[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> announcer: from 30 rockefeller plaza in new york, it's "late night with seth meyers." tonight -- will forte, espn analyst jay bilas, host of msnbc's "all in", journalist and author chris hayes, featuring the 8g band with charlie benante. ladies and gentlemen, seth meyers. [ cheers and applause ] >> seth: good evening, everybody. i'm seth meyers. and this is "late night." how's everybody doing tonight? [ cheers and applause ] good to hear. in that case, let's get to the news. fbi director james comey today confirmed that the agency is investigating possible links and coordination between president trump and russia. said one american, "okay, but i'm still mad at you." [ laughter ]

that's right. james comey confirmed that the fbi is looking for links between president trump and the russian government. but so far, the only missing link they've found is eric. [ laughter ] james comey also said today that he has found no information that supports president trump's tweets that former president obama wiretapped trump tower. added comey, "to be fair, the only place we've checked is hillary's e-mails." [ laughter and applause ] you can't check her e-mails enough. according to a new survey, only 43% of u.s. voters can name a supreme court justice. said one voter, "hey, i tried to name one, but they wouldn't let me." [ laughter ] so -- [ cheers and applause ] hillary clinton said during a speech on friday that she is ready to come out of the woods. oh, that's cool.

i wonder why? oh, yeah, you got to get out of there! [ laughter ] donald trump jr. is in the woods. [ light laughter ] a moscow zoo is suing a company that hired one of its raccoons to appear in a commercial, saying that when the animal returned, it was attracted to women's breasts. or as mike pence calls it, "a successful conversion." [ laughter and applause ] "we fixed your raccoon." [ laughter ] president trump met with microsoft found bill gates today. presumably to share their stories about living 40 years without changing their haircuts. [ light laughter ] today was barron trump's birthday. "i want a new power ranger," yelled eric. [ laughter and applause ] disney's "beauty and the beast" took the number one spot at the weekend box office. and chip the cup took the number one spot in my nightmares.

[ laughter ] a new study claims that physically attractive people have shorter relationships and are more likely to experience divorce than physically unattractive people. but what about when there's one of each? [ laughter ] [ audience oohs ] and again, i'm not saying which one's which. [ light laughter ] because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. so maybe you think, you know, he's the hottie and she's not. if that's the case, go to the hospital. [ laughter ] because you probably had a stroke. [ light laughter ] and finally, a canadian woman last week proposed to her boyfriend at a hockey game with a bouquet of doritos made to look like roses. it even spawned a new flavor "nacho boyfriend anymore." [ laughter and applause ] ladies and genltemen, got a great show for you tonight. he's one of my favorite people on earth. he's the star of fox's "the last man on earth." will forte is back on the show, everybody.

[ cheers and applause ] he's an espn analyst here to fill us in on march madness. with us tonight, jay bilas, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] and a friend of our show. emmy-winning host of msnbc's "all in." he's got a new book, "a colony in a nation." chris hayes joins us tonight. [ cheers and applause ] always a delight to have chris with us. but before we get to all of that, today the fbi director confirmed for the first time that his agency is investigating possible coordination between trump campaign officials and the russian government. and he also refuted trump's claim that then president obama had him wiretapped. for more on this, it's time for "a closer look." ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> seth: the hearing today only added to the ongoing chaos in the trump white house. in fact, even on simple scheduling issues, the trump white house has been disorganized. for example, on friday, trump bragged that he was holding a major meeting on veterans issues at mar-a-lago with his veterans

affairs secretary david shulkin sitting directly to his left. you would assume that a major v.a. meeting would involve the v.a. secretary, but watch shulkin's face when trump asks him if he's going to be at the meeting. >> we're having a meeting tonight at what we call affectionately the southern white house. seems to be the most convenient location. everybody always wants to go to the southern white house. so, are you going to be at that meeting? you heard about it right? it's gonna be great. [ laughter ] >> seth: he shakes -- he shakes his head like a tourist who gets called out at a stand up comedy show. "sir, where are you from?" "no, i don't wanna" -- [ laughter ] "is that your wife, sir?" "i don't wanna be involved in this." [ light laughter ] also, can we go back to what trump said about mar-a-lago for a second. >> the southern white house, which seems to be the most convenient location. >> seth: it's not convenient! everyone else works in washington, d.c. you're the only one with a private club in florida that you can get to via air force one. "okay everybody. staff meeting." "should we go to the conference room?"

