate.
03:45According to Trump's team, the official theme of the speech was America at 250, strong,
03:52prosperous, and respected.
03:54Though, if you have to say you're strong, prosperous, and respected, it kind of feels like you're
03:59not.
03:59It's like getting an invite to, Sheila's 50, single, happy, and absolutely loving menopause.
04:05Is it hot in here?
04:05It's hot in here.
04:06Let's punch a wall.
04:08Now, it might seem like having an official theme is kind of weird, but it turns out it's
04:14not the first.
04:14Remember, the first one, back in 94, was Clinton's.
04:17His theme was, I like big butts and I cannot lie.
04:21Turns out one of those was true.
04:23This speech...
04:25This speech was an important opportunity for Trump tonight, because right now, his popularity
04:29is un.
04:30According to a recent CNN poll, his job approval rating among all adults is at 36%.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Yeah.
04:40I think...
04:41I think...
04:41I think his fan is here.
04:43That one person up there.
04:4536 still seems kind of high, though.
04:47I find it hard to believe Trump is more popular than the straight-to-VHS Aladdin sequel Return
04:51of Jafar.
04:54I mean, that was the number one movie among kids puking at home in 1994.
05:01One of the big stories tonight is, who wasn't there?
05:04Roughly 50 Democratic members of the House and Senate planned to forego the speech.
05:10I wish we were one.
05:13The folks who skipped included Senators Chris Murphy, Ed Markey, and Jeff Merkley, as well
05:20as Merk Manley, Mandy Merkin, Morkin Mindy, Markey Markin, Meghan Markle, who was sitting
05:26shiva for the late Billy Gidley.
05:29For Democrats who did attend, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his members in
05:35the chamber to not make a scene, an approach he dubbed Silent Defiance, which I believe
05:41is a bold rebrand of Doing Jack Squat.
05:45As Martin Luther King once said, shh.
05:51Eventually, there's a lot of people coming, the cabinet comes in, the families come in,
05:54all that kind of stuff.
05:55Eventually, the president entered, looking a little tired, but his hair was nice and fluffy.
06:01Personally, I think he could have kept his head in the cotton candy machine a little bit
06:04longer.
06:06The president started off with kind of a weird brag.
06:08Our enemies are scared.
06:10Our military and police are stacked.
06:13Our police are stacked.
06:15Our EMTs have asses that won't quit.
06:18And our firefighters are so hot, the polls are begging them just to slide down.
06:25Grease me up.
06:27The Trump, Trump honored the gold-winning men's U.S. hockey teams, a great bunch of young
06:32guys, and made a special announcement about their goalie, Conor Hellebuyck.
06:36I will soon be presenting Conor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given, and
06:43which has been given to many athletes over the years.
06:46It's called the highest civilian honor in our country.
06:53It's the FIFA Hockey Prize for Ice Peace.
06:57I'm guessing, because they're not scrolling to my prompter here for some reason.
07:02One team of gold medal winners wasn't there because the U.S. women's hockey team declined
07:07Trump's invite to the state of the Union.
07:10Yeah.
07:14No show.
07:15No show.
07:18Or as they say in hockey, puck no.
07:22The women actually got a better offer because, this is true, hip-hop legend Flavor Flav invited
07:27the team to party in Vegas.
07:31That is so nice, and it's really no surprise.
07:33Flav has long supported women's sports, even though he is most famous for supporting Flav.
07:38Who is that again?
07:41Boyyyy.
07:46Ask your parents.
07:47Then, Trump went ahead and took credit for some stuff he had nothing to do with.
07:52I'm also pleased to say that the next time the Olympic torch is lit, it will be here in America
07:59for the 2028 Olympics.
08:02They got the 2026 FIFA World Cup, so we have the World Cup and the Olympics coming.
08:09And that is exciting news.
08:11Is he just doing this year's community calendar for all of America?
08:15Let's see, what else do we have?
