good politicking on larry king scholar stephen cohen advised president george h.w. bush on the former soviet union he has taught russian studies at princeton and n.y.u. published columns in the washington post reuters and else. well he recently said that relations between the united states and russia are worse now than any time since the nineteenth histories what's behind that claim and who if anyone does he think it improve the relationship between the two countries let's try and out as professor cohen joins me from new york his latest book is war with russia i'm showing it to you from putin and ukraine to trump and russia gate ok steve invasive words for joining us. i thought everything between russia and the united states was going to be better because the relationship between putin and trump and the fact that russia wanted trump in the office. well i think larry you and i are what's called veterans of the previous cold war which lasted forty years it's kind of nice to talk with someone approximately of my generation i'm old women you cause the oil i don't know a

good to politicking on larry king scholar stephen cohen advised president george h.w. bush on the former soviet union he has taught russian studies at princeton n.y.u. published columns in the washington post reuters and elsewhere he recently said that relations between the united states and russia are worse now than at any time since the nineteenth histories what's behind that claim and who if anyone does he think it improve the relationship between the two countries led spying doubt as for first a koan joins me from new york his latest book is war with russia i'm showing it to you from putin and ukraine to trump and russia gates ok stephen they so much for joining us i thought everything between russia and the united states was going to be better because of the relationship between putin and trump and the fact that russia wanted trump in the office. well i think larry you and i are what's called veterans of the previous cold war.

." >> announcer: it's "the late show with stephen colbert." tonight, cohen goin' to jail. plus, stephen welcomes... garth brooks. and tim meadows. featuring jon batiste and stay human. and now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, it's stephen colbert! ( cheers and applause ) ( band playing ) >> stephen: woo! how are you doing? how are you? hey, everybody! ( band playing ) ( cheers and applause ) oh, oh, oh, yeah! i feel good! please have a seat, everybody! thank you so much! welcome to "the late show" one and all; i'm your host, stephen colbert. and uh... i read the news today, oh, boy. because robert mueller is getting closer and closer to his prey. it's a true game of cat and large, slow-moving man. ( laughter ) today, the star of the show was former trump lawyer and man who looks like how we all feel-- ( laughter ) >> jon: that boy lookin' rough. >> stephen: michael cohen. this morning, cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress. that's a serious offense. he could end up going to jail, or to the supreme court-- either way. ( laughter ) ( piano riff

welcome back to politicking on talk he was stephen cohen the russian scholar the new book is war with russia from putin and ukraine to trump and russia gate he's in new york city all right my scholar friend. do you wish hillary were president. that's. stead of donald trump that's what you're asking me right because if i had my wish neither of them would be president we think of somebody else who only had two choices you only had two choices i can answer the question i was very worried about her but more about the people around her. you know my attitude toward trump today is. for all the ways he offends me that on the one issue that i think is vital to us our kids and our grandkids and i got for the grandkids now is that we can't have any kind of war with russia not this little book war with russia has a question mark at the end of the title and it's written for general readers is not written for my scholarly colleagues and to be fair ninety percent of them do not agree with me you get another professor of russian studies up here and he'll tell you cohen's all wrong he doesn't understa

adam schiff who will joining us to discuss all this and more is professor author and historian stephen cohen welcome so much sir thank you very very much for coming on the day. i was wondering if you could do that list you rattled off in reverse alphabetical order i don't know if i can. you know stephen with the barrage of speculation and conjecture surrounding russia gate in this new cold war chemist new cold war almost it's almost impossible to keep track of of everything without going insane you like that list as someone who spent the last few years trying to separate the lucid from the crazy in all this what do you believe is the most important thing to keep in mind when we're trying to navigate all things russia gate today. that we are in a relationship with russia more dangerous than we have ever been with the possible exception of the cuban missile crisis which i think you mentioned i have a new book out called war with russia question mark. i began working on it five years ago and i would not have given it that title then but the events of the last five years or roughly since the out

