CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders to The Late Show for the nineteenth and hopefully final time on Tuesday for an obnoxiously long, four-segment softball interview covering everything from Colbert’s employer to Venezuela to Minnesota to socialism.
Early on, Colbert put the ball on the tee, “As long as I've got you here, as long as I've got you here, I think we all understandably say what an authoritarian society is. It's an abuse of authority, really, for people's own personal gain. When we say oligarchic society, when we say oligarchy, just define for everybody what you mean by that.”
Sanders declared, “Okay. They go together, actually. An oligarchy is a nation where a small number of incredibly wealthy people control the economy, control media, and we have some experience with that right here on CBS. And they control the political system.”
After his usual rantings against rich people, Sanders returned to the media, “So, you add ownership of media, which is becoming more and more concentrated. Right-wing people buying media, owning social media. Mr. Musk owns X. Zuckerberg owns... Meta. Right. Ellison now owns Paramount and CBS. You add all those things up, what you end up with a really small number of people with incredible wealth and incredible power.”
Later, Colbert shifted the conversation to Venezuela, “You were talking about Venezuela a little bit earlier. Obviously this interest in Greenland comes on the heels of having gone into Venezuela and snatching Maduro. Who's in charge now, as far as you know? Is that Delcy Rodriguez, or is it some sort of shadowy group of people in the United States because we don't get a clear answer when reporters ask direct questions.”
After Sanders guessed the latter, Colbert continued, “Does that mean people like—is it JD Vance? Is it Marco Rubio? Is it the head of Chevron? Who is it?”
Sanders then made an obscene analogy when he compared capturing Maduro to Putin invading Ukraine:
Well, I mean, certainly the oil companies, some of them at least, are excited about the opportunity to enjoy rampant imperialism. And what bothered me most about what Trump did, is not only that it was illegal and unconstitutional. If you, under—for no pretext can invade and attack another country, the United States can no longer say to any other country on Earth that you can't do that. Alright. All of us, many of us have condemned Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine and the hundreds of thousands of people that are suffering there. It was a barbaric act. How do you criticize Putin? How do you criticize anybody who says, 'We have our reasons, and we're going to attack another country, and the United States can't say a word about it because that's what you did'?
Maduro was a dictator who was under federal indictment for drug trafficking. Putin invaded Ukraine because he thinks Ukraine’s independence was a mistake, and the invasion shows that Sanders’s insistence on norms against aggression is not sufficient to deter people like Putin.
However, the bizarre analogies were just beginning. Further along, Colbert turned to Minnesota, “The Pentagon is putting 1,500 troops on standby for a potential deployment to Minnesota after an ICE agent killed unarmed, non-violent mother of three, Renee Good. You’ve said her death reminds you of January 6th. What do you mean by that?”
Sanders huffed, “In this sense, first of all, what ICE is doing under Trump, under Trump, this is Trump's directive, they are -- have invaded the city of Minneapolis. Their goal is to intimidate every person in this country, that if you stand up, you are in trouble because the military is coming.”
He also wailed, “And now you have a woman, mother of three, sitting in an automobile, shot in the head by an ICE agent, and the Trump people label her a domestic terrorist. So, it is the Big Lie that we hear over and over again which is part of what authoritarianism… look, in a democracy, we're going to have differences of opinion. You know what? That's a good thing. But these differences have got to be based on a foundation of truth. And not constant lies. And that is what the Trump people do.”
It’s ironic that Sanders was lamenting the state of CBS earlier in the interview, despite it being the worst of the three major networks in their Minnesota coverage. Sanders and Colbert should probably refrain from accusing other people of spreading lies about Minnesota, given their reluctance to accept certain facts about Good and her wife’s actions before she was shot.
Finally, Colbert gushed, “This is a red-letter day for you. Here you are administering the oath of office to Mayor Mamdani and I just—you’ve been fighting, you've been carrying the banner of democratic socialists for a long time. What was that like to swear in the first democratic socialist mayor of a major city?”
After Sanders claimed, “It was enormously gratifying,” Colbert added, “In a recent poll, a recent Gallup poll, 66 percent of Democrats had a favorable view of democratic socialism. Up significantly over the last year. Why do you think that is?”
Sanders didn’t actually answer the question and instead focused on praising Mamdani, “When he started campaign, it's not only that he's really obviously smart, incredibly energetic, really good with people, really good politician.”
As Colbert interjected to add “cute,” Sanders rolled on, “Cute, alright, well. He started at one percent in the polls. One percent. He was taking on the Democratic establishment, Republican establishment, president of the United States, and all the oligarchs prepared to spend zillions of dollars to beat him. He took them all on and he won.”
Perhaps if Colbert didn’t turn The Late Show into a progressive talk show, he would not be losing CBS as much money as he is. And if that were so, then perhaps CBS wouldn’t have canceled him.
Here is a transcript for the January 20 show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
1/20/2026
11:57 PM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: As long as I've got you here, as long as I've got you here, I think we all understandably say what an authoritarian society is. It's an abuse of authority, really, for people's own personal gain. When we say oligarchic society, when we say oligarchy, just define for everybody what you mean by that.