08:16We have the FIFA World Cup.
08:18There's also FIFA Pottery Class down at the Kilmar Club.
08:21Compain Plates is a great first date.
08:23And then, on March 20th, come on down to the New Rose Garden for a four-meat chili cook-off
08:27featuring a secret fifth-meat man.
08:33Trump then bragged about the new Trump accounts for kids, but insisted he did not pick that name.
08:40And I didn't name it.
08:43I did not name that.
08:50Nobody believes me, but I did not name it.
08:52It was named by a very tall man.
08:54Yes, it was named by a very tall man.
08:57There he is, standing in the corner.
08:59He wears a long black robe, holds a scythe, giant hourglass in one hand.
09:04And when he appears, your tongue tastes like ash.
09:07And whenever you blink, he's a little bit closer.
09:09Thank you, tall man.
09:12Then, despite...
09:13Are you my son-in-law?
09:15Is this my son-in-law?
09:19Then, despite the high prices we all see at the grocery store,
09:22Trump bragged that he had lowered some prices.
09:25The cost of chicken, butter, fruit.
09:27Oh.
09:30That's my favorite, but I'm trying to be healthy,
09:33so I stick to, I can't believe it's not chicken, butter, fruits.
09:39He, uh, he fooded some more.
09:42Even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly.
09:47We're getting it down, and soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible.
09:54Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers.
09:56Yes, no one can believe the numbers.
09:59I'm talking threvin.
10:03A hundred-and-florp.
10:07Thruppledy-double.
10:10Then Trump took a moment, uh, to sell drugs.
10:13I'm also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs like has never happened before.
10:20Other presidents tried to do it, but they never could.
10:24They tried, most didn't try, actually, but they tried.
10:29I tried to understand what he said.
10:31I tried, but I couldn't.
10:34I tried, but actually, I didn't try, but I tried.
10:39He also made this refreshing admission.
10:41I took prescription drugs.
10:44Clearly not enough.
10:50Thank you, bro.
10:51We can all go home now.
10:56Throughout his speech tonight, Trump showed remarkable flexibility for a man his age to toot his own horn.
11:02In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.
11:10Yes, he lifted 2.4 million people off of food stamps, in that he kicked 2.4 million people off
11:18of food stamps.
11:19So they're off of food, and now they're just eating stamps.
11:23Delicious flavors like blueberry, strawberry, and Bruce Lee.
11:28Now, if you've heard any Trump speech before, you'll notice there really wasn't much new material here.
11:35But then, in the middle of the speech, and this is true, the New York Times dropped a devastating actual
11:39headline,
11:40Mr. Clean is retiring.
11:44Yet another powerful man brought down by the Epstein files.
11:55Guess I'll have to move my celebrity crush to the Green Giant.
12:00He honored many service members up in the gallery, as well he should.
12:04He awarded Purple Hearts and even Congressional Medals of Honor, one to a 100-year-old man.
12:10Democrats stood up to applaud all these heroes, because there are some moments even Trump can't ruin.
12:16I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed I'm not allowed to give it to myself.
12:21Oh, my mistake.
12:24So close.
12:26Honoring our veterans and first responders aside, it was a dark speech, filled with divisive lies,
12:33and it's unlikely to win him much support with the voters who have grown disenchanted with the chaos and dysfunction
12:39of his second administration.
12:40But his was not the only speech tonight.
12:42The Democrats had several rallies across Washington, including one at the National Press Club.
12:47Let's check in with what the Democrats had to offer.
12:50The Portland Frog Brigade!
12:55Whoa.
12:58That edible was stronger than I thought.
13:00But we've got a great live show for you tonight.
13:04My guest is John Dickerson.
13:07But when we come back, meanwhile, you'll join us.
13:11Number two.
13:35Welcome back, everybody.
13:37Give it up for Lewis Kato and the Great Big Joy Machine right over there.
13:41That's right.
13:42That's right.
13:42That's right.
