well, thank you for watching, the late show captioning sponsored by cbs >> several republican lawmakers recently have been defending the current accessibility of assault-style weapons. >> a lot of people for purposes of going out, target shooting. in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs. >> why does someone need an ar-15? >> well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs and, you know, whatever, the middle of louisiana >> pretty small animals. probably don't need assault weapons to kill them.

>> did you know the republican senator who said people need assault rifles to hunt feral hogs has received almost $2.9 million in donations from the n.r.a.? >> announcer: it's "the late show with stephen colbert." tonight: plus, stephen welcomes:

congressman adam schiff chiwetel ejiofor and musical guest kurt vile 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 ) >> stephen: hey! ♪ ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, one and all, to "the late show." i am your host, stephen colbert. and i-- ( cheers and applause ). you feel that?

you feel that? that is raw, uncut, blue flake excitement because everybody knows tomorrow night, at long last, the public hearings on the january 6 insurrection will finally kick off. they'll be broadcast here on cbs, and afterward, "the late show" will be live! boom! ( applause ) so tomorrow night, tune in to watch me talk about what happened, when they were talking about what happened on the day we all said, "what the hell just happened?" ( laughter ) ( applause ) tomorrow night-- starting tomorrow-- for two weeks, right? it's two weeks of hearings, right? starting tomorrow and for two weeks of these public hearing,s this is a crucial opportunity for the american people to learn the full depth and breadth of the former president's months- long, violent conspiracy to overthrow a free election and

remain in power. hanging over the hearings is one question that could define the future of our republic: who cares? >> there are all kinds of distractions before the american people, and so i think that they need to hear something new, things that they haven't heard before. >> they just need to focus the public's attention on it. >> they have to grip the american public. >> they need to make this really a compelling narrative. >> it doesn't have to look like "top gun." you want to find that sweet spot in the middle. >> stephen: yeah, it doesn't have to look like "top gun," inlay hot shirtl cu thihearings only matter if people are hearing them, which is why we at "the late show" have put together a promo guaranteed to put the asses in the tv seats. jim? >> thursday, thursday, thursday! under the capitol megadome!

it's the hearings on january 6! 6, 6, 6! a constitution-crushing lineup of insurrectionist mayhem, featuring explosive revelations about the wine gremlin. the oxy-ogre. and whoever the hell this is. bring in the pain of former president schmuck-a-tsars. need more to make you care about the fall of democracy? how about the thing you cra ft "th is us.sode is ♪ ♪ ♪ still want more? how abou b with $2 gas. only you can say democracy like the founders intended, by watching tv!

>> stephen: now, we will learn more-- ( applause ) sure. see people are-- people are excited, jon. we will learn more about what to expect from our guest tonight, california democrat and committee member adam schiff. ( cheers and applause ) is is going to be right over there tonight. >> jon: adam is here. >> stephen: he's on the show tonight. that's the kind of show we run here. he's going to grease us with all the hot. treason. goss. i really hope he does that. we're also getting more details about the ex-president's plans for that terrible, terrible day. you might remember at the rally, when he riled up the mob to march on the capitol? >> we're going to walk down-- and i'll be there with you-- we're going to walk down. we're going to walk down. >> stephen: of course, he didn't.p ( laughter ) of all the lies he has ever told, none was more obvious than "i'm going for a walk." ( laughter )

