Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Hey, Ears Edition listeners. This is Daily Show supervising producer
Speaker 2: Ian Berger. We're so happy to be back making new
Speaker 2: episodes of the Daily Show. The Daily Show returned with
Speaker 2: John Stewart and Jordan Klepper hosting Today. I'm fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to be joined by Daily Show contributor Jordan Klepper. Jordan,
Speaker 2: how are you?
Speaker 1: I I'm doing well. Good to see you.
Speaker 2: Good to see you. I feel like we spent a
Speaker 2: lot of time together.
Speaker 1: We do. We're on the road all the time, yes,
Speaker 1: but this is nice. We're in a podcast studio. We're
Speaker 1: not in a Lakita somewhere. Usually we're having whatever strange
Speaker 1: breakfast that whatever hotel shoves out to us, usually a
Speaker 1: weird type of omelet, greasy omelet, yeah, bad hash browns.
Speaker 2: We're forced to eat alike and weirdly. Today we're in
Speaker 2: the office and we ordered the same dish for the
Speaker 2: same restaurant. It's true, so we may have a problem,
Speaker 2: I think, because we're forced to eat similar food. When
Speaker 2: you come back to New York, you're like, oh right,
Speaker 2: other options.
Speaker 1: I got called on it this week because this week
Speaker 1: I get to host and there are some benefits to
Speaker 1: hosting there you get a little bit more help. And
Speaker 1: so they asked, do you want any breakfast when you
Speaker 1: arrive at the office, And I was like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And what I asked for was one of those protein
Speaker 1: packs from Starbucks. And Vas, who was setting this all up,
Speaker 1: was like, just like, is that just what you eat
Speaker 1: on the road. I'm like, oh, that is what I
Speaker 1: get the road. Yeah. Usually, I'm like, I want a
Speaker 1: kind of healthy breakfast, and your best bet is a
Speaker 1: protein pack with a hard boiled egg from Starbucks. And
Speaker 1: that's that's the highest. That's that. When they're like, you
Speaker 1: are host you can have whatever you want for breakfast,
Speaker 1: I'm like, get me the big protein pack from Starbucks.
Speaker 2: Like I want to feel at home, make me feel
Speaker 2: like I'm in a terminal in a regional airport. This
Speaker 2: is great. Thank you guys. I did it.
Speaker 1: It's like Akron in here.
Speaker 2: Well, let's just talk about this week. There's big news
Speaker 2: this week, a familiar face back at the desk on
Speaker 2: Mondays and back helping us make this show. How do
Speaker 2: you feel about it? How do you think it's going.
Speaker 1: We've had such a fun week, what a exciting surprise
Speaker 1: when they announced that John was coming back. Just you
Speaker 1: and I both got to work with John back in
Speaker 1: the day. Boit what nine years ago? Almost ten years ago?
Speaker 1: You started? Went how many years ago?
Speaker 2: I started just before the eight convention? Well eight conventions,
Speaker 2: it was both yeah and then you started.
Speaker 1: I started almost a yeah twenty fourteen, and so I
Speaker 1: was with John for a year and a half. And
Speaker 1: then they make this big announcement and they bring John
Speaker 1: into the studio that he's going to be hosting Mondays.
Speaker 1: And what a surprise, What an exciting, awesome shock for
Speaker 1: us to sort of have this this a person who
Speaker 1: was really important for so many people's lives here at
Speaker 1: the Daily Show, and who I think, you know, we've
Speaker 1: mishearing his voice over these last few years, even though
Speaker 1: he's had wonderful shows where his voice has been on.
Speaker 1: But I think there's so many people here who were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear him day in and day out.
Speaker 1: So to have him back on the show is pretty
Speaker 1: gosh darn great.
Speaker 2: How do you think his involvement in kind of like
Speaker 2: tone he may set on Monday Nights, but his involvement
Speaker 2: of the show will inform the other nights. Nights you host,
Speaker 2: and night days we go out into the field.
Speaker 1: You know, we had when John came in, we had
Speaker 1: a big meeting where John kind of sat down to
Speaker 1: talk about the things he was excited about with the election.
Speaker 1: And I think we've had such a unique year and
Speaker 1: a half with guest hosts. We've had gotten to try
Speaker 1: a lot of different ideas, a lot of different voices
Speaker 1: at the show, and I think this last year and
Speaker 1: a half taught us many things, and one of them
Speaker 1: is sort of the infrastructure of the Daily Show. You're
Speaker 1: still we have such a very clear voice at this show,
Speaker 1: and even if you're changing who the host is, this
Speaker 1: building is built to sort of get these ideas attacked
Speaker 1: and approached in very similar thoughtful ways. But we haven't
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to sit down and really talk about, like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is what we're doing attacking the biggest
Speaker 1: election year of our lives. And John came in and
Speaker 1: sort of was like, here's what I'm feeling about this.
Speaker 1: This is such an important year. It's an existential threat,
Speaker 1: is what everybody is talking about. And we all know
Speaker 1: the threat Donald Trump poses, and we also know it
Speaker 1: looks like it's gonna be Joe Biden, And what do
Speaker 1: derimocrats feel about this? What are the insecurities people have
Speaker 1: around this idea, and how do we talk authentically about
Speaker 1: the fears people have, How do we criticize bs wherever
Speaker 1: we see it, and how do we prep for this
Speaker 1: wild election year as a team and look at it
Speaker 1: almost holistically so that we can approach the big trend
Speaker 1: over the next year while also being on the ball
Speaker 1: day in and day out. And so it was really
Speaker 1: it was really what the show needed was John coming
Speaker 1: in and all of us kind of getting into that
Speaker 1: room and be like, all right, here we are. This
Speaker 1: is the team. We got John Stewart back, and we
Speaker 1: are running as fast as we can till this election.