13:44Cleansing.
13:44I must say, the Joy Machine is cleansing this evening.
13:47Oh, yeah.
13:48Try.
13:48Try.
13:48Coming up.
13:49Try.
13:50Coming up in just a moment, my friends, the finest, clearest political analyst I know and a true gentleman,
13:56Mr. John Dickerson, will be joining us in just a moment over there to lay it all out.
14:00He's just going to lay it all out for us.
14:02Now, folks, if you watch this show, and we don't always do live shows, but we love the energy when
14:09we do.
14:09I just want you to know that I know that you know that I spend most of my time right
14:13over there in the news cocina.
14:15Slow braising prime cachete for 10 hours, then serving on a flour tortilla with salsa de chile arbol to make
14:22for you the beef cheek barbacoa norteña.
14:24Now, that is my monologue, but sometimes, while trying to break into an illegal gerbil fighting parlor to steal back
14:30my money,
14:31I get stuck in a septic trench where I heat the remains of what is likely a defeated hamster over
14:36a discarded lighter
14:37and scrape it into a half-eaten hot dog bun to munch on the sewer chalupa of news that is
14:42my segment.
14:45Meanwhile.
14:48There you go.
14:49A live meanwhile.
14:51That's all America needs to deal.
14:56Meanwhile.
14:58In food news, researchers say that eating 30 plants a week can transform your gut health.
15:05What?
15:06I can't name 30 plants.
15:09Carrot.
15:11Lettuce.
15:13The Twix one.
15:14I'm out.
15:17Meanwhile.
15:17A man with three penises may have gone his whole life without knowing about the extra two.
15:24The discovery was made by researchers at Johnson & Johnson & Johnson.
15:30Apparently.
15:31There you go.
15:32There you go.
15:33A nation healed.
15:37Apparently, the penises three were discovered while scientists in England were examining a cadaver.
15:44In other words, English scientists spotted dick.
15:51Oh, wow.
16:01As to how this all went undetected for so schlong, scientists believe the extra two were concealed within the scrotal
16:10sack.
16:11Just like the old saying, is that a penis in your penis, or are you just happy to penis?
16:19Meanwhile.
16:21A giraffe and ostrich were caught in an intense staring battle in footage shared by the Memphis Zoo.
16:27There they are.
16:27I would love to know what is going on in those two pecan-sized brains right now.
16:32That looks like an existential crisis to me.
16:35Wait.
16:35Am I a messed up you?
16:38Or are you a messed up me?
16:42Meanwhile.
16:43Scientists have discovered that horses can whistle and sing at the same time.
16:47By vibrating their vocal folds.
16:49While generating a high-pitched sound.
16:52By whistling through their larynx.
16:54And I'm.
16:54Is this true?
16:55I'm told we have obtained the research footage of a horse singing while whistling.
17:00Camp town ladies sing this song.
17:02Doo-da.
17:03Doo-da.
17:04Camp town racetracks five miles long.
17:06Oh, doo-da day.
17:19Meanwhile.
17:22And I wasn't sure how the horse would play, I'll admit.
17:26But it's a live show.
17:27If it wasn't live, maybe we'd edit that out.
17:30Meanwhile.
17:31This is how the sausage is made.
17:33Meanwhile.
17:34In a new customer service strategy, angry Burger King customers can now call their president
17:40directly to complain.
17:41Wait.
17:42A Burger King and a Burger President?
17:45This is a weird way to find out that Burger King is a parliamentary republic.
17:51Meanwhile.
17:52In New York City.
17:53Here.
17:54The hottest new way for singles to meet is wrestling speed dating.
18:00In one corner, we have Delia, who enjoys SoulCycle and baking sourdough.
18:07And in the other, we have Paolo, who has a fear of commitment.
18:12Let's get ready to go on three dates, then say work is getting really busy.
18:21For the West Coast, let's, uh, let's see, uh, meanwhile, an Illinois judge recently ruled
18:30that the boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings could indeed be called wings.