( applause ) now, remember-- ( applause ) ♪ ♪ ♪ remember, the president's cronies have claimed over and over again for the past 17 months that they couldn't have predicted what was gonna happen, that the crowd marching on the capitol was just a spontaneous outburst of patriotic zip ties and body armor. but we just learned that is just as big a lie as his oath of office, because the january 6 committee has uncovered that the former president put nearly two weeks of persistent pressure on the secret service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on the march to the capitol. two weeks. so he knew exactly what he was doing... ( audience booing ) is a sentence i never thought i would say about the former president. now, he may be putting that-- ( applause )

now he may be putting the pressure on, but the secret service said, "sorry, you can't." but then, on january 6, the former president went onstage and said "hey, let's do it anyway." so, the secret service scrambled to look into a motorcade that would escort him to the capitol, but ultimately, scuttled the idea as "untenable" and "unsafe"-- coincidentally, also the secret service code names for don jr. and eric. ( laughter ) ( applause ) i think that's right, untenable and unsafe. it's too bad. i would have loved to see him struggle up the capitol steps, batting away cops with a k.f.c. drumstick, only to try to heave himself through the window and get stuck "winnie the pooh" style. ( laughter ) ( applause ) hang some tea towels, put somantlers on it. we've got an update on the plague. no, not that one, the other one. and i'll catch you up in the

latest installment of my twice-running segment: >> dawn of the planet of the monkeypox. >> you got to tell them monkeypox is people! >> stephen: up to this point, experts have repeatedly said that this virus can be transmitted by close contact, like sexual intercourse. but now they're saying monkeypox can be airborne, too. i'm being told we have footage of the scientists making the discovery. >> fly! fly! ( applause ) >> stephen: the fact that monkeypox can be transmitted through aerosols makes it similar to the coronavirus.

no, no, no! i can't go back to lysol-ing all my monkeys. ( laughter ) in happier news, inflation. ( laughter ) i didn't say "happy." i said happier than monkeypox. ( laughter ) understandably, people are sick of paying higher prices, so corporate america has come up with a clever solution: quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices, in a phenomenon called shrinkflation. in their defense, corporations say, "the water's just very cold." these manufacturers think they can get away with it, because they assume customers will notice price increases but won't keep track of small details, like the number of sheets on a roll of toilet paper. well, maybe people wont, but those damn bears sure will! they're obsessed with rectal hygiene! they talk about it as a "family!" it's upsetting to watch! ( laughter ) ( applause )

now, folger's-- i don't want to know. i don't want to know! don't do it in the woods! folger's coffee recently downsized its 51-ounce container to 43.5 ounces. ( audience booing ) >> stephen: yeah. ( laughter ) explains their new jingle: ♪ the best part of waking up is nothing in your cup ♪. ( laughter ). >> stephen: but-- beautiful. but the most troubling change is that bags of fritos scoops marked "party size" used to be 18 ounces, but now they are 15.5 ounces. ( audience booing ) et tu, frito? 15.5 ounces isn't a party. it's barely a gathering. when i crack open a party-size bag of fritos, i do the right thing and eat the whole damn bag by myself

( applause ) yeah, yeah! yeah! this is america. lan land of the free-tos. but now, with the smaller bag, i'll be 2.5 ounces short of total shame. so i'll have to open up a second bag, and then i'll finish that one because, again, freedom. but now, after two bags, 31 ounces of fritos deep, i feel terrible about myself. and there's only one thing that can make me feel better: another bag of fritos! this way lies madness. ( applause ) and onion dip. they thought we wouldn't find out! but we did! >> i knew it was you, frito. >> stephen: we've got a great show for you tonight. my guests are chiwetel ejiofor,

but when we return, from the january 6th committee congressman adam schiff. stick around. ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause )

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) >> stephen: welcome back, everybody. give it up for jon batiste and stay human! that's all! jon, jon, jon. >> jon: hello. >> stephen: a quick reminder we're going to be live tomorrow night, here in the ed sullivan theater, following the prime-time january 6 committee opening presentations. it's going to be fascinating. i cannot wait. >> jon: i wonder what's going to happen. >> stephen: i hope they educate us, educate us. tonight we have coming out here in a moment, a brilliant actor, chiwetel ejiofor will be here tonight. >> jon: yes, indeed. >> stephen: but, before any of that, my first guest sont is a seasoned investigator who has served as a california

