“I thought we knew this…there’s nothing really too new in this book.”The week after his explosive book, Fire and Fury, hit shelves, author and THR contributor Michael Wolff joined Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to talk about the revelations made in his in-depth look at President Donald Trump's White House.
“You know he’s watching," Wolff told Colbert as he joined the CBS host on stage, referring to Trump tuning in at home.
Monday night's guest spot on the Late Show marked Wolff's first appearance on late night since Fire and Fury was released. The book focuses on Wolff's insider access to Trump's White House for the past year, calling it "insane." Trump dismissed the book as "full of lies" on Twitter and threatened Wolff with legal action after the book was published. Last Thursday, Trump's attorney Charles Harder sent an 11-page legal demand that alleges that Wolff's inside look at White House dysfunction amounts to defamation, false light invasion of privacy and an inducement of breach of Steve Bannon's written agreement with Trump's presidential campaign.
When asked if he knew his book would be a best seller, Wolff said he was surprised. “I thought we knew this,” Wolff said of alleged dysfunction in the Trump White House. “I kept saying before this came out to my publisher…there’s nothing really too new in this book.”
“It’s the Trump White House, everybody is lying in their own particularly way because that’s what you do in the Trump White House,” Wolff continued.
Colbert then told Wolff of his impressions of the book. “I’m deeply conflicted when I read this. I enjoy it, but it upsets me,” Colbert explained. “You don’t have sourcing, so how much should I believe?”
“You should believe all of it, that’s the scary thing,” Wolff replied. “This is all true.”
When Colbert asked Wolff why he didn’t release the recordings he made during his time in the White House, Wolff responded, “I’m not in the recording business. I’m in the writing business.”
Colbert asked Wolff if there was anything that gave him hope during his time there, to which Wolff responded, “No. This is alarming in every way.”