18:35Yes.
18:35Justice is served.
18:37With a side of blue cheese and two pieces of celery that you might eat.
18:42Specifically, the judge ruled that the B-dubs can call them boneless wings, even though
18:47they're essentially chicken nuggets.
18:50I'm sorry, essentially chicken nuggets?
18:53Is sparkling wine essentially champagne?
18:56Is wool essentially cashmere?
18:59Is Dylan McDermott essentially Dermott Mulroney?
19:04Nobody knows.
19:06The judge said that the plaintiff does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are fooled
19:11by Buffalo Wild Wings' use of the term boneless wings.
19:13Okay, there's the flaw right there.
19:15No reasonable person has ever eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings.
19:20We're talking about a place where you can buy wings by the bundle.
19:24Which, of course, comes with bone-in wings, boneless wings, home, and auto.
19:30We'll be right back with John Dickerson.
19:32We'll be right back with John Dickerson.
19:52There you go.
19:54Two times.
19:54Two times!
19:56Hey!
19:57Welcome back to the live show, everybody.
20:00Ladies and gentlemen, my guest tonight is a brilliant journalist.
20:04He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and co-host of Slate Political Gab Fest.
20:08He also makes a mean cocktail.
20:10Please welcome back to The Late Show, John Dickerson.
20:28Good to see you.
20:30Always nice to talk to you.
20:32This is...
20:33How many times have you been on the show?
20:34Do you know how many this is?
20:3621.
20:3721?
20:3821.
20:38You are number two.
20:39You are between John Oliver at 22 and Bernie at 20.
20:44Yeah.
20:45That's quite a sandwich.
20:46It is.
20:48It is.
20:50Stacked high.
20:51Yeah.
20:51Well, thank you very much.
20:52Pleasure.
20:53Now, okay, so you watched it.
20:56I assume you watched the speech tonight.
20:58I did.
20:58I thought we were going to have to have breakfast.
21:00Exactly.
21:01Before we get into the specifics of what we saw tonight, speech is constitutionally mandated.
21:06This is in the Constitution.
21:08What was it intended to be by the framers?
21:10Well, it was intended to be a report from the president who had the view of the whole
21:14country because the members of Congress only had limited views of their state or their
21:18district.
21:19Politics really was local for them.
21:20Very local.
21:21And what is so important about that is it embeds in the ceremony the separation of powers
21:27because they built this system where Congress would have some powers and the president
21:30would have powers.
21:31And so the president is called to deliver.
21:33He's invited by the speaker, called by Congress to come deliver this set of data, really.
21:38Washington, at the end of his inaugural, excuse me, his State of the Union, says, I'm going
21:43to give you some charts and some figures because, you know, it was basically a report of information.
21:48And Washington gave a lot of suggestions, but he acted almost like a referee.
21:53He was not a participant, really.
21:55It was things that Congress was going to do.
21:57Of course, tonight we saw something quite different where Donald Trump was the suggester
22:01and doer of all things in American government.
22:03Right.
22:03In fact, specifically about the separation of powers, he actually slapped down two of the other
22:08powers in one part of his speech.
22:10He said to the Supreme Court, you made the wrong decision about the tariffs.
22:14Yes.
22:14I'm going to make tariff decisions on my own going forward, regardless of what you've said
22:19tonight.
22:20And I'm not going to ask Congress to do anything about it because I don't need them, which is
22:24what you said I needed to do.
22:26Exactly.
22:26And Congress stood on their feet.
22:28The Republicans stood on their feet and applauded and said, take away our power.
22:31Yes, exactly.
22:32We suck.
22:33Yes, there's, yeah.
22:36Yes.
22:37Yeah.