congressman for over 20 years. please welcome back to "the late show," congressman adam schiff! ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) >> stephen: thank you, sir. thank you for being here. i know you and the rest of the january 6 committee are extraordinarily busy right now, preparing for tomorrow's prime-time broadcast of the congressional hearings. we've seen a lot of hearings over the last five years, two impeachment hearings. we've seen the mueller hearings. how are these hearings that are going to kick off tomorrow night different? >> they'll be different in a number of respects. the mueller hearing was essentially one witness speaking

in very-- well, abriefated fashion before the committee, very little in terms of audio or visual, other elements to that hearing. even the ukraine hearings incorporated documentary evidence in additional live testimony. but both were characterized by vigorous in-fighting among committee members. this investigation has been utterly nonpartisan. we have been singulary devoted to pursuing the truth, so you're going to see none of the kind of bickering that usually characterizes congressional hearings. we're going to see live testimony. you're going to see videotape testimony from other interviews or depositions. audio evidence, documentary evidence, hopefully woven together in a way that tells the story of how a president of the united states and his enablers, for the first time in history, attempted, through a multifaceted campaign, to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

we want the public to understand how close we came to losing our democracy. and most important, the fact that we are not out of the woods. it would be one thing if what started on january 6 or culminated on january 6, the violent attack had ended on the sixth. it didn't end. the effort to use the lie that resulted in that violence has continued. and if anything, our democracy is even more vulnerable today than it was on january 6. >> stephen: now, you guys hired a fancy tv producer, a guy who used to work at abc, to help with the broadcast. in what way is this fella helping you? and, secondly, did you think you needed a fancy tv producer because the american people aren't interested in whether democracy survives? >> we're not commenting on the internal staffing or how we're structuring the hearings, beyond a certain degree. but, look, this is a very

different era than watergate. i wish we were back in the day when the american public would sit for hours and hours at a time and watch hearings of national consequence, and they would be presented, you know, by major networks, rather than, you know, the talking heads on fox news. but we're in a different world now, where most people get their information from social media, where we have to be able to tell the story in an engaging way, tell it in a limited period of time. the challenge we have is we have interviewed over 1,000 people. we've gathered over 100,000 documents. there's no shortage of evidence to present to the public. and the question is how do we present it in a way that is engaging, that tells the story in a clear, compelling way? and that's what we're aiming at, just a straight retelling of what hnesohat e public, which knows a lot already. it knows a piece here and a piece there. but hasn't seen how it all fits

together. there were efforts to decapitate the leadership of the justice department and get it to do the president's will. there were efforts to put pressure on state and local elections officials that result in the creation of fakeex lectors. there were pressures of course for the vice president. they came together in the violent attack, that last-ditch effort to slow or stop the transfer of power. and what we aim to do is to tell that story and do it in a way that will hold the public's attention. >> stephen: that's what-- what you're saying is an important point here is that while it's called "the january 6 committee," you guys are actually studying months of--ile use the term "conspiracy." months of conspiring in order to overturn a free and fair election that was a slow-motion coup that we watched happen that predictably resulted in january 6. the only people who didn't see something like this coming were deluding themselves.

and my concern is that we all saw this happen with our eyes. we saw what was happening in the months leading up to it, all the lies and the denial and the subterfuge that was happening. my concern is that we will get a lot more evidence of the things that we already know. what i'm hoping we'll get evidence of things we didn't know, that we'll see a completer picture that could possibly be change the minds of someone out there. will we learn things that we did not know, actions, events, parts of a conspiracy that we have not seen before? >> you will certainly learn a great many things that are not in the public arena already. but you're right, the public knows a lot already, and what is so challenging and has been really since the beginning of this trumpest era is that the public is exposed to one shock after another, one incredible and tragic breakdown of our democratic system after another.

and you get numb with it. and i think the challenge for our committee is to break through that, o grab opthe lapee close to losing our democracy." >> stephen: we have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with more congressman adam schiff. ♪ ♪ ♪ schiff. ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) when our daughter and her kids moved i don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. hi, i'm nancy. i've lost over 80 pounds with golo. i have tried to lose weight in the past and i've lost 80 pounds several times, but i was not able to maintain it. with golo, i've maintained this weight loss for over a year. it just works.

