Stephen Colbert tried to pin down slippery John Bolton last night when he had him on as a guest, but Bolton has so little capacity for self-awareness that it was almost impossible. You have to watch the whole thing -- Colbert really got in his face, but to no avail.

You could say the biggest flaw in Colbert's approach is that he's treating Bolton as an intelligent, rational actor -- when history shows he's simply an ideologue with a rigid set of extremist goals.

Bolton said he didn’t believe Trump was as bad as people were saying.

“But you’re an international negotiator. How could you be naive?” Colbert said. “You’ve dealt with the worst people in the world!”

When Bolton mentioned that he won't vote for Trump, but he won't vote for Biden, either, Colbert let him have it.

Bolton said unlike Biden, Trump's "not going to be a Democrat subject, especially these days, to the pressure of the left."

"No, he's going to be subject to the pressure of Vladmir Putin and Xi Jinping," an incredulous Colbert shot back.

He's a person who's willing to sell out the interest of the American people for his own re-election. What could be worse in HIllary Clinton or Joe Biden's philosophy than betraying your country to a hostile foreign power?"

"Trust me, I understand that point," a placid Bolton said. “What I thought in 2016 was, ‘Well, at least we have to try it out.'”

“I guess what’s exasperating,” said Colbert, “is there is absolutely nothing that Donald Trump has done that’s surprising to me. My rule is: whatever you think he’s done is probably true. He’s not deep enough to get your socks wet in. That’s why, when he ran casinos, the house lost. There was noting to learn about him. How did you not know beforehand that he was that callow?”

“Because I couldn’t believe it was that bad,” Bolton said.