22:42So the idea of separation of powers can get pretty abstract, but the reason they designed
22:46it the way they did and the reason Washington goes in his State of the Union and says, these
22:50are just my suggestions, is they felt if the powers weren't evenly split, and it was sort
22:55of, they talked about it like a pocket watch where the gears meshed and they would have some
22:59contention, that was necessary, but they had to work in concert also.
23:03Or if one got too big, it ground down the others and the thing didn't work.
23:08So when it gets out of balance, when there's a president who accretes all power to himself
23:12and the other branch, which the founders thought would be so angry that anybody took a drop of
23:17their power, instead stands up and says, yes, sir, may I have another?
23:20They counted on the ambition of those men to not allow their power to be taken away.
23:25Ambition fights ambition.
23:26Exactly.
23:26That's the gears working together.
23:27But when one side decides to lose its ambition or hook its ambition to the success of the
23:33person in the executive branch, those gears fall out of balance.
23:36And what falls out of balance is all the lawmaking that goes, that deals with healthcare, immigration,
23:42national security, anything.
23:44The machine of government doesn't work and liberty is trampled on.
23:47That was the founders' fear.
23:49What stood out to you tonight about like the meaning of tonight's speech?
23:53He said our nation is back.
23:54Did he make that case?
23:55The case he had to make, he made a case to Republicans.
23:58There was some theatricality that was pure Donald Trump and that his base will love.
24:02And that matters in an off-year election, a non-presidential election.
24:05So his base will be thrilled by a lot of the things that happened when he called the Democrats
24:09sick and crazy.
24:10Yes.
24:10That's great.
24:11Okay.
24:11That's not his problem, though.
24:12His problem is that the country thinks the thing that he was elected to do, and when I say
24:16the country, the majority in polls show, that people think the thing he was elected to do,
24:20which was to lower prices and deal with the economy, he's not doing a good job.
24:23Majority says they disapprove of the job he's doing on the economy.
24:26They think he's not handling prices.
24:28And the thing that he's doing is major economic initiative tariffs, they don't like.
24:32So his job in the speech was to address that, and what he essentially did was say, we're
24:37winning.
24:38The thing that you feel, no, you don't, is what he said to the viewers.
24:42Exactly.
24:43It's the toughest thing to do in politics, which is to say, you're not feeling what you're
24:46feeling.
24:47Which is what kind of sunk Joe Biden in his economic message.
24:50He said, it's going great.
24:51It sunk everyone who has tried to do this.
24:54And Trump just straight up, he was three minutes in, and he had lied about growth.
24:59He had lied about inflation.
25:00Then later, he lied about who pays tariffs.
25:03It's not foreign countries.
25:04It's Americans and American companies.
25:07And then he said he was going to get rid of the income tax, which you can't do through
25:11tariffs.
25:12But by the way, if you were going to do it, you'd be taxing people through their purchases
25:15to replace the income tax.
25:17So it doesn't make any sense anyway.
25:18We heard Trump lay out a potential rationale for military action in Iran, though really
25:24not very much.
25:25He didn't necessarily why the carrier groups were there.
25:28He didn't say what the goal of bombing them necessarily would be or what the exit strategy
25:33would be, what victory would look like.
25:34No.
25:35Although striking, sorry, before we get to Iran, he didn't mention Ukraine almost, he mentioned
25:39Ukraine in passing.
25:40Two sentences, I think.
25:41It's the four-year anniversary of the invasion by Russia.
25:43Today?
25:44I believe so, yes.
25:46Wow.
25:46Yeah, yeah.
25:47Didn't mention it at all.
25:49Anyway.
25:51That's, I mean, that just gives you a sense of how things have shifted.
25:54When you talk about American greatness, many people believe America's greatness is determined
25:58by its willingness to stand up for democracies and people fighting for their freedom against
26:02invading armies.
26:04Specifically, invading armies from Russia.
26:06What's the job of a political opposition on nights like this, of the ones who decided
26:09to attend?
26:11Not make an error.
26:13Not look, not, the president is in a tough political position.
26:17His party's in a tough political position.