Speaker 1: And it really kickstarted everybody to be like, all right,
Speaker 1: the clock starts.
Speaker 2: I feel like we had a great run with a
Speaker 2: lot of incredible guest hosts, but the tones are different,
Speaker 2: and now it feels like we have this unified, unified
Speaker 2: front and we're all running in the same way and
Speaker 2: attacking things in the same way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And to.
Speaker 2: That, we had to fingers the pulse shot last weekend.
Speaker 2: Do you wanna tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 1: Where it was Yeah, we knew we wanted to jump
Speaker 1: out and get out there. We hadn't been out on
Speaker 1: the road for a while, and we've been wanting to
Speaker 1: cover what's happening in South Carolina. Nicki Haley like we
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time at MAGA rallies, but wanted
Speaker 1: to see what other Republican voters are curious about. And
Speaker 1: so we found a big Trump event down outside of
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach, and Nikki Haley had an event across the state,
Speaker 1: and so our goal there was to one see what
Speaker 1: a Nicki Haley voter is looking for? Is there, like
Speaker 1: who is that person? If Nikki Haley drops out, are
Speaker 1: they jumping over to the Trump team? And also what
Speaker 1: did Trump voters think of Nicki Haley? Is this race
Speaker 1: over what happens to the people once this thing is decided?
Speaker 1: And also big issues of the moment, like I don't
Speaker 1: know Trump's saying there'll be a dictator from day one.
Speaker 1: We had an opportunity since he made that comment and
Speaker 1: he made the comment about poisoning the blood of our
Speaker 1: country when he was talking about immigration, we haven't been
Speaker 1: able to confront and talk to the MAGA Republicans about
Speaker 1: whether that affected their views of Donald Trump. And so
Speaker 1: this was a chance for us to get on the
Speaker 1: road and do that.
Speaker 2: One thing that I appreciated about this segment, producing it
Speaker 2: and watching it, watching you in it, it wasn't just
Speaker 2: a Maga rally. We were able to go to two
Speaker 2: different events and that's rare, and I think we were
Speaker 2: kind of holding off on doing something till we had
Speaker 2: this opportunity. Now we both know this opportunity is not
Speaker 2: going to last long. It made you know, we'll see
Speaker 2: how long Haley's in it. But what was your impression
Speaker 2: of the Haley rally when you got there, We were
Speaker 2: there a little early. It was very different than from
Speaker 2: what we're used to.
Speaker 1: I would say it was refreshing.
Speaker 2: Some I would agree, like.
Speaker 1: Just the logistics of a Trump rally are that you
Speaker 1: show up in a parking lot six hours before Donald
Speaker 1: Trump arrives and there's thousands of people wait to go inside.
Speaker 1: And so even functionally, we're talking to people in a
Speaker 1: parking lot who are who are in it to win it,
Speaker 1: and they're there for that rally. Approaching the Nikki Haley event,
Speaker 1: people are not waiting outside hours at a time, but
Speaker 1: the people who arrive a little bit before Nicki Haley
Speaker 1: arrives are politically curious folks. They're less garden. There were
Speaker 1: some people who were die hard Nicki Haley people, small few,
Speaker 1: but dedicated. But people were excited to hear what she
Speaker 1: had to say. And frankly, we don't talk to many
Speaker 1: people who are open minded and have yet to decide
Speaker 1: what they believe. Usually we talk to a Trump rally
Speaker 1: and people aren't there to see what Trump is all about.
Speaker 2: They're not going there to learn no, that is for sure.
Speaker 2: I don't mean like throughout their life that might be
Speaker 2: the case, but certainly at a Trump rally, nobody's going
Speaker 2: there to learn anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so. Originally I believe these these rallies were
Speaker 1: set up for the American populists to get to know
Speaker 1: these candidates, to question them on their their motives and
Speaker 1: their policies, and to form an opinion about them. The
Speaker 1: Trump rallies, that's not the case. You are there to
Speaker 1: rally raw raw around this idea. The Nikki Haley people
Speaker 1: like I want to hear what she has to say.
Speaker 1: I have my own beliefs about this. I want to
Speaker 1: know if she is for me and so that was
Speaker 1: quite frankly, super refreshing, and it felt it felt like
Speaker 1: a throwback with the little American flags and the buttons
Speaker 1: and the curious and the nervous people signing people up
Speaker 1: for mailing lists. It was like, oh, this is what
Speaker 1: the political world used to be like a decade ago, right,
Speaker 1: I think it's what.
Speaker 2: We would hope we could encounter more. Yes, as you said,
Speaker 2: it's refreshing. Like even just the backdrop, it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're not in a parking lot. This is this lovely
Speaker 2: green field with this pretty barn in the background. It
Speaker 2: was a wedding venue. I could see having a wedding there,
Speaker 2: but that's a very different vibe than a parking lot.
Speaker 1: Even like the music playing, yeah, seemed like, you know,
Speaker 1: there was some fun queen songs and some nice, non
Speaker 1: offensive classic rock.
