Plus a musical performance from scarborough. Featuring jon batiste and stay human. Now live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, its Stephen Colbert cheers and applause cheers and applause cheers and applause stephen thank you, everybody whats going on . Good to see you cheers and applause hey thanks, everybody please have a seat thank you so much well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the late show. Im your host, Stephen Colbert. And it has been cheers and applause piano riff it has been an exciting day. Im still excited. Jon yeah. Stephen lets just say, there is a reason theyre shooting me from the waist up right now. laughter i dont know, im not saying. I have a full trumpon. But i am definitely sporting a donald jr. laughter now, last night okay. Were good. cheers and applause were good. Were good. Okay, last night, i told you all about how don jr. Met with a russian lawyer, who claimed to have dirt on hillary clinton. Seemed pretty bad. But it turned out, much worse. laughter because then, the New York Times reported that trump jr. Was told in an email that this was a russian effort to aid trumps campaign. Wow. Who could have predicted an email scandal would taint a president ial campaign . laughter thats damning you cant have that you cant have that you cant you cant have that jon you cant have that laughter and applause stephen but we did not know what these emails were. We did not know if these emails were even real. How would we ever see them . For that, donald trump jr. Would have to tweet them out this morning at 11 00 a. M. laughter and applause whaaat . what are you doing . Who told him to do this . Does he even have a lawyer . Because you rarely see a cop show where the lawyer bursts into the Interrogation Room and shouts, keep talking in fact, tweet out everything you know come on cheers and applause yesterday, Reince Priebus said this whole story is a nothing burger. But these emails have turned it into an allyoucanprosecute buffet. laughter because don jr. s emails were with British Music publicist and guy who tony soprano whacked in season three, rob goldstone. Okay, this brit met the trumps at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in moscow. And i believe his job was to remove all the locks from the dressing room doors. So, lets dive in to these emails. Remember, it is going to take careful parsing to prove that the Trump Campaign was privately colluding with russia to get damaging confidential information about hillary clinton. This is the first email. Subject russia clinton private and confidential. laughter lets stop right there. I think we can pause. We should talk a pause, maybe even hydrate. Okay. Jon a worthy cause. Stephen we are five words in and four of them are russia, clinton, private, confidential. The only one thats innocent is and. Goldstone goes on to write about their mutual acquaintance, russian pop singer emin agalarov. Good morning. Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The crown prosecutor of russia met with his father aras this morning and, in their meeting, offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia, and would be very useful to your father. coughing im sorry. I just got a little cough because of this smoking gun i just found. laughter cheers and applause piano riff goldstone could not have been clearer that this was going to be shady stuff. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information. Yes, obviously. Thats why he encrypted his communique with an algorithm that Cyber Security experts call email. laughter okay . Jon getting all in there. Stephen and just a reminder, these emails were leaked by donald trump jr. Himself. He is his own deep throat, okay . Hes deepthroating himself. laughter its impressive. Its impressive. cheers and applause you dont see that every day. Jon whoa whoa stephen just to make sure that theres no doubt about the radioactive criminality of the proposed meeting, goldstone spells out that its part of russia and its governments support for mr. Trump. This could not be any more damning if goldstone had sent him an evite you are invited to commit treeson. wood you like to betray your country . Yes, no . Yes. Yes. cheers and applause piano riff its funny. Jon yes. Yes and no. Stephen its funny, because its treeson. Its funny, because its treason. laughter so, naturally, when don jr. Learned that a hostile foreign power was trying to undermine our democracy, he immediately reported it to the f. B. I. Im just kidding. laughter sorry, couldnt keep a straight face. 17 minutes later, don jr. Responded, thanks, rob, i appreciate that. If its what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. Just to make it clear, he also attached this picture i love crime in the summertime laughter thats a weird way to say it. I love it, especially later in the summer . Youre not talking about a sparkling rose with some toasted figs and a soft brie, you flaming douchebag laughter again again cheers and applause later in the summer, that would be great. Maybe at the cape, we can go up and collude. laughter i cant say this enough, okay . Keep in mind, don jr. Released these emails himself. How did this happen . He has a lawyer did he lock himself in the bathroom while his lawyer banged on the door, yelling, you better not be in there tweeting out your emails, young man no, im not, i promise. Im, im, im masturbating laughter so painted a picture. laughter so, at this point, i would like to issue a formal apology. Jim . Id like to apologize to eric trump. soft music we always thought you were the dumb one. We were wrong. laughter cheers and applause you know who else couldnt believe that don jr. Published these emails this morning . The journalists whove been trying to dig them up for months. One reporter tweeted, i. Worked on this story for a year. And. He just. He tweeted it out. I spent like. I spent hours and days and weeks and months. And his son just, hit