26:19If you're a Democrat, you just want to stay out of the way.
26:21I mean, the president's approval rating is in the high 30s, low 40s.
26:25Um, presidential parties lose in off-year elections.
26:29I mean, Democrats just got to stay out of the way.
26:30At least they didn't bring those paddles that they had last time.
26:33Right, right.
26:34There's no chance that, you know, that they're not going to do that.
26:37And like 50 of them didn't show.
26:40And don't you wish you were one of them?
26:42They're probably, they're probably glad that they didn't go.
26:44But the, the, the opposition party does their work in the days out after the speech.
26:48When they can define the speech, uh, not, they can't compete with a president who's in
26:53the, who's, uh, got the theatricality that the president, you know, used quite well,
26:57particularly with respect to America's heroes that he highlighted.
27:00We have to take a quick break.
27:01We're right back with more John Dickerson, everybody.
27:13Stick around.
27:22Hey, everybody, welcome back.
27:23We're here with, uh, our friend John Dickerson.
27:27Uh, welcome back.
27:28You know, this is our 61st live show.
27:30Thank you so much for being here for our final and 61st show.
27:33It's a good number to end on.
27:34I'm honored.
27:35Sure.
27:35Crime, I think.
27:36Yeah.
27:37Okay.
27:37So tonight, getting back to the speech tonight, um, uh, it was, uh, it was kind of dark aside
27:42from the parts of the speech where he honored first responders and veterans as, as well he
27:47should.
27:48He could have just sort of yelled and said, like, uh, the Dow's at 50,000 and then poured
27:52a bucket of blood on Hakeem Jeffries and walked out.
27:54It would have had the same effect.
27:56One of the dramatic moments tonight, I thought, was the, uh, there was a split screen between
28:00Trump and a chief justice, John Roberts, uh, when he was talking about the tariffs.
28:05Um, he was front and center there when Trump was talking about having his tariff policy gutted.
28:12And you say a central question of the Trump presidency has been, can he do that?
28:17Whatever it is.
28:18Yeah.
28:18And, and, and Robertson and company said, no, but Roberts, he had said essentially Robertson
28:23and the majority were traitors, but last Friday under foreign, like, yeah, foreign
28:28influence, foreign cabal was influenced, but that they were disloyal to their country.
28:31Right.
28:31I mean, previous presidents have grumbled about the Supreme court, uh, FDR called them nine
28:36old men, but this is going a far distance from that.
28:40And that gets back again to that idea of separation of powers is the president saying, I shall not
28:44be questioned even by the Supreme court.
28:46And if he believes that, and you run a government that way, it's going to, it falls apart.
28:50Okay.
28:50So in this case, if I can just get to the tariff thing for a second here, why in this
28:54case did this court say, you know, he can't do that?
28:57They said he can't do it for a couple of reasons.
28:59One, the legislation that he picked didn't have the word tariff in it.
29:01And so they basically said, no, none of the eight previous presidents have used this
29:07legislation for this reason.
29:09And when Congress, oh, and by the way, the power to tariff, which is the power to tax is
29:14in the constitution.
29:15So it's not a, it's not a fuzzy thing.
29:17And when Congress has abrogated that power to a president, they've been super, super clear
29:20about it.
29:21Then they also said, you know, you've claimed it's an emergency, uh, because of national
29:25security, but you've also claimed that it's going to, it's going to be used as a negotiating
29:29tool.
29:29It's going to get rid of the deficit.
29:31It's going to reshore manufacturing.
29:33And you're going to use it because you're mad at Canada for running an ad with Ronald Reagan
29:37in it.
29:37Exactly.
29:38It's going to cure the heartbreak of psoriasis.
29:41They've said it's going to, it's going to do all these things.
29:44And what the court said is you can't say that you pulled the gun because it's an emergency
29:48and then use the gun to stir your soup.
29:50You, you, you have to actually use it for the emergency.