Speaker 2: You go to a little jet.
Speaker 1: Little Joe Jet was thrown in there. You could see
Speaker 1: hear nodding to like female rock stars from the past,
Speaker 1: but not having to go all in. She doesn't want
Speaker 1: to be a feminist, so you know, everything is politicized there,
Speaker 1: but you can go to Trump probably It's like, how
Speaker 1: many times do I have to listen to Leonard Skinnard,
Speaker 1: or or even sometimes they bring in speakers and videos
Speaker 1: that are advertising for the Trump campaign in a way
Speaker 1: like it's this Haley event was. It was remarkably refreshing,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a deviation that we usually get.
Speaker 2: I totally agree, and it was. It was lovely and
Speaker 2: small and short. And I don't know how many more
Speaker 2: of those we'll get to attend, but you want to
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about some of the characters
Speaker 2: you met there.
Speaker 1: We ran into a decent amount of folks. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think overall a few hundred people probably showed up
Speaker 1: for this Hailey event. And we ran into some people
Speaker 1: who were Trump voters who had just had it. They
Speaker 1: felt like they were embarrassed by Donald Trump and were
Speaker 1: really really looking for another answer. We ran to a
Speaker 1: couple of people who had traveled from out of state
Speaker 1: who wanted to see Nicki Haley who are super fans
Speaker 1: of Nicky Hay. Talked to a Democrat or two who
Speaker 1: were there because they were disappointed in Joe Biden. I
Speaker 1: wanted to see what Nikki Haley offered. Another person did
Speaker 1: talk about the realities of potentially voting for Nicki Haley
Speaker 1: in the Republican primary as a way to be against
Speaker 1: Trump and perhaps voting for Biden in a general election.
Speaker 1: So there were a handful of things.
Speaker 2: And then there was Bubba.
Speaker 1: Oh, and there was Bubba. And then you did you
Speaker 1: recognize Bubba? When we approach a place, we're always looking
Speaker 1: for who is most eager to talk, who looks like
Speaker 1: they have something fun to say, who is a character?
Speaker 2: I think I approached him and he was so friendly
Speaker 2: right away. Baba is the guy who told us that
Speaker 2: voters who didn't appreciate Nikki's track record as governor were
Speaker 2: higher than a Georgia Pine, which I'd never heard before.
Speaker 2: And it's just lovely.
Speaker 1: Holes aren't great for Haley up against Trump for this
Speaker 1: primary one.
Speaker 3: I am not smart enough to tell you numbers, but
Speaker 3: I can tell you thing. She is certainly not going
Speaker 3: to get embarrassed in this state. I have a problem
Speaker 3: with people insinuating she might not have been an effective governor.
Speaker 3: Really well, they either lived in another state or there
Speaker 3: high as a Georgia Pine.
Speaker 1: I know I'm not from there. Are those tall trees.
Speaker 2: Buried tall Buddy. When I approached, he was so friendly
Speaker 2: and almost like grateful that I asked him if we
Speaker 2: could talk to him, and again, that's also refreshing. And
Speaker 2: then I took a look at his truck. So sometimes
Speaker 2: you're trying to suss people out, like will they be interesting?
Speaker 2: Are they eager to talk? As you said, And then
Speaker 2: you look at the bubber stickers on people's vehicles, and
Speaker 2: it tells you a lot about them. Now, Bubba had
Speaker 2: had a wide variety of stickers on his tracks, if
Speaker 2: you want to tell us about that.
Speaker 1: I believe initially he had an organization. I believe he
Speaker 1: helps homeless veterans. And so there was there was that
Speaker 1: out frontly a person who was giving back to the community.
Speaker 1: He then had a body piercing by glock sticker on
Speaker 1: the back, a bigfoot sticker, two big foot stickers. So
Speaker 1: he appeared to be a man of contradiction, but a
Speaker 1: man of interest.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and a lovely golden retriever too. It's all like
Speaker 2: weird contradictions but charming thing.
Speaker 1: So the block thing felt aggressive until we started to
Speaker 1: talk to him about it. And frankly, again, part of
Speaker 1: what made that Haley rally so refreshing worth the characters
Speaker 1: were really fun and compelling, and he was somebody who
Speaker 1: has served in the Georgia State Legislature, I believe for
Speaker 1: many many years, calls himself a true independent, has never
Speaker 1: been connected to any party In particular, I think he
Speaker 1: still volunteers with the Georgia State Legislature. Knew Nikki Haley
Speaker 1: from way back when was an amateur filmmaker, as he
Speaker 1: told us about he told us about eight foot content,
Speaker 1: the big He's made multiple films about Bigfoot. I believe
Speaker 1: he was such a lovely character, who who who loved,
Speaker 1: He loved South Carolina, gave back to South Carolina, wanted
Speaker 1: to be a part of government, and was seeking out
Speaker 1: people who could do some good. Felt Nicki Haley was
Speaker 1: that person. He was voluntary. He was putting up signs,
Speaker 1: he was handing out stickers to folks, and he was
Speaker 1: also talking to us about bigfoot content like this this
Speaker 1: is America.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. And another thing
Speaker 2: about him I thought so charming was like how heartfelt
Speaker 2: he was in her defense, like she is not going
Speaker 2: to get embarrassed here, and like that line. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I hear you. I'm not sure about that. Unfortunately, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure about that. But that's really great that you are.
