>> stephen: tonight i reveal the biggest superpac donors, unless they call me up in the next five minutes with a cash offer. then legal trouble for the gingrich campaign. he was caught driving while intoxicated with himself. and my guest christian amanpour is here to talk about iran, oh damn, i wanted to talk about i-ran. sunday is the big game, and did you know there is always a version of the puppy bowl but with humans? this is its colbert report captioning sponsored by comedy central ( theme song playing ) ( cheers and applause ) .

>> stephen: welcome to the report, everybody. thank you so much. please. >> stephen, stephen, stephen! stephen, stephen, stephen! stephen, stephen, stephen! >> stephen: thank you so much for joining us, everybody. (cheers and applause) nation, nation t is february 2nd, groundhog day. today crowds gathered at gobbler's nobody in pennsylvania to find out if punxsutawney phil will junk into the republican race. still time. they also wanted to know how much longer winter would last. and once again, phil saw his shadow predicting six more weeks. damn it. i don't know about you, but i cannot take six more weeks of 55 degrees. (laughter) >> stephen: i am sick and tired of wearing these heavy winter san dahls. (cheers and applause)

>> stephen: i cannot believe people even listen this guy. i mean mi a groundhog day originalist. and frankly i believe we have lost sight of the true meaning of the day. for starters, folks, it's original name was candlemas, it's an shent cristo pagan right celebrating the christ child at the temple. medieval villagers would observe hedgehogs, badgers or bears to predict the weather. i mean those are animals that understand meterology. not some stupid groundhog that is clearly never been within ten feet of a doppler radar. but now, folks, candlemas has all been groundhogged up and commercialized. these days it's all about selling top hats. (laughter) >> stephen: what has happened to the simple candlemas tradition of harvesting bees wax from the family life to make candles for a priest to bless in order to ward off storms, or is it too much trouble to keep live bees in the house

when both parents are working? and hardly anyone still sings the traditional scotch candlemas song early on brides mourn the certificate pent will come from the hollow, i will not molest the certificate pent nor will the certificate pent molest me-- serpent molest me. you never hear that these days. and they wonder why serpent molestings are on the rise. oh, well. nation, you know, i have been talking about superpacs for almost a year now. they were created after the supreme court citizens united ruling which allowed unlimited corporate individual or union donations for political speech. i like to think of them as a give a penny, take an election trade. well, tuesday was the deadline for all superpacs to disclose how much money they raised and from whom. and to all the worrywarts out there, who said superpacs were going to lead to a cabal of billionaires secretly buying democracy, wrong.

they are publicly buying democracy. jim. >> right now ten million dollars is flowing to a pro gingrich superpac bankrolled by las vegas billionaires sheldon and miriam adelson. >> romney superpac restore a future took him more than $10 million, big checks written by his former colleagues at bain capital. >> jon huntsman got some help within the family. his father jon huntsman senior gave his superpac nearly $2 million. >> huntsman's father, by the way, has been named official host of this year's most awkward thanksgiving dinner. in fact, half of the candidate's superpac money, $67 million came from just 22 individuals. now i am sure that the good government goo goos out there is aing this is just handing all the power to the 1%. when in fact, 22 people out of a population of 300 million people is in fact, give me one second, sorr

sorry-- that's 7/1 1,000,000, of 1% so occupy wall street, are you going want to change those signs. folks, this is what the supreme court intended with their citizens united ruling. 22 billionaires deciding who our next leader would be. now i'm sure it's the way that the 22 billionaires who chose our founding father was want it. so join me in honoring these 22 patriots who have given so much and expect so much in return. ladies and gentlemen, i give you the people selecting our next president. >> oh beautiful, forespacious skies, for amber waves of gray. for purple mountain majesty, above the fruited plain.

america, america ♪ ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good ♪ with brotherhood ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ whoa! (applause) >> stephen: gosh, i hope they pick somebody i like. of course, folks, i haven't mentioned the most powerful superpac, colbert superpac. (cheers and applause) now i happen to believe it's gauche to talk about all the money you have, so i will let other people do it. >> stephen colbert started his own superpac. he pulled down a million bucks. >> he raised a million dollars. >> a million dollars. >> $1 million dollars. >> a million dollars, here. >> $1 million dollars! >> a million dollars well 1 million.