tweet. laughter i tracked down sources. I followed so many dead leads. I labored over this. And then he just, you know, tweeted out the proof. applause like, so many people out there were trying to track this down. And it just. Got delivered on a tweet. What the hell. laughter and applause well, i applaud him. I applaud him. Yeah, yeah. Thats right, fake news. You got scooped by donnie jr. ha, ha laughter now, at the top of his email scoopslashconfession, don jr. Issued a statement to everyone. Oooh, that includes me im one of every. Lets go. In order to be totally transparent, i am releasing the entire email chain of my emails. Truly his fathers son. laughter the first email on june 3, 2016 was from rob, who was relating a request from emin. The information they suggested they had about hillary clinton, i thought was political opposition research. See . Its just political opposition research. Perfectly innocent, except for the fact that he is totally guilty. Because theres this law that says, a Foreign National shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value. You know what Oppo Research is . A thing of value. Thats why you took the meeting, you numbnut. Im sorry, that was disrespectful. I should use his proper name inmate 41715. cheers and applause jr. laughter but he continued his defiant confession to put this in context, this occurred before the current russian fever was in vogue. Oh, yeah, i was into colluding with russia years ago. I have bootleg collusion. In 99, i saw Sergei Kislyak in a basement in madison, doing an acoustic set with neutral milk hotel. laughter applause now, don jr. Jon yeah, yeah. cheers and applause stephen now, don jr. Has now hired an attorney that hes clearly not listening to, named Alan Futerfas which i believe is the active ingredient in ricola. Now, mit futerfas, besides being a mob lawyer, futerfas is also a juilliardtrained trombonist. Thats going to come in real handy at the end of the trial when they need someone to play mwahmwahwaaah. laughter mwahmwahwaaah. You got it . Everybody got it over there . piano riff heres another thing. Don, jr. Said that before they all went to it together, the three of them, he told Jared Kushner and paul manafort, nothing of the substance of the meeting. But at the very top of this email chain, that he tweeted this morning, you can see that the day before the meeting, he forwarded the whole damn thing to Jared Kushner and paul manafort. They knew as a lawyer close to the case said, theyre in the soup, too. Yup, theyre all sharing a big old cup o colludles. laughter cheers and applause of course delicious. High salt. High salt content. Of course, the president leapt to his sons defense. Lets go to trumps twitter page. howling wolf stephen thats not good. Thats not good. But this afternoon, like a father lion, trump stepped forward and then stepped back, and had Sarah Huckabee sanders read one sentence. My son is a highquality person, and i applaud his transparency. Stephen highquality person, okay . Topshelf son, okay . Thinking of having him gold leafed, paid for the under coating. Absolutely tremendous. laughter so, what does this complex web of International Intrigue and conspiracy mean . Lets break it down right now on the late show figureitouta tron. Bring it out, fellas here we go. cheers and applause piano riff welcome to the figureitouta tron. Okay, here we go. We are in the figureitouta tron, here, were going to figure out the connection from the u. S. To russia over here, okay . Now, across the top, weve got four different Trump Officials who have now admitted to meeting with russian ambassadors during the campaign. Okay, weve got trump advisor carter page, weve got attorney general jeff sessions, we have thencampaign manager paul manafort, and trumps sonin law, Jared Kushner. Down here, we have don jr. s russian contact, natalia veselnitskaya. Shes a lawyer they met with, on a request from a russian popstar, emin agalarov, who worked with the trump on the Miss Universe pageant in moscow, and whose father, aras agalarov, is a Russian Oligarch and close personal friend and Business Partner to vladimir putin. Okay, theyre all connected, see . Now, in the middle of the whole conspiracy is donald trump jr. laughter okay . You might say hes the key. Hes the key to the whole thing, symbolized by this keyhole ill draw right here. Okay. Thats him. So, donald trump jr. Gave us the dots. All we have to do is to connect them to see where this is going. laughter cheers and applause and, yeah, hes going to jail. piano riff cheers and applause weve got a great show for you tonight Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are both here. Andy serkis is here stick around band playing cheers and applause you are a city city wall, city wall she could be dancing down a hall, dancing down a hall were turning heads, were turning heads, were turning heads, oh yeah and nothing can stop us now ive gotta hit the loo. We cant stay here why . Terrible toilet paper ill never get clean way ahead of you, big daddy. Aww. Charmin ultra strong. Its washclothlike texture helps clean better. Its four times stronger and you can use less. Beautiful view. Thanks to charmin. And you, honeybear. Awwwww. We all go. Why not enjoy the go with charmin . That cough doesnt sound so good. Take mucinex dm. Ill text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. One pill lasts 12 hours, so. Looks like im good all night why take 4hour cough medicine . Just one mucinex lasts 12 hours. Lets end this. At kohls after christmas sale your kohls cash featuring up to 70 off clearance take up to 70 off family sleepwear outerwear, sweaters and fleece plus shop our white sale for big savings on bed and bath and take an extra 15 off kohls. cheers and applause band playing stephen hey jon batiste and stay human right over there give it up for the band, ladies and gentlemen right over there cheers and applause stephen well, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. You know, every morning, millions of americans get news and opinion from my next guest except for the president , who absolutely, definitely, under no circumstances watches any more. Please welcome the hosts of morning joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski cheers and applause band playing band playing cheers and applause stephen nice to see you all again. Its great to be here again. Stephen now laughter what a day. Yeah. Stephen what a day. What happened . Stephen usually, summertime is a slow news time. Mmhmm. Stephen what time does your show go off . What are the hours you guys are on, 6 00 to 9 00, or Something Like that . 