"no, go to kayak.com." [ laughter ] also, there was a different name trump used to use for mar-a-lago. like in this tweet, when he called it "the winter white house." so why has he started calling it the southern white house and stopped calling it the winter white house? because he's going to be there year round, mother [ bleep ] [ laughter and applause ] sorry. i'm sorry. i feel bad now. i shouldn't say that. i should say, he's going to be there year round, taxpayers! [ laughter ] of course, that wasn't the only awkward meeting trump held at the white house on friday. german chancellor angela merkel met with trump in the oval office which led to this embarrassing moment you may have seen by now when trump appeared to ignore an invitation from merkel to shake her hand. >> all right. thank you. >> handshake? >> seth: you know you're ice

cold when even the german chancellor wants to warm things up. [ laughter ] look at him slump next to her like a beanbag. like a high school burnout who has to meet with the principal. "look at me, donald. donald." [ laughter ] "i hate school." [ cheers and applause ] and if trump looked grumpy on friday, you can only imagine how he felt today when fbi director james comey testified before congress and confirmed publicly for the first time the existence of an investigation into the trump team's ties to russia. >> the fbi, as part of our counter intelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts.

>> seth: that is a huge, huge deal. and yet only 60 days into this administration you hear that, and you're like, "eh." [ light laughter ] at this point, melania would have to take trump in a high speed chase in a ford bronco for us to say, "this is unexpected. [ laughter ] this is a twist i didn't see coming." now there have of course been lots of media reports about this already. but this is still a major revelation. but comey repeated that he could not comment on any specifics of the case. >> as you know, our practice is not to confirm the existence of ongoing investigations. we just cannot do our work well or fairly if we start talking about it while we're doing it. some folks may want to make comparisons to past instances where the department of justice and the fbi have spoken about the details of some investigations. >> seth: yeah, i know at least one person who might. [ light laughter ] i'm not saying comey cost clinton the election, but his name is definitely on the list that hillary mutters like arya stark when she's walking in the woods.

[ laughter and applause ] james comey. wikileaks. the hound. anthony weiner. [ laughter ] so the fbi director confirmed that there's an ongoing investigation into the sitting president's team and his ties to russia. and yet the republicans on the committee were eager to focus on literally anything else. for example, the chairman of the committee, devin nunes, listed off states and asked the director of the national security agency mike rogers, if the russians had tampered with votes in those states. an allegation no serious person has made or is concerned about at all. >> do you have any evidence that russia cyber actors changed vote tallies in the state of michigan? >> no, i do not. >> how about the state of pennsylvania? >> no, sir. >> the state of wisconsin? >> no, sir. >> state of florida? >> no, sir. >> state of north carolina? >> no, sir. >> that state of ohio. >> no, sir. >> seth: and i just have 44 more questions. [ light laughter ] and when they weren't setting up straw men about physical vote

tampering, republicans were pressing comey and rogers, not on any of the details on the investigation, but on leaks about the investigation. in fact, at one point, republican congressman trey gowdy asked rogers a series of questions about trump aides who had been named or unmasked by intelligence agencies as having contact with russians. and seemed to imply that former obama officials might have been the ones who leaked that information. >> would national security advisor susan rice have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen name? >> i think any -- yes, in general. >> would former attorney general loretta lynch have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> in general, yes. >> did you brief president obama on -- i'll just ask you -- did you brief president obama on any calls involving michael flynn? >> seth: dude, you think obama was the leaker? have you seen what he's been up to? that dude hasn't even been near

wifi for two months now. [ light laughter ] even crazier, while the hearing was still happening, trump tweeted -- trump tweeted from the president's official account, "the nsa and fbi tell congress that russia did not influence electoral process." but that's wrong. they didn't say that. so later in the same hearing, comey was asked to fact check trump's tweet about the hearing. tweets he didn't know about because he'd been at the hearing. >> so thanks to the modern technology that's in front of me right here, i've got a tweet from the president an hour ago saying "the nsa and fbi tell congress that russia did not influence the electoral process." that's not quite accurate, that tweet. [ light laughter ] >> sorry, i haven't been following anybody on twitter while i've been sitting here. we've offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact, because it's never something we looked at. >> seth: witnesses in a hearing are now of fact checking the president's tweets about that hearing during the hearing. [ light laughter ] they might as well just throw to ernie, kenny and charles. [ light laughter ]

"charles, trump says russia did not influence the election. your thoughts?" "ernie, it's terrible, it's just terrible. [ laughter ] he is not going to make it to the next round." now, the main reason the fbi thinks russia was trying to help trump win is because putin famously hated hillary clinton. but at one point during the hearing, texas congressman mike conaway questioned how the fbi could know that, using a very confusing college football analogy. >> putin hated secretary clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much. >> that might work on saturday afternoon when the wife's red raiders are playing the texas longhorns. she really likes the red raiders. that assessment's based on -- what? >> part of it is the logic. whoever the red raiders are playing, you want the red raiders to win, by definition you want their opponent to lose. >> i know. but this says that you wanted both of them -- he wanted her to lose, wanted him to win. is that --