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>> stephen: hey, everybody, we're back here with a member of the january 6 committee, congressman adam schiff. what is the worst-case scenario here? let's say this january 6 committee didn't exist. there wasn't an investigation. what if people don't care about what they learn? when you say, "lose our democracy," i've heard that phrase a lot. i've used that phrase a lot. it means something to me. what does it mean to you? what are you describing in losing our democracy? >> well, one of the goals, i think of the former president and his enablers is to succeed where they failed in 2020. in 2020, they incited a violent attack on the capitol. they tried to coerce state and local elections officials to overturn the result. they tried any number of means to stop the most important part of a democracy, which is the peaceful transfer of power. what they seem to have learned is that maybe a violent attack on the capitol is not the best way to undermine a democracy. maybe the best way is to make it really hard for people to vote. and even when they do vote, if

they don't vote your way, make it easy for partisan legislatures to overturn the results or drive local merotacrattic officials out of town with death threats, replace them with people who basically will be stooges of the former president. that's how you lose a democracy. >> stephen: but haven't those things already happened? >> those things are happening. we're pushing back. we're fighting back. and we need to, i think, alert the country that this is anything on. the reason the system held-- and it didn't hold by much-- is that there were a lot of very principled elections officials around the country, including a lot of republicans, who stuck their neck out, who continue to stick their neck out, and say, you know, we're going to uphold our democracy in the way it's supposed to work, whoever wins and whoever loses. but those people are at risk. and we need to sound the alarm. >> stephen: tomorrow, we'll hear from two-- ( applause )

tomorrow we'll hear from nick quested and officer carolyn edwards. who are they and why are they important to the story? >> carolyn edwards is a rank and file capitol police officer. she was among the first assaulted, brutally assaulted on january 6. and her testimony, i think, will be a powerful reminder of what that day was really like, that this was not a normal tourist day. this was not legitimate political discourse. there were over 100 capitol police officers and metropolitan police officers who were badly beaten, gouged, bear sprayed, and who suffered and continue to suffer serious injuries as a result. nick quested is a documentary filmmaker who was present on january 5 and 6, has some footage the public has never seen. >> stephen: is he the guy who was following around the proud boys? >> he does have footage-- i

think he was embedded with some of these groups. and he will be sharing that footage and testimony. i can't go into any of the specifics of it. >> stephen: that's fine, you can go into specifics. that's all right with me. ( laughter ). >> but you have two very, i think, important eyewitnesses that can share with the public and remind them again about the horrors of that day. and also who was there and the participation of these white nationalist groups. >> stephen: we have to take a break, but when we come back, i will ask the congressman what the best possible outcome of these hearings could be. stick around. ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) ♪and then this vegan bakery came sliding down my screen♪ ♪and eva joan repair appeared and tightened up my seams♪ ♪voila marché rue dix remixed french tips and squid cuisine♪ ♪renowned♪ ♪endless, lit, infinite possibilities♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) >> stephen: hey, everybody, we're back here with a member of the january 6 committee, congressman adam schiff. now, there have been a couple of indictments of people who have defied the subpoena. navarro this week. bannon previously. but this week, the d.o.j.-- or last week, the d.o.j. declined to charge mark meadows and dan scavino, who were both acting white house chief of staff, and scavino was a counselor of the president of some regard. what is your reaction to the d.o.j. not enforcing the

subpoenas on those two men? >> deeply disappointed and alarmed. because if the department of justice is unwilling to prosecute people who are in flagrant contempt of congress, then it's going to breed further contempt. other people simply deciding they, too, don't need to show up. that a subpoena is, well, maybe i will, maybe i won't. the reality is both of them have very direct evidence relevant to our investigation. both of them have evidence and lines of questions we want to ask them that don't involve any conceivable privilege. so to me the decision of the department is inexplicable, and it doesn't, i think, herald good news in terms of accountability because if the department is unwilling to prosecute people who are in obvious contempt of congress, then what about the more serious crimes involving the efforts to overturn the election? >> stephen: at the end of this