29:53And so, and, and, but here's the thing about the, the, um, the guy who wasn't there was
29:59Neil Gorsuch, Justice Gorsuch, who was put on the court by the president.
30:03And what you find in Gorsuch, who voted with the majority on this, what you find in his
30:06decision though, and the reason that he probably was good, he wasn't there, is he explains
30:11sort of in this very patient way, how the constitution works.
30:13And he says, I know people who support the tariffs are unhappy, but the Congress is there
30:18because it's closest to the people.
30:20I mean, he did everything, but put a link to the schoolhouse rock in there.
30:24So, but, but, but this judge, judge explaining is important because so when these, when these
30:36tariffs were first put on, I called people who have small businesses and medium sized businesses
30:40and said, well, what's this doing to you?
30:42And I talked to a woman who, who like held up the UPS, uh, bill, $2,000 more to pay
30:48for
30:48tariffs.
30:48It was, it was hurting her, uh, mid, midsize company.
30:52People got to work three days a week, not five, because they can't afford to pay them.
30:56Those people can go hold up that UPS to their, that, that, that screen with the tax bill
31:00to their congressman at the grocery store.
31:02And the congressman maybe had a small business in their town too.
31:05The transmission lines of democracy work that way.
31:08You can speak to your congressman.
31:09A president or a billionaire treasury secretary, they are a long way from the kitchen table.
31:15And the, the founder said, we want it to be close.
31:17And that's what Gorsuch was saying.
31:19And that's the transmission line that's in danger with tariffs, but also in any instance,
31:23when you have this separation of power system, when it gets out of whack.
31:27Well, that you said, um, when you were on the show, uh, uh, last year, you, you talk about
31:34Jefferson believing the chains of the constitution bind a man down from mischief.
31:39How did the founders account for someone like Trump?
31:43Because they, they did and they didn't.
31:45They did for sure.
31:46They thought not all men will be virtuous and we have to create a government that, that,
31:49that constrains them.
31:50But with the president, when they put the presidency together, George Washington was at the front
31:54of the room and they thought basically our presidents are going to be like him.
31:57They'll have virtue and their virtue, plus the combat with the other, other, um, branches
32:02that will constrain presidents from going overboard.
32:06We're going to take another break here.
32:07We're right back with more.
32:08Mr. John Dickerson, everybody.
32:11Sit around.
32:25There you go.
32:26Hey everybody.
32:28We're back with John Dickerson.
32:30Okay.
32:31So we were, we were talking about, uh, the tariffs, uh, for the break.
32:34Um, one thing I didn't get to, I want to hit on quickly is that, so this is 175, 176,
32:40maybe
32:41200 billion.
32:41Who knows how much money had been collected by the federal government.
32:44And as you pointed out before, he might say like other countries will pay for that.
32:48He said that tonight in the speech.
32:49He lied about that in the speech tonight.
32:51He also called voting a privilege by the way, which really upset me because it's not the
32:561965 voting privilege act.
32:58It's the voting rights act.
32:59But getting back to the tariffs, there's all this money.
33:05There's, you know, let's, let's call it around, let's call it about $175 billion.
33:09Some Democrats are saying, hey, you've got to give that back to the American people.
33:13We paid that.
33:14Donald Trump stole your money and now he won't give it back.
33:18Well, that's, yes, that's what they're saying.
33:20Yes.
33:20They're trying to connect the affordability, um, issue, which they have, um, been very successful
33:26talking about what things cost.
33:28Corporations are suing.
33:29They're suing the administration.
33:30The administration in some quarters has said they will give the money back, which puts them
33:33in a pickle.
33:34The tax foundation has said that the average American has paid $1,000 more because of the
33:39tariffs.
33:39So you can imagine that the Democrats will say, as you were saying, they, you know, he
33:43stole your money, uh, you know, and like his, you know, um, like the contractors who used
33:48to work for him, he stiffed you and owes you your money.