>> right, they're inseparable. it's a two person -- >> right, right. >> event. >> i got you. so i'm just wondering when you decided you wanted him to win? >> logically, when he wanted her to lose. [ laughter and applause ] >> seth: there's nothing better than watching someone dumb it down with a sports analogy and then lose the thread of that dumb sports analogy. [ light laughter ] well, if he wanted hillary to lose, that means he wanted trump to win. well maybe, he wanted hillary to win, but he wanted donald to cover the spread. [ laughter ] the hearing then moved on to the trump administration's outlandish claim that obama had wiretapped him using the british spying agency know as gchq. nsa director mike rogers responded forcefully to that claim. >> did you ever request that your counterparts in gchq should wiretap mr. trump on behalf of president obama? >> no, sir, nor would i. >> seth: there you have it, america. you can either trust the director of the national security agency or the guy who thinks tap is spelled with two ps.

[ laughter ] all of this, of course, raises the question once again of where the president gets his information. because we are now at the point where the crazy things the president says are making their way to the halls of congress and wasting the time of allies, intelligence officials, and the fbi director. so last week on fox news, trump was asked a very simple question of what he reads and watches and gave this convoluted answer. >> what do you read? what do you watch? >> well, you know, i love to read. actually, i'm looking at a book. i'm reading a book. i'm trying to get started. every time i do about a half a page i get a phone call that there's some emergency, this or that. but we're going to see the home of andrew jackson today in tennessee, and i'm reading a book on andrew jackson. i love to read. >> seth: i don't think you do. [ laughter ] "i love reading. i'm reading this great haiku right now. i'm about halfway through it, and it's really getting good." seriously, donnie, are you really reading a book? [ laughter ] "i hate school."

[ cheers and applause ] this has been "a closer look." ♪ we'll be right back with more "late night," everybody. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ "the birds and the bees" by dean martin ♪ ♪ let me tell you 'bout the birds the bees ♪ ♪ and the flowers and the trees♪ ♪ and the moon up above ♪ and a thing called love. ♪ ♪ let me tell you 'bout the stars in the sk♪, ♪ a girl and a guy ♪ ♪ and the way they could kiss on a night like this ♪ life's as big as you make it. introducing the all-new seven seater volkswagen atlas ♪ and a thing called love. i like yours too.hair. can i have some? it's not cool to ask that. thanks, captain obvious. online dating isn't always rewarding. but hotels.com is. instant savings now, free nights later.

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♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> seth: our first guest tonight is an emmy-nominated actor, writer and comedian you know

from his work on "saturday night live", and the films "macgruber" and "nebraska." he's the creator and star of the very funny series, "the last man on earth", which airs sunday nights on fox. let's take a look. >> you guys wait in here, okay? i'm gonna go make sure it's safe. >> how will you let us know? >> i'll make a bird sound. >> birds don't exist. they're gonna know someone's here. >> okay, i'll make a wind sound. >> seth: please welcome back to the show our very good friend will forte, everybody.

[cheers and applause] ♪ >> seth: hi, buddy! >> hi. how are you? >> seth: i'm so happy to see you. >> i'm happy to see you. >> seth: and i'm very excited that your show is coming back. it is my favorite show on tv right now. i love it. >> thank you very much. >> seth: i've missed it. and i want to talk, because you got to go to the critics' choice awards. which must have been a lot of fun. >> it was, very, very fun. i got to bring my mom, patty. >> seth: your mom, patty forte. >> patty forte. >> seth: who is just a -- you are a fantastic son. you bring her to things like the critics' choice awards. how does patty behave in an award show like the critics' choice awards? >> she's -- a questionable behavior. >> seth: okay. [ light laughter ] not perfect behavior? >> i mean, she's trying her hardest. >> seth: okay. >> and like little, little things, she -- kate beckinsale, i think came and presented an award, or at least was walking around. and she leaned over, and she said, "oh my god, is that kate blankin[ bleep ]?" [ laughter ] it's like, nobody's name is

