Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show about it. N I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna waste any time. I trust that you're good. Let's
Speaker 1: drum jump straight into this um. This is the best
Speaker 1: way to describe this book for me is it's basically
Speaker 1: like the Real Housewives of Washington, d C. It makes
Speaker 1: it look like the most scandalous place. You realize there's
Speaker 1: so many inner feuds and and things that we don't
Speaker 1: even know about. When I'm reading this book, I'm going
Speaker 1: we shouldn't the American people see that? Then, Like, why
Speaker 1: do they get the sanitized like this is how we
Speaker 1: are when in fact this is this seems like it
Speaker 1: seems like this is what's deciding the country. This is
Speaker 1: what the people are seeing the news, but the people
Speaker 1: are voting on what they see in the news. No,
Speaker 1: And I think that that's that's spot on, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the things that we believe so passionately about
Speaker 1: political journalism. It's one of the things that we I
Speaker 1: had to do in this book is that there's not
Speaker 1: some clean separation between the personalities of politics and the
Speaker 1: fuge that you're talking about. And the Real Housewives style
Speaker 1: drama and the policy of it. Right, it's the personality
Speaker 1: and those feuds and all the sort of high school
Speaker 1: level pettiness that actually drives what happens. And if people
Speaker 1: in Washington were more upfront about that, I think, first
Speaker 1: of all, they would confirm a whole lot of what
Speaker 1: the American people sort of suspect about their politicians. But secondly,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it would be possible maybe for
Speaker 1: the country to have more honest conversation about what's wrong
Speaker 1: here if we weren't all putting on a different face.
Speaker 1: When the cameras are running on Washington, Trevor, you see
Speaker 1: two very different kinds of politicians than what you see
Speaker 1: behind the scenes in private. But they don't know that, say,
Speaker 1: the audio is running, So this book exposes a lot.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. The audio, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest bombshells from the book is the
Speaker 1: audio that that you released, which was the audio of
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy off the January six basically saying, yet, we've
Speaker 1: got to make Trump pay for this. He's responsible, except
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell essentially being like, oh, I hope he does
Speaker 1: get impeached you. You you you're hearing things from politicians
Speaker 1: who said the complete opposite when they were on camera.
Speaker 1: So how did you hear about it? Well? Uh, Now,
Speaker 1: a lot, a lot of work, a lot of hours,
Speaker 1: a lot of talking to people at all levels of
Speaker 1: government and even people outside of government. I mean there's
Speaker 1: this perception among um folks who read political journalism that
Speaker 1: it's this Hollywood idea where like somebody in sunglasses comes
Speaker 1: and like drops you a bag outside Uh your house,
Speaker 1: are like, and you get the story of a lifetime.
Speaker 1: It ain't that. It's like a lot of work. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of shoe leather. It's a lot of time
Speaker 1: talking to people and hoping that you can piece things
Speaker 1: together to eventually get the full version of a story.
Speaker 1: And if I could just you know, look, you had
Speaker 1: a little fun with us at the correspond centers. Boys. Uh,
Speaker 1: we know that, we know that. But the but the honest,
Speaker 1: the honest response to uh, to your line that night is, look,
Speaker 1: if we were in a position to release that information
Speaker 1: the second we got it, of course we would have
Speaker 1: done that. But part of the exercise of writing a book,
Speaker 1: and part of why it's different from writing for a
Speaker 1: newspaper or producing a television show. Is that the people
Speaker 1: you're talking to, the sources you're working with, will be
Speaker 1: more candid with you, and we'll share more information. It's
Speaker 1: not just audio. It is documents, it is notes that
Speaker 1: they're taking in real time. It is their personal views
Speaker 1: and recollections when they feel they're sharing it for history
Speaker 1: and not you know, a show that's going to air
Speaker 1: in a couple of hours from now. That is that
Speaker 1: makes no sense to me, because I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: like this is ancient history. Well it's sort of. It's
Speaker 1: it's sort of this happened a year ago, and you're
Speaker 1: telling me the politicians are like, well, this will never
Speaker 1: see the light of day in a year. It is
Speaker 1: it is. It is actually extraordinary, and it's one of
Speaker 1: the things that I think, I mean, I think of
Speaker 1: the people running the country when we were trying to
Speaker 1: tell when we were when we were having when we
Speaker 1: were doing these interviews, you would see people sort of various,
Speaker 1: sort of uptightening this is this is for history, and like,
Speaker 1: oh well, if this is for history, and thinking, I
Speaker 1: say it is out next may I mean, like, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the you know, some of the other stories.