Speaker 2: You know that passionate. Unfortunately, just three hours down the
Speaker 2: road Donald Danos Trump and I say Dano's not because
Speaker 2: he's a marvel villain, but because he's inevitable in that world. Unfortunately. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he was having a rally and it was very different,
Speaker 2: if you want to tell us about your initial impressions,
Speaker 2: contrasted with the Hailey race.
Speaker 1: Yet again, there's a ton of people there. We roll
Speaker 1: up and there's a pin that's cording off with hundreds
Speaker 1: and hundreds of people who have been there. You know,
Speaker 1: this event as always this event. I think we started
Speaker 1: at two. I think we're there at eight thirty and
Speaker 1: there's probably close to a thousand people there. Now. I
Speaker 1: will also say there is no doubt that people are
Speaker 1: showing up for Trump rallies. The one thing I can't
Speaker 1: speak for is the overall breadth of support at a
Speaker 1: Trump rally, because the big picture that they got from
Speaker 1: this Trump rally was Trump showed up, people couldn't get in.
Speaker 1: They filled that venue quickly, and so there were a
Speaker 1: thousand people outside that Trump pulled up before he went in,
Speaker 1: and he did a photo op outside with a thousand
Speaker 1: people who couldn't get inside the right, which is a
Speaker 1: good look and it shows that he's a popular guy
Speaker 1: and he is let it be known people are showing
Speaker 1: up for a Donald Trump event. I think there should
Speaker 1: be some more investigation as to whether these events are
Speaker 1: as big, and I think he's booking smaller venues than
Speaker 1: he has in the past. But regardless, there are photo
Speaker 1: ops to be had, and there are a bunch of
Speaker 1: people who will wait in a parking out for six
Speaker 1: hours ready to talk, especially outside of Myrtle Beach. Uh,
Speaker 1: they were, they were there the party, a little bit
Speaker 1: of fun and talk that Maga tak.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were people on our on our flight down
Speaker 2: who were there for both reasons and Myrtle Beach drunk
Speaker 2: and Trump Maga party.
Speaker 1: Drink golf. Trump's had a T shirt somewhere outside of beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. I get it. Other impressions from
Speaker 2: this rally there was stuff, you know, as you said,
Speaker 2: we kind of wanted to see their reaction to kind
Speaker 2: of the most outlandis thing Trump has said since we've
Speaker 2: done the previous right, what were your reactions to that?
Speaker 1: Well, I think the big question we had we went
Speaker 1: down there was Trump as dictator There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of Trump as dictator talk. Also Trump uh as as
Speaker 1: king he's asking for total hmmunity as president. Did it
Speaker 1: bump with any of his supporters, No, it didn't. I
Speaker 1: think it didn't bump with any of its supporters. I
Speaker 1: think some of them would talk around, like the idea
Speaker 1: of a dictator. That's still a pejorative for some people
Speaker 1: in the Maga universe, and so they might roll their
Speaker 1: eyes at that language, but still jump on board the
Speaker 1: idea that Trump Trump needs the power to get stuff
Speaker 1: done and doesn't want the checks of the government. A
Speaker 1: dictatorship for day one, Yeah, and that's what we need.
Speaker 1: What does that actually look like. Well, that means that
Speaker 1: about half the people in the Department.
Speaker 2: Of Justice should be arrested and put behind bars.
Speaker 1: That's like a true dictatorship.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, if it needs to happen, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: said it'll be a dictator day one. What do you
Speaker 1: think of that? Is that a good idea? Let's get
Speaker 1: it done, get in and get it done, let's go.
Speaker 1: He's not going to be like a Hitler dictator. No,
Speaker 1: more like a Mussolini dictator for a day. Yeah, put
Speaker 1: the people in place, a dictator can do that, right,
Speaker 1: It can put people in place, the good people over here,
Speaker 1: the bad people over here into Gula at this point
Speaker 1: is what America they need.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think we've found that. If we found
Speaker 2: anyone who kind of rejected like he should be dictator
Speaker 2: on day one, I don't think we We didn't cherry
Speaker 2: pick those people, like No, that's the group of people
Speaker 2: we asked, and that's that was all. The answers were
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, across the board, that is what they wanted.
Speaker 1: I mean other things we noticed there too, is you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting some people want to talk economy. Some people
Speaker 1: want to talk we want Trump back to get the
Speaker 1: economy back on board. Something that I found fascinating was
Speaker 1: you talk about, you know, the stock market is up,
Speaker 1: inflation is on its way down, job numbers are up,
Speaker 1: Unemployment is down, like there are some really good numbers
Speaker 1: for Biden. Now that doesn't resonate with Trump folks. What
Speaker 1: they bring up is the housing market and gas, And
Speaker 1: quite frankly, I don't think gas could get low enough
Speaker 1: for people not to complain about the price of gas.
Speaker 1: So they blame Biden on gas and housing. I think
Speaker 1: is a big thing that perhaps Democrats don't pay enough
Speaker 1: attention to is Biden can tout how the stock market's
Speaker 1: doing well, and quite frankly, Trump has taken plenty of
Speaker 1: credit when the stock market is up. But I don't
Speaker 1: think that is a metric that a lot of the
Speaker 1: MAGA folks look to.
Speaker 2: I think I hear you, but I think that is
Speaker 2: a metric they did look to when you were as president.