gonna have that in it. you know? [ light laughter ] >> seth: if you were a young actress and your last name was blankin[ bleep ], you'd change your name. >> yeah, to like [ bleep ] . probably, right? [ light laughter ] [ bleep ]. multiple [ bleep ]. >> seth: kate [ bleep ]. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> seth: she's so beautiful. such a wonderful actress. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> seth: maybe she was kate [ bleep ] and she changed her name -- or maybe she was blankin[ bleep ] and she changed her name to beckinsale and your mom remembered that. >> or maybe she was blankin[ bleep ] and changed her name to beckinsale to change it back to blankin[ bleep ] at some point. >> seth: okay. >> you never know. just like a, blankin[ bleep ] sandwich. >> seth: we don't know. >> a beckinsale sandwich on blankin[ bleep ] bread. sorry. [ light laughter ] >> seth: anybody else? was there anybody else there she was excited to see? >> oh, she gets excited about everybody. >> seth: okay. >> she's like, there it -- yeah, there's just tons of people. >> seth: that's great. >> we were sitting with, like, all the "modern family" group. >> seth: that's very good. >> she was very excited about that. >> seth: for moms that's good stuff. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> seth: i know that you are very close to your family. >> yeah. >> seth: and you have a sister with, you have a niece and a nephew. >> yep.

>> seth: six and seven. >> lanie and aldin. now they're eight and seven. >> seth: eight and seven. >> yeah. >> seth: and what -- >> though, weirdly, the younger one is the 8-year-old now. and -- [ light laughter ] yeah, yeah. >> seth: so, the seven year old is still seven? >> stayed the same, it's very -- yeah. >> seth: is that how you saw it going? is this -- >> i don't even plan these things anymore. you know, you just see how they grow up. >> seth: well, that's what they say about kids. you let them find their own way. >> yeah, exactly. >> seth: some of them are going to continue to mature. >> it's, you know, global warming. [ laughter ] >> seth: they have a nickname for you, though. your -- >> yes, they do. they call me "uncle stinky." >> seth: uncle stinky. >> yes. >> seth: and what did they -- how did they come up with the name "uncle stinky?" >> i don't know. [ light laughter ] >> seth: okay. i'm gonna read -- you posted this, this is a -- read this text. this your sister sent, to you. read the text. >> this is a text from my sister, who came down to visit, this weekend with my seven year old -- oh, maybe i -- oh, they -- oh god, maybe i got their ages wrong. >> seth: okay. [ light laughter ] >> okay. >> seth: what does it say? >> my apologies. but this is a quote from your nephew to your niece just now.

"hey, lanie, did you pull uncle will's finger --" oh, god, let me start over. "hey, lanie, did you pull uncle will's finger while you're there?" lanie, says, "no, but he did fart while we were there." [ light laughter ] >> seth: so you don't even -- a lot of uncles need the fingers to be pulled to fart. but you just let it rip anyway. >> i -- you know it's like just a couple, you know -- farts here and there in a kid's upbringing, and suddenly you're just, you can't escape it. >> seth: you're uncle stinky. >> now i'm uncle stinky forever. >> seth: you talk about this like this an outlier, for you to have farted in front of people. but i have heard that mary steenburgen, one of your fantastic co-stars on the show, that she -- that you fart in front of her every day of the show. >> well, it was a challenge from her. >> seth: it was a challenge? >> mary challenged me to audibly fart every single day on set. >> seth: how did -- >> and i came through. >> seth: you do it every day. >> i came through. every day. >> seth: do you do it -- yeah. [ cheers and applause ]

challenge met. how does it -- how do you do it, is it for everyone? >> out of my butt? [ laughter ] it, it, it depends, there are different degrees of privacy involved. >> seth: okay. >> so sometimes it's very public and sometimes it's just like, "hey mary, come here." and i think she always knows when there's a "come here" that there's a fart in her very near future. look, i would never do this unless -- >> seth: you'd be challenged, you know? is there ever a time, where -- because it has to be audible, is that correct? >> yes. >> seth: so is that -- have had one she hasn't heard? >> oh, some don't count. >> seth: oh. >> yeah, they only count if she hears them. >> seth: so you'll do one and then you gotta go brew up a whole another one for later in the day? >> i have a pretty good brewing mechanism. [ light laughter ] so it's a forte family thing. it's a bummer. it's a bummer. >> seth: it's a bummer about -- >> for people around me. >> seth: yeah, it's not bad for you. >> yeah, i'm fine with it. >> seth: and you, as a lover, as

a connoisseur of the gaseous arts -- >> i'm not a lover of them, no. >> seth: oh, okay. >> you know, i dabble in them, but i'm not -- i wouldn't say i love that it's my -- >> seth: oh, you -- >> it's like the devil. is he happy that he, you know, does malicious things? no, but that's what he does. and so he -- [ laughter ] >> seth: i've never heard that take on the devil. [ laughter ] that he's just like punching in every day, doing evil things and then punching out, saying, "well, it's a living." [ light laughter ] >> you've got to hang out more, i guess. >> seth: but you -- so mary steenburgen -- well this is another -- this is you, this is the good forte. because like i don't want to just about the stuff that comes out of your butt. i want to talk about the stuff that comes out of your heart. because, mary, a dear friend -- >> i thought you were good. i thought you were about to say, "i don't want to just talk about the things that come out of your butt. i want to talk about the things that go into your butt." [ laughter ] i was like, "this is way better, where you're going with this." you're getting very good at this job. [ laughter ] okay.

