Oliver Stone’s interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show last night is bringing a lot of second hand embarrassment, especially when it came to the topic of Vladimir Putin.

You see, Oliver spent a great amount of time with the Russian president for his latest documentary, The Putin Interviews for Showtime (around two years in fact). While Stephen struggled to promote the film, he asked Oliver what was the most surprising piece of information he found in the documentary.

“I can’t tell you how you think,” Oliver started. “I think he’s devoted to his country and I’m amazed at his calmness, as I said, his courtesy. He never really said anything bad about anybody. I mean, he’s been through a lot and he’s been insulted and abused.”

That’s when the audience started booing.

“What is wrong with détente with Russia? Why would you be against it? I don’t understand this mentality. Maybe it’s because you hate Trump,” he continued.

Then Stephen clarified he doesn’t “trust” President Trump as Stone responded, “Russia is convenient as an excuse for hacking the election.”

“I don’t understand why our president will never say anything negative about Vladimir Putin given that Putin is an oppressive leader of his country who suppresses the free press and arrests his enemies, and that is not something that I, as an American or a member of the press, can respect,” Stephen said. “And I’m surprised that you do respect that.”

Oliver later said: “He’s a head of state. He’s Russian, he has his own interests of Russia, and I respect him for that and I understand why he’s doing — he’s a strong nationalist. He went through a whole history of 16 years, since 2000 to now, outlining what [the] relationship with the U.S. has been, and I never heard him badmouth the U.S. I heard him try to reach out and have a relationship with [America].”