>> stephen: now, a little tip for mr. cohen: in first day in prison, walk up to the biggest guy in the yard and pay him $130,000. boom! boom! ( cheers and applause ) before cohen climbed up on the prison bus, he made sure to throw trump under it, telling the court, "recently the president tweeted a statement calling me 'weak,' and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying. it was because time and time again, i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds." and evidently, you suck at it. ( laughter ) here's the thing-- ( applause ) here's the thing-- not good at it. not good at it. but anyway, there you have it, right there, from cohen. trump did dirty deeds-- who i believe was stormy daniels' costar. ( laughter ) >> jon: oh, snap. >> stephen: starring dirty deeds. now, cohen bared his tortured soul, saying, "my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump." yes, his only crime was being loyal to donald trump, which we now know is a felony. ( laughter ) cohen went on to say it wa

let's take michael cohen, for example. >> stephen: sure. >> michael cohen disclosed that at the same"i have no dealings with russia. nothing to do with them," that secretly, they were negotiating this trump tower deal, all the way into the middle of the year. and if rudy giuliani's cristic comments been understood, maybe even up until the election-- and by the way -- >> stephen: i believe that, because i don't believe trump believed he would be elected. >> that may well be the case. he thought i can make money either way this shakes out. a candidate for president, the presumptive g.o.p. nominee would be misleading the country and privately seeking the kremlin's help to make a deal, and what we've seen subs qentsly is that not only was he hiding this from the country, the kremlin was helping in the cover-up. you had dmitri peskov, the spokesman for the kremlin, saying publicly when this came to light, "we never responded to that outreach." that wasn't true. >> stephen: are you saying the russians lied to us! >> the russians lied. i know, i know. >> stephen: we have to get those russia

( laughter ) >> stephen: this morning, donald trump fired back at those charges. "i never directed michael cohenbreak the law. he was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. it is called 'advice of counsel,' and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. that is why they get paid." (as trump) "i hired him to break the law, but in a way that was legal." ( laughter ) and cohen's not the only one involved in this scheme who has flipped. so has trump's close personal friend chairman of "the national enquirer" parent company, and old west prospector about to bury you in this rap battle, david pecker. yes. trump's friend is named david pecker. ( laughter ) go ahead and laugh. i know it's funny, the idea of donald trump having a friend. ( laughter ) ( cheers and applause ) ( piano riff ) see, trump may have paid off court papers revealed that the enquirer paid karen macdougal for exclusive rights to her story about her affair with trump, and then buried it. it's a practice in tabloid news known as "catch and kill." it's also what eric and don jr. call a day at the zoo. ( laughter ) they ki

cohen. we will cover the news as it happens. >> i couldn't have said it better myself. thanks for having me. >> harris: former prosecutor stephen mulroy says that what cohen is claiming could be trouble for the president. let's dig in deeper. he's a professor of law at the university of memphis, and the author of "rethinking u.s. election law." good to see you, stephen. first of all, why do you say that? >> well, he is alleging that president trump was actually directly involved and directed the violations of campaign finance law that cohen himself is going to be punished for. and, his claim seems to now be at least partially corroborated by the comments by the media corporation, ami. or the agreement that it led to. if that's the case, that could potentially spell trouble in terms of president trump himself having violated campaign finance law. >> harris: all right, the president said he did not direct. so you have a case of "he said, he said." although, michael cohen set up prosecutors have substantial information to corroborate" that he is telling the truth. what you make of that? >> if it's true, that, of course, helps the

before we go, michael cohen's guilty plea. as stephen colbert points out, in his plea, he confessed to the biggest crime of all. >> beared his tortured soul, saying my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to trump. his only real crime was being loyal to donald trump. which we now know is a felony. i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet? but he has plans today. so he took aleve this morning. hey dad. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that. aleve. all d

michael cohen's adviser lanny davis, white house senior adviser stephen miller, and minnesota democratsenator amy klobuchar will all be our guests this sunday on "face the nation." a federal investigation was launched today into the death of a little girl who was in the custody of u.s. border agents. she was part of a group from guatemala that surrendered at the border eight days ago. ayre's jeff pegues. go reporter: seven-year-old jakelin caal and her father were taken into border patrol custody in a remote area along the southern border in antelope wells, new mexico on the night of december 6. according to the department of homeland security, an initial screening of the young girl "revealed no evidence of health issues," but the next morning, as they prepared to board a bus to a border station, her father advised that the child was "sick and vomiting." that border station was 95 miles away, and that's the first time she received medical care. by then, she wasn't breathing. e.m.t.'s revived her twice, but her temperature soared to 105.9 osgrees before she was airlifted to the province