Speaker 1: For instance, there's a part in the book. We actually
Speaker 1: have the audio here and we'll go to the real students.
Speaker 1: There's a part of the book when you're interviewing Donald
Speaker 1: Trump himself. All right, there, you are interviewing the man.
Speaker 1: And in the middle of this interview, does he call
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham? Does Indsay Graham call him? Lusa Graham calls him.
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham calls him while you haven't been seen in
Speaker 1: the lobby at marral Lago from his guests to see
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham calls him, and Trump does not get up
Speaker 1: from the couches, excuse me follows, He just like sits
Speaker 1: there and like takes that call on his cell phone
Speaker 1: and that puts the speaker so we can hear it.
Speaker 1: So we've actually got the audio. Let's let's let's play
Speaker 1: that call. And most importantly, would you tell them one thing?
Speaker 1: Can Trump play? Go? Legitimately play? Okay? But I thought
Speaker 1: it was a bullshit, So we played for the first time.
Speaker 1: You know, I've heard her head. So we're playing on
Speaker 1: a kind of right. We got a car and the
Speaker 1: three flitter com that may but WoT a bit more
Speaker 1: under even are playing by after that game making more
Speaker 1: and you don't believe it, go play with him. So
Speaker 1: here's the thing for for context for me, is this
Speaker 1: is the same Lindsay Graham who off the January six
Speaker 1: was bringing up the twenty five amendment. He was like,
Speaker 1: this is too much, We've gone too far. And then
Speaker 1: Trump has him on the phone and he's just like,
Speaker 1: dance for me. And this is three months later, so
Speaker 1: this is pretty Yeah. Is this Does this show us
Speaker 1: that the politicians are lying to the people or they're
Speaker 1: lying to Trump? That's that's a really good question. Look,
Speaker 1: I think we were shocked, uh not that Lindsay Graham
Speaker 1: will be calling Trump at that point. But you know,
Speaker 1: we all know that Lindsay Graham rode back to Donald
Speaker 1: Trump really fast, that his pronouncements on the night of
Speaker 1: January six, I had a very very short expiration date
Speaker 1: on them. But I think just hearing in in real
Speaker 1: time in front of us this you know, sort of
Speaker 1: dancing a monkey routine was really an extraordinary moment. And
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's lying to anybody. I think
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham genuinely believes that he is playing a vital
Speaker 1: role as a diplomat between the establishment of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party and Donald Trumps, right. I just that's clearly how
Speaker 1: he's rationalizing it. It puzzled even some of his colleagues
Speaker 1: in the Senate, but you just heard there, you know,
Speaker 1: just how far it goes. I think Trump knows that
Speaker 1: Lindsay isn't like his biggest fan in the world, and
Speaker 1: that privately, you know, rolls his eyes, but that he's
Speaker 1: sort of, uh, you know, is trying to sort of
Speaker 1: stay in the arena, and so he has to keep
Speaker 1: Trump on his good side. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: like you know, obviously Lindsay. Lindsay is pretty obviously aware
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump's liabilities and would admit that in privacy.
Speaker 1: I think, like what's the old saying, you can't be
Speaker 1: sbs or I think they kind of both know that
Speaker 1: the other isn't totally on the level, and so I
Speaker 1: guess it works, right, I mean, not for the country.
