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Michael Moore: I Cry Every Day When I Read the News

Colbert: We have a 'gerrymandered presidency' and 'gerrymandered Supreme Court'

June 29, 2018

Activist Michael Moore said he cries every day when he reads the news during an emotional interview on Thursday with late-night host Stephen Colbert.

Appearing to promote his new movie Fahrenheit 11/9, the liberal filmmaker was alternately despairing and fired up over the overall tenor of the Donald Trump administration and its border policies in particular.

"Where does this go?" Colbert asked. "We've got a gerrymandered Congress, because of the Electoral College, essentially a gerrymandered presidency, and therefore, you end up with a gerrymandered Supreme Court. What is the end game here, because you don't want to end this in anything violent, or some sort of really revolutionary confrontation. You want a political change at the end of this. Do you have any hope for that?"

Moore said he wouldn't appear on Colbert's show if he didn't have hope, but he then pivoted to asking Colbert a "personal question."

"When you read the paper every day, or you watch the news, do you ever cry? Do you ever tear up? Does this ever happen to you these days?" Moore asked.

"Sure. Of course," Colbert said.

"It happens to me now every day," Moore said.

Moore went on to say Trump plans to be re-elected and loves the term "president for life."

"When are people going to get off the couch, and when are we going to rise up?" Moore asked. "The only way that we're going to stop this is eventually we're all going to have to put our bodies on the line. You're going to have to be willing to do this."

Moore concluded his appearance with a message of hope to the left-leaning audience.

"The majority of our fellow Americans are liberal and we, the Democrats, have won the presidency, the popular vote, in six of the last seven presidential elections," he said. "The Republicans have only won once since 1988—in 2004, with [George W.] Bush. That’s the only time they’ve won the popular vote! The country we live in doesn’t want the Republicans in the White House!"

"That's right!" one audience member shouted.

"They don’t want them running this country! We’re the majority!" Moore shouted. "Electoral College, get rid of it! Get rid of it, Democrats!"

Moore also released a preview clip of Fahrenheit 11/9, a reference to the date Trump officially won the presidency—the election was Nov. 8, 2016, but he was not officially announced president-elect until the early hours of Nov. 9. It's also a play on the title of his 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which sharply criticized the George W. Bush administration.

The preview clip showed Moore trying to gain access to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and speak to Trump. Nothing else happened.