cohen. but supportive of roger stone. bret stephens still with me and mimi roka joining us as well.t the sense we're nearing a kra whcrescendo? >> absolutely. i think there's a turning point where we the public are in terms of knowing what's going on in the mueller investigation. it's probably been going on behind the scenes for a long time. now we know that people close to trump and perhaps trump himself, we're not there yet, but people close to trump like michael cohen and i think we're going to find out others, were in direct contact with the leadership of the russian government. now, it was about a business deal. not about hacking the election. but the fact that we know that they were working in concert on trying to get that business deal done is i think a big red flag that considering it was happening at exactly the same time that the russian government was working to influence our election in favor of donald trump, that perhaps those two things really did go together, and there's a connection that i think we're going to find out about in the days and months to come. >> on frid

cohen -- carlos ghosn's legal fate? stephenther their case and the prospect -- the court has approved another 10 day extension of his detention. after this time expires, prosecutors are required either to let him go or to indict. it is a foregone conclusion he nextbe indicted, but the 10 day extension should go until december 10. that will be a week from today, another seven days. what we are hearing from local media, they could, prosecutors could rearrest carlos ghosn if they wanted to buy more time, reinvest -- rearrest him on other charges which could extend to the end of the month. he and greg kelly, former representatives director, still in detention. greg kelly is interesting. he was the left and right arms of carlos ghosn in nissan. he controlled the chop. he had various departments reporting to him including human resources, public relations, legal compliance, auditing. it will be interesting to see if or greg kelly strikes a deal remains loyal to the top man, former top man, carlos ghosn. shery: stephen engle with the

the tax fraud stuff cohen did had nothing do with the president and the lying to congress had nothing to do with the president. and the. trish: walk me through that. >> stephen laud audience loved -- audience loved it. trish: hillary clinton and her cronies get a free pass. walk we through why michael cohen's problems here in your view aren't crimes? >> the campaign alleged violations are a twisting of the statute. to basically criminalize a personal payment by characterizing it as a campaign contribution. whether or not even these campaign finance laws should be constitutional -- i don't think they should be -- but let's assume they are held constitutional. the simple fact the president made payments to pay off ex-girlfriends like bill clinton did and dozens of people in congress did, can't be twisted from a personal payment to protect his family to somehow benefiting you as a candidate. again, by definition, every single one of those congressmen and women who benefited from that slush fund that we still haven't heard fully who benefited from it. trish: they are guilty, too. come on, adam, let's see some names. let's see your friends fraud marched out of th

cohen's shoulder? was the courtroom haunted by sad steven tyler? ( laughter ) ♪ dream on ( cheers and applause ) >> stephenrld. ♪♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: that's it for "the late show." join us next week for sandra bullock, emily blunt, and steve carell. good night! captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ♪ are you ready y'all to have some fun ♪ and feel the love tonight don't you worry 'bout ♪ where it is you come from it'll be all right ♪ it's the late late show >>

cohen's credibility. >> he's changed his story four or five times. >> so has the president. >> the president's not under oath. ( audience reacts ) >> stephen: good point. that's a really good point, jon. >> jon: what? >> stephen: if only presidents had some sort of ceremony where a judge had to swear them in before they took office. ( laughter ) mueller got trump's written answers to his questions last month, and reportedly now he wants to interview the president, but rudy says that's not going to happen. >> is the special counsel-- does he want to interview the president? >> yeah, good luck. over my dead body. >> stephen: well, great, we'll schedule the interview for tomorrow! ( laughter ) ( applause ) oh, wait, that's your alive body. oh... is all of it alive? ( laughter ) trump is also fighting back. against everything. since friday, he's tweeted about china, obamacare, the wonderful wife of rod blagojevich, peter s. and the lovely lisa page, child separation, smugglers use the kids, witch hunt, witch hunt, witch hunt, hoax, and the russian witch hunt hoax. ( laughter ) ( piano riff ) ( cheers and applause ) it sounds like the collusion version of

cohen's plea deal with the comey investigation. in the end, the president did have an informal meeting with vladimir putin anyway. stephenoins us to sort this out, he's the author of a fantastic new book which you should read called "war with russia: from pollutant to ukraine to trump and russia gate." which i just got and read and love. so sort this out if you would. so why the change and what are the implications of it? >> for the first time since president eisenhower, a president of the united states, donald trump, is not free to keep us from war with russia. that is one of the themes of my new book, "war with russia" that you mentioned. remember what happened. trump was supposed to meet with putin in argentina. was it important? it was very important. we are embroiled in crises that are brought with pot war, not just cold war, from syria to the ukraine. this episode in the russian and ukrainian waters occur. it seems clear that was a provocation to disrupt the meeting between trump and vladimir putin, and it was successful. trump felt because of these russia gate allegations, clearly that you just discussed, that tru

