David Folkenflik

And at the same time, you know, we live in a slightly different age.

Well, look, the Ellisons, David Ellison, his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are very close to President Trump.

President Trump has made clear he cares very much about what happens to CNN.

You've seen the owners of The L.A.

Times, The Washington Post and the Ellisons themselves at CBS alter and reconfigure their news properties to placate Trump.

and his allies in the current moment.

And Trump has shown he's willing to interfere with corporate maneuvering like the one we're seeing play out right now.

President Trump has said that he's very interested in the fate of CNN.

He's sort of indicated that he will and then he won't and that he might play a role in this, as he has in so many corporate transactions in his return to office over the past 13 months.

And this is, I think, as high a profile one as you can imagine.

After all, the Ellisons only took over Paramount last summer.

And that was after they made a number of concessions that appealed to the Trump administration.

The Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, was the co-founder of Oracle.

He's been a financial backer and advisor to Trump.

And they're hoping that, you know, glides the path here as well.

Sure.

And we have some competing versions of exactly what happened.

But as we heard that excerpt, Colbert came out to his audience and said, we can't present to you this interview.

We were told by lawyers that it's not possible and that if we did, we'd have to

offer his two leading competitors in the Democratic primary for the U.S.