Speaker 2: They would brag about that, and.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was something they felt when
Speaker 1: he was president. I think that is something that they
Speaker 1: used as AMMO. I mean, half of the conversations we
Speaker 1: have with people is people grasping for AMMO that they
Speaker 1: can use to make Trumps as popular and as cool
Speaker 1: as they possibly can. But I think there is some
Speaker 1: stuff that is a reflection of how they feel. And
Speaker 1: again it's it's partially a tactic when they talk about
Speaker 1: housing as opposed to Wall Street numbers, but it did
Speaker 1: feel real. The things that they see are like, oh, gas,
Speaker 1: and I have a cousin or myself or my kid
Speaker 1: can't afford to buy a place right now, And I
Speaker 1: blame Joe Biden for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that was very clear, and we actually I
Speaker 2: don't think we even had time to include all those conversations. No,
Speaker 2: that's certainly a conversation we'll have in the future. It's
Speaker 2: not going anywhere. One other thing that we thought we
Speaker 2: would get material from and we didn't was talk about
Speaker 2: the super Bowl. You want to tell us about what
Speaker 2: we expect.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's when we do these pieces. We often
Speaker 1: go down with a handful of topics that we want
Speaker 1: to address with people. And this is why it's so
Speaker 1: important to go out there is because you sit in
Speaker 1: a New York studio, you watch cable news, you get online,
Speaker 1: you're on Twitter, you're on Telegram. You're hearing what conversations are,
Speaker 1: and then you go into the real world and see
Speaker 1: if they actually resonate. The conspiracy theory that's been online
Speaker 1: and also on Fox News is this vilification of Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift to the point that perhaps she is a governmental plant,
Speaker 1: an agent for Biden. It goes in many, many different directions,
Speaker 1: and so we were prepping ideas of like, great, if
Speaker 1: we go to this Maga rally, we want to talk
Speaker 1: and see that the super Bowl was the next day.
Speaker 1: If you turned on Fox News, you hear them rolling
Speaker 1: their eyes at Taylor Swift and talking about her being
Speaker 1: overly political.
Speaker 2: People are still furious as her involvement with the Chiefs
Speaker 2: and how that somehow helps liberal America, Like they're still
Speaker 2: tweeting about it. But as we say, sometimes Twitter is
Speaker 2: not real life.
Speaker 1: The Internet is not a real place. And when we
Speaker 1: went to that Maga rally, nobody gave a shit about
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. The only people who did were a couple
Speaker 1: ladies who loved to Swift, and we asked if he'd
Speaker 1: supported if she supported Biden, would would they not be
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift fans? No, they love Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2: Now there are two women under twenty five years old.
Speaker 2: They're like, of course we love her.
Speaker 1: I think that's an important reminder that, like the Internet
Speaker 1: is not a real place, now it can affect real
Speaker 1: things and it is a tool to rile people up.
Speaker 1: And Fox News is going to talk about Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: because it gets clicked, so it gets people angry. And
Speaker 1: your grandma might be angry in a basement down in Tampa, Florida,
Speaker 1: which she's watching this Taylor Swift person. And there's probably
Speaker 1: some people on Telegram who love to go down that
Speaker 1: conspiracy wormhole. But our little slice of folks at the
Speaker 1: MAGA rally were not affected or thinking about Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: and the Super Bowl in any constructive way. And I
Speaker 1: think that is a constant reminder to not look at
Speaker 1: the conversations on Twitter or Telegram or x as a
Speaker 1: reflection of the actual conversations people are having in Redemara.
Speaker 2: Would you go so far as to say, maybe it
Speaker 2: not been it was not a worthwhile use of time.
Speaker 2: I'm to write with you, me and some great writers
Speaker 2: on this show, like forty Taylor Swift jokes.
Speaker 1: We had some We had a backpocket full of some
Speaker 1: really fun Taylor Swift jokes, some premises about what Usher
Speaker 1: was going to be promoting, what environmental policies.
Speaker 2: Weirdly, they didn't know Usher either. They had no opinions
Speaker 2: on Usher. We'll be right back to chat Moore with
Speaker 2: Klepper talking about characters. There was one character at the
Speaker 2: end of the piece, a very sympathetic character that you
Speaker 2: talked to. Do you want to tell us about that interaction?
Speaker 2: What we His name is Mike because he had a
Speaker 2: tattoo with his own name on his.
Speaker 1: Arm, Mike tattoo on his arm. Mike was Trump supporter
Speaker 1: Trump volunteer who had arrived at this Trump event hours before,
Speaker 1: but it was pretty clear he wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: get in, and he was a little bit stressed and
Speaker 1: upset about it. We started talking to Mike about Trump.
Speaker 1: I think the first it's not in the piece again,
Speaker 1: these pieces are truncated. The first thing Mike talked about
Speaker 1: we asked him over the upcoming election, and his prognosis
Speaker 1: was that Trump actually was going to be reinstated before
Speaker 1: the next election, so he would be elected as president
Speaker 1: when he's elected in November, because he'd be reinstated pre November.
Speaker 2: So I mean, double president. If you're the president and
Speaker 2: then you get elected president, are you double president? Is
Speaker 2: it like you kind of power up in a video game?
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, like bigger Mario.
Speaker 1: And the technically that might be that might be a
Speaker 1: you know, that might be some sort of loophole that
Speaker 1: Democrats want to explore, because if you put him in
Speaker 1: a month before the presidency, then he wins. Is he
Speaker 1: already served a second term and therefore cannot serve beyond that.