33:50Governor Pritzker is suing on behalf of the residents of Illinois for $1,700 a piece.
33:54And they will, they will continue saying that.
33:58But then, and then, and, and he also said tonight that to continue the tariffs, Republicans
34:02won't have to take a vote in Congress.
34:04I'm not so sure, sure that's certain, but you can imagine that's not a vote those Republicans
34:08want to take.
34:09This year, uh, as the president said tonight, we're celebrating 250 years of America.
34:14Since the declaration, sort of the founding poetry of our country, not the constitution.
34:21And I'm old enough.
34:22You're old enough to remember 70, the 200th, the bicentennial in 76.
34:26Eight years old.
34:27What did you do?
34:27What did I do?
34:29Oh, I glued a lot of red, white, and blue cardboard together, I think, at school.
34:33Oh, uh, Up With People came to my school and sang, 200 years and just a baby.
34:40I remember that.
34:42So, Nancy Dickerson, God lover, my mother, redecorated my room.
34:47I had blue shag carpet.
34:49I had a desk and a bookshelf that was fire engine red.
34:53Sure.
34:53The drapes were red, white, and blue striped.
34:56Sure.
34:56And then the bedspread on the twin beds.
34:59Is that what this is here for?
35:00That's what that is.
35:01I was wondering what this was.
35:02Yeah, go ahead.
35:03Explain.
35:04Is a celebration of America at 1776, and those are all the states and when they were admitted
35:10to the union.
35:12And we wonder why you're like this.
35:17Yes.
35:18That's beautiful.
35:19Do you still have this?
35:20No, I don't because, well, it's a longer story.
35:23He read the book.
35:24Well, as someone who, you know, who reports on history, you write about history, with
35:30an eye to the last 250 years, what moments of American history are most on your mind right
35:37now?
35:37And what is admittedly, I think everyone would say, even if you're in favor of the president,
35:41is a troubled moment in our history.
35:43I'm really influenced by John Meacham's new book, American Struggle, which I interviewed
35:47him about in the beginning.
35:48Me too, John.
35:49I interviewed him about it, too.
35:50Yes.
35:50Well, you interview everybody.
35:52I just have to go do little tiny things on a CCTV somewhere.
35:58In that, he starts with Frederick Douglass in the wake of the Dred Scott decision in which
36:03the Supreme Court said that enslaved people were not citizens and that the Congress couldn't
36:08stop slavery.
36:09And then in the face of all of that, Douglass said, who was very angry about the way this
36:14country had been founded, said, nevertheless, that the Constitution and the Declaration were
36:18glorious liberty documents, that he could have hope in the country in the wake of that
36:21decision based on the words in that document, which were written by slaveholders, and yet
36:25he could see through that and still have hope in those words in this country.
36:29That is some durable, nourishing hope from the past for our present.
36:34All right.
36:35I'll take a hit of hope right now.
36:37Thank you, John.
36:39For more great insight, check him out on his sub stack.
36:43He's at John F. Dickerson.
36:46John Dickerson, everybody.
36:46We'll be right back with a performance by Mitski.
37:04Her album, Nothing's About to Happen to Me, comes out Friday, performing I'll Change
37:09for you, ladies and gentlemen, Mitski.
37:22How do I let our love die when you're the only other keeper of my most precious memories?
37:43Yeah.
37:57I can't call you about you and me, cause I won't do anything for you to love,
38:16love me again.
38:20If you don't like me now, I will change for you.
38:45Bars, such magic places, you can be with other people, without having anyone at all.
39:03But now, they say they're closing.
39:14So I'm loitering outside, watching all the cars passing by, like a kid waiting for my ride.
39:32Oh, I'll do anything for you to love me again.
39:48Oh, I'll do anything for you to love me again.
40:02I'll do anything for you to love me again.
40:05I'll do anything for you to love you again.
40:27Mitzke, everybody.
40:28That's it for the Late Show.
40:29Good night.
40:41You
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