investigation, on the 23rd, which i believe is the last night, which will also be in prime time, what is the best-case scenario? what do you hope the outcome of this is? >> i hope the outcome is that for americans that have an open mind, that they will see all of the different efforts that were made to interfere with a free and fair election by the former president and others to irrigate to themselveses will the decision. forget about what millions and millions of americans voted for. it's our inherent right to power. we're going to overturn the election. we'll use violence if necessary. i hope they see just how dangerous that was. i hope that it puts to rest for anyone with an open mind just the extraordinary danger and disaster that was january 6 and what led to it. but mostly, i hope that it

motivates people to take action to protect our democracy. because we will take action in congress. we will work on elect torral account acts and other forms, and we maintain succeed in getting passed. but ultimately, it's up to the citizenry to protect our democracy. and if we can engage the public and show them the peril and motivate them to do something, then i will consider it a great success. ( applause ). >> stephen: congressman, good luck tomorrow and over the next several weeks. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> stephen: congressman adam schiff, everybody! we'll be right back with chiwetel ejiofor. ♪♪ making friends again, billy? i like to keep my enemies close. guys, excuse me. i didn't quite get that. i'm hard of hearing. ♪♪ oh hey, don't forget about the tense music too.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) >> stephen: welcome back, everybody! folks, ladies and gentlemen, my next guest is a brilliant actor you know from "kinky boots," "12 years a slave," and "doctor strange in the multiverse of madness." he now stars in "the man who fell to earth." >> you're a dinosaur. >> excuse me. >> it's a good thing. justin has a child who quite

brilliantly announced that everyone on earth is either an alien or a dinosaur. if you're a dinosaur, you've been on the planet for a long, long time, lived many lives. you are wise, very tough, you know the terrain, you know how to survive. alien, essentially, just arr arrived, doesn't have any of that. but does have perspective. >> and you are? >> an alien. >> stephen: please welcome to "the late show," chiwetel ejiofor! ♪ ♪ ♪ ( applause ) ( cheers and applause )

>> stephen: thanks for being here. >> real pleasure, real pleasure to be here. >> stephen: nice to have you on. you star in "the man who fell to earth." and people may know this as a film some 45 years ago with david bowie, who plays an alien who comes to the planet. this isn't a remake, right? >> no, this is-- this is a sequel of sorts, you know, this is 40 years after the events of the film, "the man who fell to earth." and so, it just picks up the story, expands these characters and carries on telling this kind of remarkable tell of-- you know, this is another anthean, and i'm an antheanplaying faraday. and it picks up faraday's story as he comes to earth. >> stephen: how do you prepare as an actor to play as a person

who has no knowledge of human existence? how do you get the back story on a literal alien? >> it's interesting because, you know, you can't really-- you can't-- obviously, you can't base it on anything in a way. you've got to find your own-- you can only play your own alien, you know, is the thing. ( laughter ). >> stephen: sure. >> so you've kind of got to-- you've kind of got to find your inner alien. >> stephen: i can imagine sometimes in my life when i felt like an alien. >> exactly. >> stephen: have you felt like an alien? >> totally. i think that's the thing that you find-- i think everybody has. everybody has had those moments when you feel like you're on the outside looking in to a circumstance. and those can be large issues. you know, my family immigrated to the u.k. from nigeria, in that kind of context, one can very easily understand the ideas of being alien, finding your feet in a new place. but i think it's like the first day at school. we all have these experience