. >> stephen: actually, technically, it's gone down do 7% since kanye got out of politics. ( laughter ) other reporters also asked trump about the accusations of racism. >> michael cohen recently said you called black voters "stupid." >> that's false. >> omarosa has accused you of using the "n" word. >> that's false. >> and the rapper lil jon said you called him "uncle tom." what's your response-- >> i don't know who lil jon is. >> he was on "the apprentice." >> i don't know. oh, he was? okay. oh, i see. ( laughter and applause ) >> stephen: oh, my god. oh, my god. donald trump and i have something in common: neither of us watched "the apprentice." ( laughter ) he doesn't know lil jon, so this picture must have been awkward. lil jon is on the right. ( laughter ) and i've been told we have a statement from lil jon about trump claiming he doesn't know who he is. >> what?! >> stephen: thank you, lil. excellent reporting. and we've got a great show for you tonight. chris pine is here! we're riding the pine. but when we return, good news from the election. stick around! that's right! ( cheers and applause ) ( band playing "mambo no. 5" by lou bega ) i really didn't expect

stephen colbert. it's friday! heeeeeyyy!!! get in here! it's been a hard week for president trump. a lot of bad news. he learned some more stuff about how his buddies michael cohen mike flynn are working with mueller. and now he might lose his last remaining mike: pence. ( laughter ) because, earlier this week, trump hosted a 2020 strategy meeting with his advisers. among the topics discussed: whether mike pence should remain on the ticket. this is a major failure. if he gets dropped, that will be a major failure of mike pence's time-tested political strategy: "be so boring people forget you exist." he is a manila envelope taped to a beige wall. the campaign has done polling that shows pence doesn't expand trump's coalition, with advisors telling the president, "he doesn't detract from it, but he doesn't add anything either." doesn't add. doesn't detract. he's-- he's-- he's just garnic. he's like-- he's like partly sunnily that doesn't like gay people. ( laughter ) >> jon: wow, wow. >> stephen: my apologies to parsley. ( laughter ) ( applause ) if pence-- if pence does get fired, he could still have a role in politics. he could return among his fellow white walk

cohen, paul manafort and james comey. chung could be talking about any one of these men could we will bring more on that later in the show. bernie sanders whipping a fastball by stephen colbert in "the late show" last night. listen to this. >> a few years ago when we said that health care is a right, not a privilege and that we should create a medicare for all single-payer system, i was told i'm crazy, it's extreme and i'm a french guy. 70% of the american people and last polls i have seen support medicare for all. liz: that is one poll they use the term medicare for all however the poll numbers dropped dramatically when people are instead asks, do you support single-payer? the "washington post" kaiser family foundation opposes 53% of americans support single-payer. 43% oppose it. that's a big difference from 70% who supported. joining me now steve verrilli and f it just didn't mean. they feared it would bankrupt the state and colorado too rejected it saying he would bankrupt the state. doctors and hospital staff say he single-payer will collapse the health care industry. your thoughts on that. >> they would be the ones to know the reality of what bernie sanders is t

cohen has argued for a lighter sentence citing his support for other charitable causes, and it's true. yeah, we know he gave to charity and destiny and candy and ginger and cheyenne. >> stephend." "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >>> the breaking news tonight, president trump says he's not concerned about impeachment because he predicts people would revolt. >>> also, tonight, we've just seen the court papers suggesting mike flynn avoid jail time entirely. hours after manafort's lawyers asked for more time to make their case. >>> plus, the argument that was televised between trump, schumer and pelosi under the watchful eye of the v.p., the president said he's proud to shut down the government for his border wall. >>> and 44 former u.s. senators send a loud message in the "washington post" saying these are now dangerous times for the united states. one of the drafters of the statement, one of the 44, is with us as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a tuesday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 691 of the trump administration, and tonight, the president is speaking out about the growing