>> seth: that would have been a very bad segue. >> i know because we -- yeah. >> seth: we haven't ever talked about that. >> i mean, talk about -- ask me these things before the show and such. >> seth: right, right, right. you -- mary, she was here talking about it. >> yeah. >> seth: her aunt, 92 years? 93? >> 92. i think she might have been turning. she was either turning 92 or 93. i think it was 93. >> seth: and you went to her birthday in little rock. >> yeah. >> seth: and was that fun? >> it was so much fun. mary was there with ted danson. >> seth: yeah, her husband. >> and i had been on a road trip with john solomon. >> seth: fantastic guy, one of our all time favorites. >> and met up with kristen schaal and her husband in nashville. mary let us stay at her place in nashville while she was down in little rock. so we were thinking, like -- then we went down to the party in little rock. but along the way, we were like, we've got to do something really nice for her, because she's, you know, pulling out all the stops. >> seth: yeah, letting you stay in her home. >> she's the best host of all time. so we decided that we would just give -- get her every place we

went, every restaurant, because we were going to be delicious restaurants, we would bring doggy bags of the stuff we did not eat. >> seth: oh. as a thank you. >> and like so we would give her a little taste of our trip. >> seth: okay, gotcha. >> like she could, you know, and we were on the road for a good four days before we met up with her. >> seth: okay. and so you brought four days worth of doggy bags. and i have a photo here, because you presented them to ted danson. >> yeah. >> seth: and he seems pretty enthusiastic. >> he loved it. >> seth: here he is. here he is when he got his doggy bags, here. [ laughter ] >> right after this he just tore into them. [ light laughter ] yeah. >> seth: one last thing. this is now kind of a famous tweet. i want to know if this was a coincidence or you did this on purpose. trump -- president trump he tweeted this writing his inaugural address at the winter white hour mar-a-lago, three weeks ago. looking forward to my friday, inauguration. and then it turns out, this is very similar to how you wrote the season finale of "the last man on earth."

at the fallbrook office. chatsworth, three minutes ago. so that's crazy. >> very similar -- >> seth: like you guys are very similar guys. >> processes, yeah. >> seth: yeah. >> yeah. >> seth: he's like, yeah -- he's like your soul mate. >> yeah, yeah. very handsome. >> seth: he's very handsome. [ light laughter ] buddy, i can't wait for your show to come back. >> thank you very much. >> seth: i can't say enough great things about it, or you. >> aw. >> seth: it's such a delight to have you here. give it up for will forte, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. >> seth: "the last man on earth" airs sunday nights on fox. we'll be right back with more "late night." [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ (cover of chainsmokers 'don't l♪ me down') ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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please welcome to the show jay bilas, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> seth: welcome! >> thank you. >> seth: so march is the best possible time to have jay bilas on your show. so thank you for making some time for us. >> oh, it's my honor, thank you. >> seth: and this is the first march madness i've ever cared about. i went to northwestern. this was our first tournament ever. >> yep. >> seth: and i thought we did pretty well for ourselves. >> great. >> seth: yeah. >> did great. chris collins did a great job. your team was really good. >> seth: really good. we lost to gonzaga, which was the one seed in the west. there was a call that went against northwestern. there's -- there's the northwestern player. now the gonzaga player, it seems like his hand is going through the net. [ light laughter ] >> it doesn't seem like it. it was. >> seth: through the hoop. so that's against the rules. >> against the rules. >> seth: okay, cool. just checking, just checking. >> yeah. [ light laughter ] >> seth: but it was interesting -- so you went to duke.

>> i did. >> seth: played on a national championship team. >> i actually played on a team that made the final four and made the championship game. >> seth: apologies. >> and we lost. >> seth: to northwestern, that's like winning it all. >> we lost to -- [ light laughter ] we lost to louisville my senior year. >> seth: sorry to bring up that bad memory. but i'm sure you guys tried your hardest. but i want to ask this, because i feel like everybody was happy for northwestern this year. i feel like next year everybody will just hate northwestern, because they'll be -- we're insufferable. and there's a lot of northwestern people in the media. and so, northwestern got a lot of coverage this year. duke, which lost this week, it seems like people are really happy when duke loses unless you went to duke. >> yes. >> seth: yeah. >> yes. >> seth: is that hard? >> no, you're kind of used to it by now. >> seth: yeah. >> it's been going on for so many years. >> seth: yeah. >> it started probably in the late '80s, early '90s. it's just ratcheted up since then. [ light laughter ] >> seth: you made it right after you left, by the way. you left in '86. and then you're like, late '80s, people seem to turn against duke. >> yeah, after they -- [ laughter ] after the nice guys left. >> seth: yeah. >> it's something you get used to. i don't claim to understand it.