Speaker 1: Mike Knton thought this true, and frankly neither had I.
Speaker 2: But it's wild that that it wasn't on our show
Speaker 2: because we had other things to talk about.
Speaker 1: This is that's why we keep going out. It's like
Speaker 1: people like, oh, what's on the cutting room floor. There's
Speaker 1: a lot on the cutting room floor. There are a
Speaker 1: wild things there's there. Every conversation has a January sixth
Speaker 1: conspiracy embedded in it that we look afterwards 're like,
Speaker 1: are we talking about this right now? Because the conspiracy
Speaker 1: always is evolving and codifying in different ways. But we're like, no,
Speaker 1: stay focused, stay focused, and we're not going to talk
Speaker 1: about this thing with Mike. Mike got scammed and that's
Speaker 1: what was interesting Mike.
Speaker 2: So before we get to the scam, we had talked
Speaker 2: through that double president thing, and I felt like the
Speaker 2: conversation was wrapping up because he kind of wasn't making
Speaker 2: sense about a lot. And this is why it's a
Speaker 2: good idea to never listen to me. Jordan's I gave
Speaker 2: you the wrap it up side just behind the other camera.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, we can wrap this up. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you ignored me, that'll be okay. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you didn't see me, but either way,
Speaker 2: you kept talking to him, and which you and I
Speaker 2: both say this a lot, like sometimes you just really
Speaker 2: do just have to keep talking to people and let
Speaker 2: them open up.
Speaker 1: And then he did open up. He did, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what was compelling about Mike. He was very,
Speaker 1: very open, and I think he wanted to get something
Speaker 1: off his chest. And he started talking about these investments
Speaker 1: that he had made into Trump World products.
Speaker 2: I have supported him with checks and the.
Speaker 3: Gold gold Trump bars, one hundred dollars gold things.
Speaker 2: I can't get rid of those NFT.
Speaker 3: Cards, the TRB cards, not that they gave me a
Speaker 3: pin number or they good at any ATM went to ATM,
Speaker 3: couldn't get nothing out.
Speaker 1: The card has nothing on. Do you think it was
Speaker 1: a scam.
Speaker 3: It might have been.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: So you've invested a lot in Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone is telling me to buy something different.
Speaker 1: Stop buying, don't buy any and I just as a
Speaker 1: as a guy who's just getting to know you here,
Speaker 1: stop it right, I am. I wasn't familiar with a
Speaker 1: good amount of them, Like at first we thought he
Speaker 1: was talking about certain Trump World like NFTs. He had
Speaker 1: mentioned purchasing gold bars, which upon some further research, I
Speaker 1: think were Trump branded. I think they're branded as gold
Speaker 1: bullion bars that cost about one hundred bucks, and I
Speaker 1: think he was under the assumption that these were like
Speaker 1: legal tender as opposed to just fake gold with Trump's
Speaker 1: face on it, that it cost one hundred dollars because
Speaker 1: they're ripping people off.
Speaker 2: I think he also assumed he got a debit card
Speaker 2: that had more money on it then he paid for.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a thing called a TRB scam that is
Speaker 1: a company that essentially is jump. Donald Trump is created
Speaker 1: a world of products that he just dumps onto a
Speaker 1: lot of the MAGA supporters. And some are as silly
Speaker 1: as NFTs, some are as goofy as weird hats. But
Speaker 1: there's a lot of investment opportunities in Trump paraphernalia that
Speaker 1: a lot of people take. And then I think there's
Speaker 1: a second tier of organizations that prey on that. And
Speaker 1: one of these scams is selling Trump cards that I
Speaker 1: essentially are saying, if currency ever devalues, you have these
Speaker 1: credit cards that you've already put money into that you
Speaker 1: could go to a bank and get money out of.
Speaker 1: And so he was aut of the assumption that he
Speaker 1: could buy one hundred dollars cards and they'd be worth
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in a bank if he waits thirty
Speaker 1: days and then goes to a bank. And he was
Speaker 1: telling us he went to the bank, he wasn't getting
Speaker 1: the money, and he's filed police reports and it's starting
Speaker 1: to ruin his marriage and he's falling apart because he's
Speaker 1: invested so much money in this Trump universe.
Speaker 2: But then he his instinct was to perhaps invest more.
Speaker 1: Yes, another person had found him and said they could
Speaker 1: help him if they paid him more. And this is
Speaker 1: we we find the humor out there in the road.
Speaker 1: But there are people like Mike, And I think what
Speaker 1: was so compelling about him, is I really, you really
Speaker 1: feel for this guy like Mike seemed really sweet and kind.
Speaker 1: He seemed truly troubled by these things that he was
Speaker 1: promised that would be financial windfalls or at least a
Speaker 1: way to support a person who was the president of
Speaker 1: the United States, and people clearly took advantage of him.
Speaker 1: He saw it as a scam, but he had no
Speaker 1: way out. Literally, he police reports and other scammers were
Speaker 1: coming to him asking for more money, and he didn't know.
Speaker 1: He didn't know how to get out of this.