BERNIE SANDERS: Okay. They go together, actually. An oligarchy is a nation where a small number of incredibly wealthy people control the economy, control media, and we have some experience with that right here on CBS. And they control the political system. So, you add it all together, today we have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had in the history of America.
So, you've got the top one percent owning more wealth than the bottom 93 percent. One man, Mr. Musk, one man, owning more wealth than the bottom 52 percent of American households.
Alright, and then you have a political system, alright. These guys not only want to control the economy. They want to control the political system. So, you have a corrupt political system as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. So that billionaires like Mr. Musk can spend $270 million to elect Trump. There are Democratic billionaires also putting money into the political process. And ordinary people, they say "I've got one vote. I can spend millions of dollars to elect a candidate."
So, you add ownership of media, which is becoming more and more concentrated. Right-wing people buying media, owning social media. Mr. Musk owns X. Zuckerberg owns—
COLBERT: Facebook and Instagram.
SANDERS: Right. Meta. Right. Ellison now owns Paramount and CBS. You add all those things up, what you end up with a really small number of people with incredible wealth and incredible power. Stephen, that is what oligarchy is about.
COLBERT: And that goes together with authoritarianism as the chocolate and peanut butter of terrible ideas.
…
COLBERT: You were talking about Venezuela a little bit earlier. Obviously this interest in Greenland comes on the heels of having gone into Venezuela and snatching Maduro. Who's in charge now, as far as you know? Is that Delcy Rodriguez, or is it some sort of shadowy group of people in the United States because we don't get a clear answer when reporters ask direct questions.
SANDERS: Probably a shadowy group of people in the United States.
COLBERT: Does that mean people like—is it JD Vance? Is it Marco Rubio? Is it the head of Chevron? Who is it?
SANDERS: Well, I mean, certainly the oil companies, some of them at least, are excited about the opportunity to enjoy rampant imperialism. And what bothered me most about what Trump did, is not only that it was illegal and unconstitutional. If you, under — for no pretext can invade and attack another country, the United States can no longer say to any other country on Earth that you can't do that. Alright. All of us, many of us have condemned Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine and the hundreds of thousands of people that are suffering there. It was a barbaric act. How do you criticize Putin? How do you criticize anybody who says, 'We have our reasons, and we're going to attack another country, and the United States can't say a word about it because that's what you did'?
So, it unleashes international anarchy. Might makes right. You want to blow up a building? Hey, you can do that. That's what scares me about this.
…
COLBERT: The Pentagon is putting 1,500 troops on standby for a potential deployment to Minnesota after an ICE agent killed unarmed, non-violent mother of three, Renee Good. You’ve said her death reminds you of January 6th. What do you mean by that?
SANDERS: In this sense, first of all, what ICE is doing under Trump, under Trump, this is Trump's directive, they are — have invaded the city of Minneapolis. Their goal is to intimidate every person in this country, that if you stand up, you are in trouble because the military is coming. Alright? And I've got to tell you this is repellent to the vast majority of the American people. Now in terms of—authoritarianism also, it's all of the things I mentioned but it is also propagating the Big Lie, all right? So, you say black and it's white. You say white and it's black. So, for January 6th, we had a radical group of insurrectionists trying to destroy democracy and undermine a free election, that's what they did.
Trump turns around and says these were peaceful demonstrators.
And now you have a woman, mother of three, sitting in an automobile, shot in the head by an ICE agent, and the Trump people label her a domestic terrorist.
So, it is the Big Lie that we hear over and over again which is part of what authoritarianism, what I believe, you believe, think the vast majority of the American people believe is, look, in a democracy, we're going to have differences of opinion. You know what? That's a good thing. But these differences have got to be based on a foundation of truth. And not constant lies. And that is what the Trump people do.
…
COLBERT: Okay, this is a red-letter day for you. Here you are administering the oath of office to Mayor Mamdani and I just—you’ve been fighting, you've been carrying the banner of democratic socialists for a long time. What was that like to swear in the first democratic socialist mayor of a major city?
SANDERS: It was enormously gratifying.
COLBERT: In a recent poll, a recent Gallup poll, 66 percent of Democrats had a favorable view of democratic socialism. Up significantly over the last year. Why do you think that is?
SANDERS: Well, let me tell you I love Mamdani. When he started campaign, it's not only that he's really obviously smart, incredibly energetic, really good with people, really good politician—
COLBERT: Cute.
SANDERS: Cute, alright, well. He started at one percent in the polls. One percent. He was taking on the Democratic establishment, Republican establishment, president of the United States, and all the oligarchs prepared to spend zillions of dollars to beat him. He took them all on and he won. And he won, he won not just because he is good, which he is, but because he had 90,000 volunteers in New York City knocking on doors. So what excited me and I think he's going to be a great mayor and I look forward to working with him. What excited me was a strong grassroots movement, took on the establishment and won. They did it in New York City. We can do it in every state in this country.