>> seth: right. >> but i am used to it. and i'm not bothered by it. the thing i get most often, as a basketball commentator, i'll go somewhere where they don't like duke and someone will say, "i hate duke, but i don't hate you." [ light laughter ] and i'm like, "well, thank you." just the general dislike or, you know? how deep does it go? >> seth: obviously, you still root for duke. how do you balance -- >> i won't say that. >> seth: well that's my question about, like, bias and being a commentator and watching these things. like where do you -- i guess, where is your heart during the games? >> my heart is with having a good game and calling it right down the middle. being so involved in this, you see both teams practice and all the preparation that goes into it. not only the coaches, but the players, how bad each team wants to win. >> seth: yeah. >> if i were rooting for teams, i'd never get through a day. >> seth: yeah. >> i watch hundreds of games a year. so it's really not a big deal to me. but, you know, when we worked with bill raftery and sean mcdonough, we always went out with the winners. so we really didn't care who won. [ laughter ] we went and had drinks with the winning coach and the losing

coach we just kind of waved top, [ light laughter ] and pretended it didn't happen. >> seth: that's a smart way to go about things. you played for coach k. what is it about him, what's something that those of us who feel like we know him, because we've seen him for so many years, might not know about coach k? >> you might not know? you mean stuff he does? >> seth: yeah. >> well, he gardens. >> seth: oh, okay. >> at least, i'm told he gardens. i've never seen him do it. it might actually be like basketball where he just yells at the landscape crew -- [ laughter ] you know, has them do it. >> seth: he recruits the best landscapers. [ light laughter ] >> yeah, yeah. exactly. but he gardens, and he's a wine enthusiast. >> seth: all right. now there's something i didn't know about you. you had an acting career. >> i wouldn't call it a career. >> seth: a brief acting career. you played an alien. >> right. >> seth: what was the name of the film? >> it was called "i come in peace." >> seth: "i come in peace." >> dolph lundrgren was the -- >> seth: dolph lundgren. >> the other star. >> seth: the other star. [ light laughter ] right, it was a lundgren-bilas mashup. and you do not look like you come in peace, based on that photo.

[ laughter ] how did you end up in this film, jay? >> i did -- when i was playing pro basketball overseas, i started doing some commercial work during the summertime. >> seth: uh-huh. >> so i did some ads and everything, i got an agent. the agent asked me if i've ever acted before. and my response was a school play. >> seth: yeah. >> and he said, well if you -- i'll send you on a read, see if you like the process. then we'll send you on some more if you like it. and i wound up getting that part out of the first read that i did. and it was one of the coolest things. but back then i had a lot of hair. and they shaved my head from the middle forward and then put hair extensions on the back. it wasn't an attractive look. [ light laughter ] day to day -- it may have looked good in the movie, but day to day, it didn't help me with women. >> seth: and was -- even when you told him that you were one of the stars of "i come in peace"? >> no. [ light laughter ] it was just easier to get sympathy. i told him i was sick. [ laughter ] >> seth: that's how good the film was. you could do better with ladies saying you're -- >> i still have the review from the "los angeles times" which says "i come in peace" should go away. [ laughter ] i kept that.

they were wrong, obviously. >> seth: you mentioned playing overseas. you played in italy? where did you play? >> i played in italy for a couple of years and then played in spain after that. >> seth: gotcha. and i feel like there's a sense that, you know, american fans are the rowdiest. not that -- you found it a lot worse over there. >> yeah, they were rowdy. there were times when fans -- you know, you had plexiglass on those dug outs that you would sit in at the bench. sometimes the crowds would throw coins down at you. and the really bad crowds would heat the coins with a cigarette lighter and throw them. you know, i was trying to make as much money as i could, so i'd pick them up. [ laughter ] it didn't happen, it didn't happen that often. >> seth: nothing more italian to me than a guy taking out a cigarette, heating up a coin and then chucking it at somebody. >> i mean truthfully, it only happened a couple of times. but it was pretty funny. but afterwards, they would scream at you the whole game. and then afterwards, they'd want to go out and have a drink. >> seth: exactly. they like to go out with the winners, just like you. >> yeah, exactly. >> seth: so what are you -- what is your pick? who do you think's going to win this tournament? >> i thought from the beginning that north carolina's the best