where's we felt this way, and it's for me trying to play this part was really to look at those experiences, understand them sort of internally. and then just try and be free with it, you know, just try and really play what those emotions might lead to, what those feelings might be. >> stephen: you started performing at a pretty young age, right, i understand, 12, 13, something like that? >> about 13, yeah. >> stephen: i used to be an actor, as opposed to whatever this is. ( laughter ) and i had great eightienation, and i loved being on stage because it felt like home when the world didn't feel like home in many ways. i'm curious how it felt to you at that age when certainly going into your teenaged years, many people feel disconnected from their friends and anxious and not knowing what's happening to themselves and their place in the world. what did it provide you? >> well, it was an extraordinary form of self-expression, you know. the freedom of self expression

without fear of exposure -- >> stephen: say that again one more time. >> the freedom of self-expression without the fear of exposure. .>> stephen: that's beautifully parsed. give someone a mask and they can show you their real face. >> exactly. that's how i came to it. when i was at school we had a great theater, the edward alain theater, and i never went to it. i just never went. and we were doing a shakespeare play in english class, we were doing "henry iv part one" and i found myself intrigued by it. i turn and sort of drawn to this idea, and that's when i thought, you know, i wonder what this is all about, what this poetry, what this meaning is all about. i went to the theater and they were auditions for "measure for measure, "and i decided to do that, and that's when i started working as an actor-- well, doing plays.

i suppose working as an actor came later, but that's when i fell in love with it, with the idea of expressing myself, of the freedom to do that. >> stephen: i love the term "wet wednesday." it sounds like the british version of a taco tuesday. >> i think it might be the british version. >> stephen: you're also, you're also-- you're known for shakespeare. you won an olivier award for playing "otello." but you're also in the marvel universe. i'm just curious what shakespeare play you think would best translate to the mcu? >> that's a very good question. >> stephen: that's all i do. that's all i do. >> that's a very good question. all day, every day. >> stephen: all good questions. >> i think that there's so much shakespeare in the mcu, lay it in there the text to it, a rugged, shakespearean feel to it i think sometimes, all of the the kind of conflicts and the big sort of dramas and the fantasy of it all. >> stephen: and manicured

beards and capes. >> of course. so i think there are so many of them. i remember seeing "black panther" and thinking there are all the references to hamlet and the relationship to his father and the kingdom -- >> stephen: you were the ghost of his father. >> exactly. i think going further into the-- i know, you know, some of the-- some of the marvel universe goes into the kind of fantasies that would be like "a midsummer night's dream" sort of area, really pushing that kind of ethereal, magical realm of it all would be -- >> stephen: here's my pitch. >> okay. >> stephen: "the temptest," okay, because who is prospero, other than the sorcer supreme? >> that's genius. >> stephen: there are fights, there are storms. >> it might be what i've been looking for all this time. ( cheers and applause ). >> stephen: just some of my

ideas are from stephen colbert. that's all i ask for. new episodes of "the man who fell to earth" are available sundays on showtime. chiwetel ejiofor, everybody! we'll be right back with a performance by kurt vile.

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>> stephen: performing "mount airy hill (way gone)" from his album, "watch my moves," kurt vile and the violators! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ standing on top of mount airy hill

♪ thinkin' about flyin' ♪ been around but now i'm gone ♪ been gone but now i'm goin' down ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i was flyin' high through the night ♪ when the mornin' came

but i was gone ♪ if you know what i mean ♪ i was around but now i'm gone ♪ been done down but now i'm just ♪ way down low watch my moves ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i do the snake in the grass he do the wiggle it around now ♪ way down low i been around ♪ but now i'm gone

been gone ♪ but now i'm just way gone ♪ i been around but now i'm gone ♪ been gone but now i'm way gone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: check out another performance on colbertlateshow.com. kurt vile and the violators, everybody! that's it for "the late show." tune in tomorrow when we will be live following the january 6th committee's hearings. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org captioning sponsored by cbs ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ are you ready all to have some fun, ♪ on the show tonight, don't you worry baby ♪ where you come from, it'll be alright, ♪ it's "the late late show!"