--- title: Stephen Colbert Is Pitting Rudy Giuliani Against Himself description: Colbert has a helpful way to explain Giuliani's changing opinion of Michael Cohen — and it involves 'Lord of the Rings,' of course. canonical: https://time.com/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-31T14:51:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:05.101Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Made Rudy Giuliani Debate Himself og:description: The comedy host has a new way to explain Giuliani's statements on Michael Cohen og:url: https://time.com/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Made Rudy Giuliani Debate Himself twitter:description: The comedy host has a new way to explain Giuliani's statements on Michael Cohen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen Colbert Made a Clip of Rudy Giuliani Having a Heated Debate With Rudy Giuliani > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=19c68f44-6488-43db-8fed-732186853837&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 31, 2018 2:51 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 31, 2018 2:51 PM UTC Rudy Giuliani is having a contentious few [weeks in the news.](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/30/17630148/giuliani-trump-tower-cohen-mueller-russia) And _Late Show_ host [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/5346761/stephen-colbert-on-trump-iran-tweet/) has a dramatization of the former [New York City mayor](http://time.com/5299599/giuliani-trump-mueller-investigation-pardon/)‘s [ongoing battle](http://time.com/5267466/john-oliver-rudy-giuliani-last-week-tonight/) with the media — and himself — as he continues to defend President Donald Trump against [allegations of collusion](http://time.com/5352628/donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-collusion-crime/) and questions of [recordings](http://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/) held by his former lawyer [Michael Cohen](http://time.com/5351036/donald-trump-denies-knowing-trump-tower-meeting/). To illustrate his changing position on the character of Cohen, Colbert tapped the beloved, tricky creature [Gollum](http://time.com/4854633/andy-serkis-reads-trump-tweets-video/) of _Lord of the Rings_ fame to show Giuliani’s two minds. (Gollum, famously possessed by his desire to reunite with his [“precious” ring](http://time.com/4216226/world-travel-movies-2/item/lord-of-the-rings-the-fellowship-of-the-ring/), often fights himself as he tries to decide whether to trust Frodo or destroy him.) In the _Late Show_ clip, Gollum and Giuliani’s disembodied head have a heated back-and-forth about the trustworthiness of Cohen, all based off of actual soundbites delivered by Giuliani. “I like Michael Cohen,” Gollum begins. “The man is a liar, a proven liar,” Giuliani-as-Gollum rebuts. “Michael’s not gonna lie, he’s gonna tell the truth.” “There’s nobody that I know that hasn’t warned me that if his back is up against the wall, he’ll lie like crazy. He’s lied all his life.” “The man is an honest, honorable lawyer.” “There’s no way you’re gonna bring down the President of the United States on the testimony, uncorroborated, of a proven liar.” Looks like Colbert has found one creative way to highlight some of Giuliani’s conflicting opinions of Cohen — although, given its foundation in literary myth, it might not hold up in court. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Made a Clip of Rudy Giuliani Having a Heated Debate With Rudy Giuliani","datePublished":"2018-07-31T14:51:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:05.101Z","description":"It's Gollum vs. Giuliani","url":"https://time.com/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/5353870/stephen-colbert-giuliani/","name":"Stephen Colbert Made a Clip of Rudy Giuliani Having a Heated Debate With Rudy Giuliani"}}]}] ```