6 00 to 9 00 a. M. Stephen and he didnt tweet out his emails, don jr. , until 11 00. Did that make you mad . laughter no that actually you know, the pace is so unbelievably quick these days. That actually gives us a couple of hours to prepare. And we have a handy graphic now, that you did. Thank you. You know, as far as connecting all the dots. We can use that tomorrow morning. Stephen yeah, sure, sure, you license that from cbs and youre good to go. Exactly. laughter stephen you guys have been following the story like the rest of america has, but from a more intimate perch for about two years now. Why do you think he tweeted that stuff out this morning . Oh, god, i have no frickin idea. laughter what the what . You mean this morning . Stephen this morning. Why did don jr. Tweet that out . You know, its part of a bigger strategy with them. They put it out. You know, its interesting, don jr. Has really been whipping up the frenzy as far as the fake news goes, for some time. He had a really offensive tweet three, four, five days ago, before all this blew up, of donald trump as a Fighter Pilot blowing up cnn out of the air. And, thats what they do. They whip people up into a frenzy, talk about fake news, and its been part of a pattern for a long time. Theyre trying to confuse the truth with lies, and so, put it out there and then tell people its much ado about nothing. You could argue that they have been trying to undermine the media for many months now, trying to race against time before all the bad stuff comes out about them. Stephen oh, so theres no so people wont believe it. Stephen so you rough the umpire you rough up the umpire so that when the actual evidence comes out not credible. Stephen theres nobody credible to blow the whistle. Thats what its all about. Thats what its been about for a very long time. Stephen well, isnt that trying to make us all insane . Isnt that what that is . Yes stephen trying to make us crazy, that there is no objective reality . Its very sad. Its a really sad time. Stephen you guys, two weeks ago, became the news. Oh, my. Stephen because the leader of the free world, the commander in chief of the United States said ill put it up here. Oh, thank you. Stephen i heard poorly rated morning joe speaks badly ive got to do it this way because its not written on the back. I heard poorly rated morning joe speaks badly of me. Dont watch anymore. Then, how come low i. Q. Crazy mika, along with psycho joe, came to maralago three nights in a row around new years eve and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face lift. I said no. How does that feel, to be attacked by the president of the United States on twitter . audience booing now its okay. Stephen im not sure how they feel, but how did you . How did that feel . Me, it was no big deal. Personally, it doesnt bother me one bit. I do think its very sad for the country that this is where we are. And i think that backs up my point that i made earlier that were this is our president. Stephen where were you when you found out . Like, were you on the air when this happened . I was on the set. Joe was in the office. Stephen okay. And everybody started looking very uncomfortable. And the executive producer, alex goressen, said, stay in your seat, im coming to show you something. And i just said, willie . Whats on your phone, what did he do . Stephen willie giest . Yes because willie was holding his phone a little bit away from me. Stephen willie wouldnt show you his phone . I was reading it i think he was i dont know. I think well need to ask him, but i think he might have felt uncomfortable to show it to me at first. They were all kind of like stephen why do you think he did this . What do you think is in his head . I think that i was mocking his fake Time Magazine cover from a that was hanging in one of his country clubs. We had sort of stephen five of them. We were on the air, joking about it. And i can feel it. I mean, i know him well enough to know that its that kind of thing that gets under his skin. He can be played very easily, which is very, very concerning. You know, being showing anger towards donald trump, letting him know that youre outraged, thats what he wants. When you mock him, when mika was joking about the Time Magazine cover which is hilarious. laughter it is hilarious. Think about that. It is, it is. Thats what really makes him the angriest. And he watches the show, you know, as you were joking about it before, but he does watch it and it drives him absolutely crazy. But he has this rage about mika. And he did this last summer, during the middle of the campaign, too. Sent out all of these tweets. And he was especially vicious toward mika. And it really, i think mainly, its because, you know, shes a woman, and stephen when you say that you guys know donald trump. You guys wrote in an editorial that this guy you see now is not the guy you knew. Whats different . Because this seems exactly like the guy that i have always seen. Hes a primo tool. And laughter cheers and applause piano riff and i just dont know i just dont understand what youre seeing different about the guy, because i know you, like, never endorsed him, but youve known him for years. You have been friends with the guy. And joe even said during the campaign, he could neve