No Republican is safe from CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s wrath, not even former President and quintessential moderate George H.W. Bush. According to Colbert and actor Jeremy Strong on Thursday, “we risk losing essentially everything” to climate change, and it is Bush’s fault.

Colbert teed up Strong, “You have a documentary about our burning world.”

An appreciative Strong took the opportunity to promote the project, “Yeah, I executive produced an incredible documentary called The White House Effect that is coming out on Netflix at the end of next month. It’s coming out on Netflix on October 31, and thank you for giving me a chance to talk about it. You know, I really think it's, like, mandatory viewing for anyone who cares about our planet, and… the film is a kind of origin story of the climate crisis and how we got into the, kind of, political quagmire that we are in now that has prevented any real action.”

That led Colbert to play a clip from the documentary that featured an interview with Bush’s EPA administrator, William Reilly, who declared, “The advantage we might have had if President Bush had committed to seriously undertake the reduction of greenhouse gases is that we might have removed the partisan nature and the dialogue of the United States. A Republican president, after all, that would have made some difference, and I regret that we weren't able finally to do that.”

After the clip, Strong moved the conversation to present day, “So, you know, a couple of days ago, on Tuesday, our president spoke to the U.N. and said that climate change is a hoax and that it is the biggest con job ever perpetrated in the world and that it was something that was made up by stupid people.”

That inspired Strong to ask “a friend who is a climate scientist” what he thinks, and he read the response:

I said, ‘Peter, what will happen if we don't do anything to stop the course we're on?’ He says ‘In my opinion we risk losing essentially everything. Some of the things that keep me up at night: Destruction of the Earth's rainforests, corals, and other biodiversity, unprecedented heat waves that trigger blackouts and kill a million plus people at a shot. Food system declines and subsequent famines and the spiraling out of control of the deadly migrations and wars we're starting already to see. I hate being a downer, but at the same time, it's irresponsible to act like things we find at higher levels of global heating. Again, there's a path out of all of this. Coming together across partisan lines and national boundaries to end fossil fuels as though our species depended on it, which it does.’

If Colbert and Strong really want to know why Republicans refuse to play along, it is not because of Bush or Trump or any other Republican or conservative media personality. It is because people like Peter keep demanding drastic measures to prevent apocalyptic doom that never comes to pass.

Here is a transcript for the September 25-taped show:

CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

9/26/2025

12:17 AM ET

STEPHEN COLBERT: You have a documentary about our burning world.

JEREMY STRONG: Yeah, I executive produced an incredible documentary called The White House Effect that is coming out on Netflix at the end of next month. It’s coming out on Netflix on October 31, and thank you for giving me a chance to talk about it. You know, I really think it's, like, mandatory viewing for anyone who cares about our planet, and—

COLBERT: Is this about global warming or?

STRONG: Yeah, it’s about—the film is a kind of origin story of the climate crisis and how we got into the, kind of, political quagmire that we are in now that has prevented any real action. And it's—yeah. It’s—What can I say about it?

COLBERT: What you don't have to say too much more because we do have a clip.

STRONG: Great. Yeah.

COLBERT: Anything we need to know about the person who’s talking here?

STRONG: So, I think it's a clip of Bill Reilly, who was the head of the EPA during the administration of George H.W. Bush and I’ll—

COLBERT: Jim?

WILLIAM REILLY: The advantage we might have had if President Bush had committed to seriously undertake the reduction of greenhouse gases is that we might have removed the partisan nature and the dialogue of the United States. A Republican president, after all, that would have made some difference, and I regret that we weren't able finally to do that.

STRONG: So, you know, a couple of days ago, on Tuesday, our president spoke to the U.N. and said that climate change is a hoax and that it is the biggest con job ever perpetrated in the world and that it was something that was made up by stupid people. And so if it's okay, you know, I have a friend who is a climate scientist. He works at NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory with a bunch of other—

COLBERT: Smart folks.

STRONG: — stupid rocket scientists. 

COLBERT: Oh, I see. I see.

STRONG: And I told him I was coming on your show—

COLBERT: Yeah.

STRONG: —and I asked him what he might want me to say. Is it okay if I read something?

COLBERT: Sure. We'll hopefully have this on TV.

STRONG: I hope we do. I said, “Peter, what will happen if we don't do anything to stop the course we're on?” He says "In my opinion we risk losing essentially everything. Some of the things that keep me up at night: Destruction of the Earth's rainforests, corals, and other biodiversity, unprecedented heat waves that trigger blackouts and kill a million plus people at a shot. Food system declines and subsequent famines and the spiraling out of control of the deadly migrations and wars we're starting already to see. I hate being a downer, but at the same tim,e it's irresponsible to act like things we find at higher levels of global heating. Again, there's a path out of all of this. Coming together across partisan lines and national boundaries to end fossil fuels as though our species depended on it, which it does."