--- title: Watch Colbert on Jeff Sessions Russia Controversy VIDEO description: Stephen Colbert devoted his Late Show monologue to Jeff Sessions' announcement that he would recuse himself from any Russia investigations. canonical: https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-03T15:45:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:35.488Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Lays Into Jeff Sessions for Russia Controversy og:description: "Why did you volunteer to lie?" og:url: https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64ab8485e5e60a25/6988bc8bab6d77604d6ad0c1/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Lays Into Jeff Sessions for Russia Controversy twitter:description: "Why did you volunteer to lie?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64ab8485e5e60a25/6988bc8bab6d77604d6ad0c1/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Sinks His Teeth Into Jeff Sessions About the Trump Administration's Russia Controversy  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 3, 2017 3:45 PM UTC  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in New York, on Feb 15, 2017. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in New York, on Feb 15, 2017.Gail Schulman—CBS/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 3, 2017 3:45 PM UTC Following [Attorney General Jeff Sessions’](http://time.com/4689861/donald-trump-russia-washington-moscow/) announcement that he would [recuse himself](http://time.com/4689492/jeff-sessions-russia-recuse/) from any investigations into the [Trump campaign’s ties with Russia](http://time.com/4689790/russia-trump-kislyak-sessions/), Stephen Colbert devoted the opening monologue of Thursday’s episode of _The Late Show_ to explaining why this wouldn’t be necessary. Referencing the fact that Sessions denied being in contact with the Russian government at his confirmation hearing despite having met with the Russian ambassador [twice during the 2016 election](http://time.com/4689790/russia-trump-kislyak-sessions/), the host had some strong words about his decision. “You called yourself a campaign surrogate, then you lied under oath that you never met with the Russians,” Colbert said. “So you don’t have to recuse yourself. You’ve already f–ked yourself.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Sinks His Teeth Into Jeff Sessions About the Trump Administration's Russia Controversy","datePublished":"2017-03-03T15:45:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:35.488Z","description":"\"Why did you volunteer to lie?\"","url":"https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","politics","stephen colbert","TV","Donald Trump","the late show","Late Night Television","Jeff Sessions","the late show wih stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64ab8485e5e60a25/6988bc8bab6d77604d6ad0c1/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64ab8485e5e60a25/6988bc8bab6d77604d6ad0c1/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","caption":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","creditText":"Gail Schulman—CBS/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4690004/colbert-on-sessions-russia/","name":"Stephen Colbert Sinks His Teeth Into Jeff Sessions About the Trump Administration's Russia Controversy"}}]}] ```