Speaker 2: Didn't he said he wanted to go into the Trump
Speaker 2: rally to ask, Yeah, people within Trump's orbit, like, hey,
Speaker 2: what can I do about this? Now, They're gonna not
Speaker 2: know anything about that because defend Trump's campaign and and
Speaker 2: his uh administration or whatever they they are not they
Speaker 2: don't sell these products. But at the same time, I
Speaker 2: don't think they're doing enough to like kind of separate themselves.
Speaker 2: If somebody put your name on something and it was fraudulent,
Speaker 2: you'd want to be like, hey, everybody, don't buy that.
Speaker 1: Yes, they've they are a part of a of a
Speaker 1: Donald Trump universe that sells crap promising bs to a
Speaker 1: lot of MAGA supporters who are constantly getting emails asking
Speaker 1: you to donate or asking you to buy weird pictures,
Speaker 1: weird paraphernalia, things that will have collector value in the future.
Speaker 1: And so they've create created like a h an entire
Speaker 1: ecosystem of bad investments legal in many cases dubious but
Speaker 1: legal that people put money into and that attracts like
Speaker 1: chum in the water, a bunch of other bad actors
Speaker 1: who are creating fake, scammy businesses taking advantage of these
Speaker 1: MAGA people who are spending money on Nick knacks, and
Speaker 1: now these knick knacks are our weaponized to just take
Speaker 1: the money off of it, and they're leaving somebody like
Speaker 1: Mike who doesn't know who to turn to outside of
Speaker 1: a literal Trump rally, unable to get in, just wanting
Speaker 1: a few questions. And yet we're like, leave Mike, you
Speaker 1: need to leave this. There's a scam going on inside
Speaker 1: right now, don't go in. And that draw he still
Speaker 1: wants to go in. He still wants to go in
Speaker 1: and listen to that man because you hope he has
Speaker 1: an answer for well.
Speaker 2: To be honest, like when we were shooting it, we
Speaker 2: were talking to him. I don't think either of us
Speaker 2: knew what he was talking about. We had some familiarity
Speaker 2: with ads we have seen, but the debit card thing,
Speaker 2: the gold coins, the gold bullion bars, I had not
Speaker 2: heard of, and so I like, obviously we looked it
Speaker 2: up afterwards, and we looked it up in the car
Speaker 2: and we're like, oh, this is a real problem. It's
Speaker 2: very sad. But when it was happening, I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't is this real? Is he really describing something
Speaker 2: that exists? And unfortunately it does.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of bad ways you can spend your
Speaker 2: money in the Trump orbit. They are good ways. You could,
Speaker 2: for example, buy shorts with Donald Trump's face on your crotch.
Speaker 2: Now I don't know that you can, Like I don't
Speaker 2: know what the resale value on those shorts is, but
Speaker 2: I think you'll always be able to get something for that.
Speaker 1: I think if you have, I mean, yeah, there there's
Speaker 1: some Trump material and Trump branded apparel that will always
Speaker 1: have at least historical significance. And when you put his
Speaker 1: face on, I think there were they cargo they were
Speaker 1: cargo st boogie Bard shorts.
Speaker 2: They look like Bard shorts.
Speaker 1: They were like board shorts with a Trump mouth on
Speaker 1: a crotch in a way. Again we made the joke,
Speaker 1: We make a joke about where the mouth is. But
Speaker 1: I do think of the designer. At what point is
Speaker 1: this just is this just coincidence? I think not? But
Speaker 1: do they did Trump fans want his mouth on the crotch?
Speaker 2: Well we're talking about it, so yeah, Like if it
Speaker 2: wasn't on the crouch and it was just on the thigh,
Speaker 2: that guy's not on television. Man, I'm just say it
Speaker 2: and we're not talking about it. And you think you're
Speaker 2: gonna You're gonna Facebook market Porge George with Trump's face
Speaker 2: just on the thigh. No One's gonna bite that, No
Speaker 2: one's coming for it. It's gotta be something you can
Speaker 2: talk about.
Speaker 1: Put the lips on the crotch, otherwise it ain't TV.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, So that's the other side of
Speaker 2: rallies obviously. On one thing that we're still not quite
Speaker 2: sure about was there were there were protesters, and this
Speaker 2: was disheartening. Not the protesters. There were protesters on this
Speaker 2: This rally took place at Coastal Carolina University, so there
Speaker 2: were students whose lives were disrupted, and there was a
Speaker 2: group of protesters, mostly minority protesters, who were not happy
Speaker 2: with how the college had handled things. Yes, and so
Speaker 2: they weren't being disruptive. They were literally across the street
Speaker 2: in an empty field protesting this event. And then what
Speaker 2: we witnessed was Trump fans immediately attacking them, not physically,
Speaker 2: but without knowing why they were there. Yeah, do you
Speaker 2: remember that? What was your reaction to that?
Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many pictures, there's so many
Speaker 1: moments that you could boil down, have Norman Rock will
Speaker 1: paint them and let it be reflective of what America
Speaker 1: feels like right now. And it was a somewhat confusing situation,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean people didn't have giant, hyperbolic reactions
Speaker 1: to it. And so that group of protesters, who yet
Speaker 1: were predominantly African American protesters, who had the college's initials,
Speaker 1: I believe it was like cc I will say it
Speaker 1: I cce you. I think it was. It was, frankly,
Speaker 1: from a distance, a confusing message. It was something about
Speaker 1: like CCU, you don't see me. I had to go
Speaker 1: up and talk to some of the protesters, and again
Speaker 1: it seemed as if they were they were students who
Speaker 1: were on campus who felt like the campus sprung Trump's
Speaker 1: arrival on them shut down the campus. People and dorms
Speaker 1: couldn't get across campus, and the students were met. They
Speaker 1: were upset, we don't want Donald Trump this political event
Speaker 1: on our campus and you never even asked us. She
Speaker 1: sprung it on us. So they set up a group
Speaker 1: across the street, away away from where the rally was
Speaker 1: taking place, and they just started chanting, CCEU, you don't
Speaker 1: see me, something of that nature. Again, if you're walking by,
Speaker 1: you don't really have a sense of any of the context.