>> $1 million. >> stephen: yes, a million dollars. and only half of it went to paying for those movie clips. folks, it all started 11 months ago right here. you see, hi just seen this ad for presidential candidate tim pawlenty. now if that name doesn't ring a bell, don't worry, it didn't back then either. (laughter) and i thought to myself, i'd also like to spend other people's money on something like that. well, we've come a long way because now when you google superpac, colbert superpac is the second and third result. (cheers and applause) i, i don't want to stop there. i want the google recognition of a santorum. i will not be satisfied number superpac means a frothy mix of campaign funding that is sometimes the byproduct of politics.

(cheers and applause) of course, i got to take a moment here to recognize my crack superpac staff led by chief strategist and high sodium lunch meet spamro whose work in my opinion has so surpassed that of his head shaped twin, that from now on mi officially calling karl rove human ham rove. but most of all, folks, i got to thank the 31,595 of you who donated do cole bert superpac. (cheers and applause) >> you gave-- you folks gave until it hurt. and evidently, some of you have very low threshold for pain. because 1600 of you gave $1 each. god knows what that adds up to. now folks, since money speak, i also want to celebrate our

loudest speaker, alex rig o op-- opulos who donated $9600. alex, for being so eloquent with your cash, i will be sending you this deluxe colbert superpac tote bag. it is one of a kind. one of a kind because my sharpie ran out of inc. of-- ink. of course there is one more big question about colbert superpac's million dollars. >> the question is where does it go now that he no longer needs it. >> good question. >> stephen: well, yesterday facebook announced its ipo, that would be a good place for a million dollars. but i slept late so instead i'm going to put it all into the next big internet sensation, it's called cat breading. it's kind of complex. people upload photos of their cat's face, push

through a-- pushed through a slice of bread. and (cheers and applause) >> stephen: and that's it. haven't figured out how to monetize it yet but that's what they said about twitter. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause)

>> stephen: thank you very much, welcome back. folks, after his primary loss to mitt romney in florida, newt gingrich is clearly the underdog. which means he might be able to hitch a ride to nevada strapped to the roof of mitt's car. but now newt is facing a surprising atack from the past. >> newt gingrich is being sued for unauthorized use of the song eye of the tiger. >> gingrich's campaign plays the song at his rallies. eye of the tiger was a big hit for the group survivor there 1928. >> stephen: yes, eye of the tiger, the power anthem from rocky 3. and rocky is an obvious far legal for newt. he's an underdog, a born scrapper, and he's fighting for the chance to be smacked around by a black guy.

but folks-- (cheers and applause) but as much as i love newt, he violated something i love even more. copyright law. and newt should be more sensitive to copyright infringement. because as survivor guitarist and co-author of the song frank sullivan points out his complaint, newt himself is the author or co-author of over 40 copyrighted works. and that doesn't even count his album of hoedown song parodies newtenanny. well there is only one way to even the score. i say an eye for an eye of the tiger. i believe someone should sing newt's latest book, a nation like no other without permission. to do so, please welcome the original singer of survivor's eye of the tiger, mr. dave bickler. hit it, dave.

(cheers and applause) ♪ page 7 6 ♪ chapter four ♪ faith and family ♪ under attack ♪ the founders knew that religious vab rance ♪ ♪ in a free solt should move forward against government corruption ♪ ♪ and yet the meth of promoting and protecting religious vibrancy ♪ ♪ was an on jex-- to understand ♪ ♪ why ♪ one most firstful ♪ just how deeply and fervently committed ♪ ♪ the founders were ♪ not to an abstract notion of faith ♪ ♪ to a faith that was explicitly christian ♪

♪ of the tiger ♪. >> stephen: dave, dave, dave, i'm sorry, dave, hold on, how long is this song. >> we rehearsed it, it's 28 hours. >> stephen: i'll tell you what, we're going go to commercial and we'll put the rest of it up on the web, all right. we'll be right back. dave bickler, everybody. ♪ john quincy adams passed the declaration of independence ♪ ♪ laid the cornerstone of human government ♪ ♪ upon the first reception ♪ ♪ give me liberty ♪ or give me death ♪ of death i cannot be-- ♪ to off than this great nation was founded ♪ ♪ not by religeon ♪ of the tiger

