Oliver Stone joined Stephen Colbert on the Late Show which aired Tuesday June 13th. He sat down with Colbert to discuss and promote his upcoming Putin Interviews, which will debut tonight, June 15th on SHOWTIME.
Colbert, having watched previews of Stone's upcoming program, questioned Stone on what he described as Stone's "apparent sympathy" for Vladimir Putin, despite claims of Russian intervention in the 2016 U.S Presidential Elections. To this, Stone retorted something to the effect of "Israel had far more involvement in the US election than Russia...Why don’t you ask me about that?” according to a source within the audience. To this, Colbert replied "I’ll ask you about that when you make a documentary about Israel!””
This part of the interview between Colbert and Stone was seemingly edited out of the final cut which was sent to broadcast. Subsequent articles written about this seemingly tense confrontation, such as one written on Yahoo News, as well as one written for the Washington Post!, and one written for the L.A Times, seemingly left out any mention of Israel. Many of these articles were mostly focused on the audience's supposed mocking of Stone for "defending Vladimir Putin.
Stone's critique of Israeli meddling in U.S politics could be in reference to the impact the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has on U.S politics and U.S politicians. AIPAC is a lobbying group which advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States. As recently as April, 100/100 U.S senators signed a letter "asking for equal treatment of Israel at the U.N." AIPAC has active relationships with many U.S Congressmen, and has been an active player in American politics since its inception in 1968.