Speaker 1: It's it seems yeah, It's just it just seems like,
Speaker 1: if you know, if if Donald Trump didn't have as
Speaker 1: many scandals as he did, I feel like every single
Speaker 1: chapter in this book could have been its own book
Speaker 1: in a different time, with the different presidency to the
Speaker 1: great point I didn't know, but like there's a point
Speaker 1: in the book where you guys uncovered the fact that
Speaker 1: Jared kushna is the person who got Kanye West his
Speaker 1: campaign manager, and all of this was essentially a scheme
Speaker 1: to try and siphon black votes away from the Democrats.
Speaker 1: Like I'm like that in on in and of itself,
Speaker 1: that would be the bombshell of the day, and that
Speaker 1: it was just like, oh yeah, just one part of
Speaker 1: the book. Look, it's a great I think it's a
Speaker 1: great episode of sort of political uh you know, hijinks, right,
Speaker 1: but it's really revealing both of how desperate they were
Speaker 1: to try to mess with the basic electoral map of
Speaker 1: this election. I think it's also really revealing about how
Speaker 1: the White House and the President's family saw, you know,
Speaker 1: black voters and what they would be drawn to in
Speaker 1: this election. The notion that the way to get too
Speaker 1: siphon black votes away from Joe Biden was to get
Speaker 1: this sort of screwball celebrity into the race and just
Speaker 1: you know, of course those people will uh you know
Speaker 1: vote for him instead of the guy they know is
Speaker 1: the former a two term vice president. That says a
Speaker 1: whole lot about the people who running the country. You know,
Speaker 1: look with the Trump crowd, it's like a cartoon version
Speaker 1: of past presidents, you know, like the president's son in
Speaker 1: law who by the way it works in the White House,
Speaker 1: which is okay uh. And then secondly, it's like basically
Speaker 1: running the country as a de facto senior advisor with
Speaker 1: no actual title beyond senior advisor. And he's also like
Speaker 1: running the campaign on the side too, and and running
Speaker 1: the campaign, he's trying to wire in a third party
Speaker 1: candidate who happens to be like a celebrity. Like he's
Speaker 1: doing all this and like ostensibly there's ethics rules that
Speaker 1: kind of exists in the White House, but UM's it
Speaker 1: makes a mockery of any sort of like political norms
Speaker 1: or tradition way to put it, because what it feels
Speaker 1: like this book exposes in a in a really scary
Speaker 1: way because it's revealing and it's shocking. But when you
Speaker 1: get to the end of the book, you go, man,
Speaker 1: America is in trouble because it feels like there's a
Speaker 1: facade that is being presented by Washington, d C. It
Speaker 1: feels like there is definitely a game that's being played,
Speaker 1: you know, in the Capitol versus what everyday Americans are experiencing.
Speaker 1: And then the most important thing is it feels like
Speaker 1: the two party system has failed, because now it feels
Speaker 1: like Republicans on all with Trump they play along to
Speaker 1: try and keep their role, and then like Democrats on Altgate.
Speaker 1: But it feels like the things a sham, and by
Speaker 1: the time the American people find out that it really
Speaker 1: is a sham, it will be too late. One of
Speaker 1: the things that we hope we've accomplished with this book
Speaker 1: is to expose that sham to a pretty significant degree.
Speaker 1: The American people, I deserve to know what a gigantic
Speaker 1: gap there is between the way their politicians behave in
Speaker 1: public and the things they say in private about policy,
Speaker 1: about each other, and even about the American people. So
Speaker 1: again that's sort of the overarching journalist I got serprised
Speaker 1: here were Well, I'll tell you this if you are
Speaker 1: if you if you wanted to get it out there,
Speaker 1: a book is a nice stot, but if you really
Speaker 1: want people to pay attention, you've gotta make it into
Speaker 1: a TV show. Gentlemen, thank you so much, because it's
Speaker 1: coming your lot to God. There's feel talk about book.
Speaker 1: This will not talking available right now. The Eily Show
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