♪

from the. >> stephen: how close is the west, the united states, is israel to war with iran, are we on a precipice r we on, are we on a cliff, are we on a soft track, maybe, are we on a slippery front stoop. >> something. >> stephen: what are we about to fall over into, with iran, because is inevitable right. >> i'm not sure but there is certainly a lot of psychological warfare going on right now. you have iran talking about closing its straits of hormuz, everybody getting worried about the price of oil going up, the economy being affected. and you've got israel talking about a military option. >> stephen: s there's no, there's no choice, right? >> well, that's what they are saying. is the sanctions going to work, what you've got, it sort of reminded me of when,

i mean you and your gang several years ago were really marching the country towards war with iraq. >> stephen: i don't know about -- >> it's like you know-- . >> stephen: leading through brave vision, so would you rather have saddam hussein still in power. >> listen, here is the thing. >> stephen: would you still have saddam hussein. >> i would rather we have-- yz. >> stephen: yes or no, i am not going to let you we are right-- rewrite history, madame. do we know how close iran is to a nuclear weapon r they like three areas away from being like five years away or one year away from being seven years away. >> well, you tell me. since 1990 or 1992 people have been saying they aring to get it next year. look, the long ferr goes on, the more the west and israel believes that iran is simply index orably marching towards a weapon. iran keeps saying no we're not. >> stephen: they just want nuclear power, that's alls with. >> that is what they say, but nobody believes iran. >> stephen: are you one of those people that says we

trust we should trust them. >> nobody believes i ran. what i think is look, sanctions haven't yet worked. they're biting. they're definitely biting but they haven't yet worked in terms of causing them to capitulate. >> stephen: you know what would really work is driving a motorcycle up next to an iranian scientist car and put a magnetic bomb on the back. >> who do you think is doing that. >> stephen: mi going say that programs the i realies have found a way to weaponize the delivery man, okay. you know, but if that-- if they feel a need to do that, doesn't that say that its israeli intelligence services think that this is going toward a bomb. >> they certainly do think that. they don't think the iranians would-- they obviously think that which is why we are at this point right now. >> stephen: and they're digging deep bunkers to do it in, that's suspicious to me. because not only does that mean they could be getting a bomb, but they could be forming an alliance with the

molemen. >> well, the molemen, i tell you, and how to get to the molemen this is a big, big worry, is all the people who tell us about what might happen in iran. one of these areas is under a mountain, under a mountain. and how do you get to lift that mountain. >> stephen: a nuclear bomb. >> well. >> stephen: you need a nuclear bomb. obama said it in the state of the union. everything's on the table. you heard that right. >> well. >> stephen: and they have a big round of applause from congress. >> some people are actually talking about potentially using nuclear weapons. >> stephen: we talked about it, i'm some people. >> i know, but serious people. >> stephen: have you not seen my sandals, madame. >> i want to see them. >> stephen: these are very, very serious sandals, seriously, obama said nothing's off the table. >> right. >> stephen: and then he said but of course we want to try peaceful methods too. and congress went yeah, yeah, peace, peace, peace, peace. he got the ovation for the possible use of force. >> uh-huh. there's no currency in this

country right now in a presidential year for any flexes. and that is something that some people talk about. >> stephen: you have been reviewed ahmadinejad. >> ahmadinejad. >> stephen: yeah, i can't pronounce t is a difficult name. >> it is. >> stephen: are you going to see him, interview him any time soon? >> you know, we would always like to. he tends to say the same thing over and over again. so one interview is much like another interview. >> stephen: have you just interviewed him once and just run it four times. >> well, i could. i could. >> stephen: ask him to come on here. i will let him say any crazy thing he wants. >> well, you know, one of the crazy things is that it's become crazy there, certainly since i was there in 2009. you remember, the people of iran came out in the streets. >> stephen: they rose up. >> they wanted a change. and this government brutally cracked down on them. and since then, you know, people who might have been slightly more moderate have been removed from the

government. people who were not as hard lined as some of those who are in there now. and oddly enough, some people would say that potentially ahmadinejad is one of the moderates right now. not moderate but in comparison. >> stephen: are you saying, are you saying that there is a crazier guy in the wings. >> that is what they-- not a crazier guy in the wings. >> stephen: krasesier girl. >> they are-- i'm not sure, no, not girl, not there. you know, the revolutionary guard, are very hard line. ahmadinejad himself is pointing to himself as a less dangerous, less wacky. you guys, by your actions are threatening to bring a war against us. so this-- . >> stephen: he's playing good cop bad cop with us. >> there you go. >> stephen: with nuclear weapons. well, you certainly put my mind at ease. crist yan, thank you so much for joining me. christiane a amman tour,

we'll be right back. thank you.

captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> stephen: well, that's it for the report, everybody. we are off for the next week. take care of yoursel