The last time he was on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, Michael Moore said that that only way to stop President Donald Trump would be to “put our bodies on the line.” On Thursday night, he had issued a new challenge, this one to the 800,000 federal workers who are either furloughed or working without pay during the government shutdown.
“Any sane person—even if they're for the wall—knows this is crazy that we're in month two of this,” the director of Fahrenheit 11/9 said. “Nobody should be working without pay.”
Asked by Colbert how this whole thing will end, Moore said there’s an “easy way” to end it. “Federal workers, don't go to work without pay,” he said. “And we, the people, we shouldn't be supporting anything that requires someone who's not paid working for us.” He went on to urge all Americans to stop taking flights and delay filing their tax paperwork to the IRS until the government reopens.
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“Consult a lawyer first, don’t listen to him,” Colbert warned viewers.
From there, the host moved on to the news that Trump may once again be on the verge of declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his wall. This idea did not sit well with Moore.
“Listen, if he declares a national emergency, this man is out of control,” Moore said. “This is our country. We are a democracy, we're a free society. If this were any other country, if it were Turkey or the Philippines or Russia, and they had an election and the ruler's party somehow lost half their legislative branch like he did in November and then that ruler declared a month later, I'm shutting down the government, what would we call that if it were another country doing that?”
“This guy doesn't want the government to be open, he certainly doesn't want the Department of Justice to be open” he continued, alluding to the investigations into Trump. “So if he tries to pull a national emergency, we the people have to declare a national emergency. We have to non-violently rise up. We have to take to the streets. We have to build our own wall—a human wall—around the White House.”
“Nothing will stop a bully unless you stand up to the bully in the school yard,” Moore concluded. “That's the only way.”
The filmmaker ended with shout-out to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her fellow freshmen Democrats, who he believes have begun to fulfill the “revolution” he called for last summer.
“I'm surprised that the old guard in the Democratic Party has not stood in their way and in fact has put Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib on the oversight committee,” he said. “The first Muslim Palestinian woman in Congress and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be able to interrogate on the beginnings of whenever the Trump impeachment starts. And it will start. It has to start.”