Speaker 1: You just know that this is a predominantly African American
Speaker 1: group chanting. And then we watch about thirty feet away,
Speaker 1: Trump protesters running by, screaming profanities, giving the bird, people
Speaker 1: driving by honking, trying to drown them out, and just
Speaker 1: just vitriols and anger, knee jerk like they don't know
Speaker 1: what this is. They just know this is a group
Speaker 1: of people screaming. This is a group of people protesting,
Speaker 1: and I know I hate that so much so that
Speaker 1: I will give it the finger. I think our producer Abby,
Speaker 1: who is on the road with us, like what are
Speaker 1: they Why are they giving the finger? And you're like,
Speaker 1: look around, We're interviewing people wearing pictures of Donald Trump
Speaker 1: giving the finger to Joe Biden. Right, That son is
Speaker 1: with a mom who has a fuck Joe Biden shirt on,
Speaker 1: And so when they walk by a group of people
Speaker 1: peacefully protesting, their instinct is I will give them the finger.
Speaker 1: I will scream fuck you, like this is.
Speaker 2: So broken now. And unfortunately that was like our last
Speaker 2: moment at the rally, enough that we leave rallies on
Speaker 2: like an uplifting note. But that was like especially disappointing Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: you know, what's the reality of.
Speaker 1: People ask me all the time, like does anybody change?
Speaker 1: And again, our job out there is not to make
Speaker 1: people change. We find irony and hypocrisy and try to
Speaker 1: call it some bs, but we rarely find people who
Speaker 1: are changing their minds.
Speaker 2: Well, I just want to say, after years of doing
Speaker 2: this and talking to hundreds, maybe thousands of people, you
Speaker 2: found one.
Speaker 1: I found one and she came up. I think one
Speaker 1: of our producers, Abby again was talking to her about
Speaker 1: why she was there, and she told us that she
Speaker 1: was at JA January sixth. She was arrested for going inside,
Speaker 1: spent sixty days in jail, and she changed her mind.
Speaker 1: She saw it as BS, and we talked to her
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 4: You were a Trump supporter, absolutely, I was a Repolican
Speaker 4: and I was wrong that day for even being there.
Speaker 1: January sixth was an insurrection. Keep her voice down. This
Speaker 1: is a Trump rally. That's not the most popular take
Speaker 1: to have right now. And again we're always skeptical, like, really,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I believe this. Her story checks
Speaker 1: out and it is true she spent time in prison.
Speaker 1: She told a little bit of a story about some
Speaker 1: of the research she did. She did her own research
Speaker 1: when she got out about some of the things she
Speaker 1: had been told that didn't pan out, and now here
Speaker 1: she was feeling like she'd been tricked duped at a
Speaker 1: Trump rally trying to talk to other people about the ruse.
Speaker 1: I don't know how successful she was, but it was
Speaker 1: one of the few people that we've ever encountered who
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to tell the tale of January sixth as
Speaker 1: a heroic one or some conspiratorial FBI situation, but was
Speaker 1: telling it as like I made a mistake, I changed
Speaker 1: my mind. There is hope.
Speaker 2: And we had been looking for for other projects, you know,
Speaker 2: or other segments a year, a year and a half ago.
Speaker 2: We had been looking for people who might have changed
Speaker 2: their tune after they faced consequences for what they did
Speaker 2: on January sixth, and we had not been able to
Speaker 2: find it. And then suddenly she walked up. So that
Speaker 2: was interesting. I feel like we're going to do another
Speaker 2: few years of this, talk to a few more thousand people,
Speaker 2: and we'll meet a second one.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for that. Yeah, for seven years from now,
Speaker 1: we find another person who was able to slightly change
Speaker 1: their mind at the next Insurrection.
Speaker 2: Well, it's great to be back on the road. It's
Speaker 2: great to have you back on the road. It's great
Speaker 2: to have John Stewart back. It's great to have all
Speaker 2: these wonderful people making this show again. Anything you're looking
Speaker 2: forward to at the desk, back out in the field.
Speaker 1: Man, just hitting the ground running. I think this week
Speaker 1: has been incredible. We got to go back out to
Speaker 1: a rally, which is our love being out there in
Speaker 1: the mix of all this chaos. To come back and
Speaker 1: see John at the desk was inspiring and really energized everybody.
Speaker 1: I got to be I've been at the desk this week,
Speaker 1: at a show last night, and I mean there's no
Speaker 1: better place to sit than at the desk at the
Speaker 1: Daily Show, getting to go through the news with the
Speaker 1: wonderful people at this show. So yeah, I think we're
Speaker 1: ready to go. We got a heck of a heck
Speaker 1: of a year ahead, So get some rest.
Speaker 2: All right, get some rest. Looking forward to it. Thank you, Jordan,
Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 1: This has been a Comedy Central podcast.