team. when they play their best, they haven't always played their best this year, but i like their draw. they play butler in the sweet sixteen. and then if they win, they would get the winner of ucla-kentucky. those would be track meets if they wound up getting in those games. butler's going to be an a little bit of a slower game. but north carolina's got a great opportunity to win this thing. >> seth: and best player in the tournament? >> probably frank mason of kansas and then caleb swanigan of purdue. but the guy that everybody's been talking about is lonzo ball of ucla. >> seth: freshman at ucla. >> he's a jason kidd-type point guard whose father has been talking a lot. e >> seth: yes, i believe the father said he could beat jordan one on one. >> the father said he could beat jordan. and then he said that his son, lonzo, is better than steph curry. >> seth: right. >> which is a little bit of a stretch. [ light laughter ] but who knows? like richard williams said a lot of things about serena and venus that turned out to be right. >> seth: right. >> earl woods said a lot of things about tiger, turned out to be right. maybe levar ball is the nostradamus of basketball. >> seth: well, there you go. >> his son's really good. >> seth: certainly something to keep our eyes on. thank you so much for making the time.

we really appreciate it, jay. [ cheers and applause ] jay bilas, everybody. follow him on twitter @jaybilas. we'll be right back with chris hayes. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ best-selling brand? you make it detect what they don't. stop, stop, stop! sorry. you make it sense what's coming. watch, watch, watch! mom. relax! i'm relaxed. you make it for 16-year olds... whoa-whoa-whoa!!! and the parents who worry about them. you saw him, right? going further to help make drivers, better drivers. don't freak out on me. that's ford. and that's how you become america's best-selling brand. is chalked fulls poof protein.en [ band practicing ] it's a great snack to keep them going. even if you secretly wish they'd stop. keep it real. keep it tyson any'tizers.

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♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> seth: welcome back, everybody. our next guest is the emmy-winning host of "all in with chris hayes", which airs weeknights at 8:00 pm on msnbc. his fascinating new book, "a colony in a nation", is in stores tomorrow. please welcome back to the show our friend chris hayes, everybody. ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

>> seth: hi. >> how are you? >> seth: i'm good. the last time you were here was the day after the election. >> it sure was. [ light laughter ] >> seth: and we had some predictions on how things would go, but this has, i would say has even run afield of that. wouldn't you say? >> yeah, i mean i think the big thing i think that the day after the election that we talked about a little bit is, you know, in american politics every action has an equal and opposite reaction. what would be the reaction? and we've seen it. i mean, it's sort of remarkable to watch this sort of mobilization happening, this fight over health care. it's been pretty astounding to watch what's happened in the last two months. >> seth: because we talked about the speed in which the republican party would try to disassemble the accomplishments of the obama administration. and it seems like what they're running up against is all of a sudden, there's this sense of maybe you didn't like obamacare, but you are more afraid of what no obamacare is. >> yeah, and very much i think there's a respect in which a huge part of their base benefits

from some of the things they want to get rid of. >> seth: mm-hmm. >> so the front page cover of the "charleston gazette" in west virginia, the day after budget was "budget hits west virginia." right? and west virginia went for donald trump by 40 points or something like that. the fact of the matter is, west virginia depends on things like the appalachian regional council that's going to get cut. they depend on things like medicaid expansion. so ultimately, politics is about what happens in people's lives. and if you hammer people, they're not going to be happy. >> seth: especially when you promised answers and solutions without ever having laid out any of the details. >> that's exactly -- exactly right. or continuing to do the same. >> seth: yeah. >> i mean, there's this sort of three-prong strategy to everything is -- any policy question the president says, current policy is a disaster. we're going to change the policy. our policy's going to be great. >> seth: and you've interviewed and done a great job interviewing people who represent the trump administration and the republican party. and sometimes, particularly within the trump administration, they will just not give an answer. no matter how many times you ask it, no matter how many times you rephrase it.

they can just really dig in. >> they can. and there's -- i think, partly there's this sort of fundamental mismatch of what he ran on and what they want to do and what they're actually doing. and there's no bridge between the two for them to be able to explain themselves. so when you talk to a republican member of congress, you just say, whatever you think of health care, defend the speed with what you're passing this bill. it's a little hard to do. >> seth: yeah. especially since they criticized a much longer process. >> a much, much longer process. and look, there were parts about that process that were worthy of criticism. >> seth: absolutely. >> but it was the case that, you know, that bill gets introduced in june or july, it gets voted on in november. we're talking about less than three weeks from bill text to passage in the house for one fifth of the american economy. that's really fast. >> seth: that's really fast -- "the fastest." [ light laughter ] so i want to talk about this book, "a colony in a nation." this was inspired by 2000 -- which convention was it? >> it was 2000. >> seth: the democratic convention? >> the republican convention in philadelphia. >> seth: philadelphia. and you accidently had weed on

you. >> i did. i -- my -- >> seth: like somebody accidently put it there? >> yeah. it showed up there. >> seth: gotcha. >> no, my father-in-law is a reporter in chicago, a guy named andy shaw. and he was covering the convention in philadelphia. my then girlfriend, now wife, and i decided it'll be interesting, civically, to go down. and we were going through the multi-layered checkpoint, and i've got my bag. and at one point we go through one checkpoint and i think oh, my goodness, i've got $30 worth of weed in an eyeglass case. >> seth: uh-huh. >> which was not -- i didn't normally carry around weed, but i happened to be at this moment. >> seth: yeah. >> and so -- [ light laughter ] hi, mom. [ laughter ] >> seth: yeah, exactly. >> and so we go through, you know, these checkpoints. finally, we get to one. and there's a philly cop, he goes through my bag, he through each compartment, he takes out the eyeglass case, and he shakes it. and he opens it. and he turns around, and i'm like -- and i feel this panic. and i'm so panicked. and i so want to be delivered from the situation, i go up to my future father-in-law and i say, "uh, andy, the police just found weed in my bag."

[ light laughter ] and i was like, "why would you bring weed to the convention?" and at that very moment, they said, "sir, is this your bag?" and i am positive i'm going to grab and get handcuffed. and i take it and i go in the building. and i thought about that moment as i was in the streets of ferguson and in baltimore, covering all this stuff with policing in which there's this moment where things could have gone so differently. where this sort of mercy was extended to me, partly because i think the police officer said this is not dangerous, this person's not dangerous. they extend him the benefit of the doubt. this is going to be a hassle. and that benefit of the doubt, that moment, that judgment, that latitude that was granted to me is so different than the way the system operates on so many other people. >> seth: so explain what "a colony in a nation", where that comes from and where we currently are in this nation as far as our colony and our nation. >> so richard nixon, 1968, gives this speech, this sort famous law and order speech at the miami republican convention. and he's talking about law and order. and at one point, he sort of

says as an aside, you know, he says, black people in this country want to be equal and they don't want to be just sort of recipients of state aid. they don't want to be a colony in a nation. and i read that phrase as i was thinking of writing this book, and i had seen in ferguson and seen in baltimore, a relationship between citizens and police that looked much more like the subjects of a colonizing or occupying army, and they're occupiers. and that phrase stuck in my head that what we have created in many respects is precisely a colony in a nation. we've created a sort of compartmentalized part of american life in which the law functions on people the way that occupation does. and it's a kind of relationship that our founders themselves rebelled against when they fought the revolution. >> seth: donald trump talks about himself as a law and order -- [ applause ] yeah, absolutely. donald trump talks about himself as a law and order candidate. this feels a lot more -- you sort of draw the distinction between what law is and what order is and how he is far more order than law. >> this is to me the key point. that when we hear that phrase law and order, they run together in our head, right?

but the law is a complicated thing. and when people say, well, this unauthorized immigrant has broken the law. my response to them always is, have you broken the law? have you broken the law? and the answer to that question is yes. to everyone sitting in this room and everyone watching at home, the answer is yes. you've driven over the speed limit. you've gotten behind the wheel with one too many drinks. you've maybe stolen a candy bar as a teenager. there are so many ways in which the way we enforce the law is dependent on how we think about the social order and who threatens it. and what law and order functionally does is it maintains a certain kind of social work. and we're seeing that, we saw that in the 40,50 years, we've built the largest prison system in the world. and we're seeing that now under the trump administration. >> seth: it's a fantastic book. the timing is perfect. your previous book, i will say, "the twilight of the elites" also incredibly well-timed. you're very good at it. [ light laughter ] >> well, it was a little too early, actually. [ light laughter ] >> seth: yeah, it was too early. you wrote -- it was like a prequel. like, eight years before it really hit home. so thanks so much for being here, man. it's always a pleasure. >> thanks, seth. really appreciate it. [ cheers and applause ]

>> seth: chris hayes, everybody. "all in" airs weeknights on msnbc and "a colony in a nation" is in stores tomorrow. we'll be right back. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ i love you so much, that's why i bought

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[ cheers and applause ] >> seth: my thanks to will forte, jay bilas, chris hayes, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] charlie benante and, of course, the 8g band. stay tuned for carson daly. we'll see you tomorrow. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> carson: good evening, i'm cason daly and you have tuned into "last call" from the time new yorek hotel, a beautiful spot. we got a good one for you tonight. randy liedtke is gonna get our comedy spotlight treatment.