Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Alex Wagner, welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Daily Show and a club. It's a thrill in
Speaker 1: an honor for me. This is your sixth time you
Speaker 1: might hold the record. Congratulations. I feel very positive about that.
Speaker 1: Actually got you a monkey Pops vaccine with a gift.
Speaker 1: I want my photo in the hallway. I'll keep saying it.
Speaker 1: I'm over and over again, and I will make sure
Speaker 1: that I have one. I see two chains, I see Oprah.
Speaker 1: I need to see Alex Wagner in the hallway and
Speaker 1: then I can stop coming out of I mean, you
Speaker 1: cook me on the spot. Now I'll find I do
Speaker 1: have the photo of us in my office. It's like
Speaker 1: a like a beautiful frame, Tiffany frame. It's perfect and
Speaker 1: no one walks past it. But it's fine. It's funny.
Speaker 1: That's for you and me, Trevor. This is a really
Speaker 1: exciting time for everybody because your show kicks off tomorrow. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love your your Instagram bio reads anchor at MSNBC
Speaker 1: plus person worried about the future, But I think that
Speaker 1: sounds a little mile dramtic. What do you have to
Speaker 1: worry about the future, like the climate partic's caps melting
Speaker 1: faster than expected, President shuffling off classified nuclear secrets to
Speaker 1: Palm Beach Resort. You know, Republican election deniers being elected
Speaker 1: across what do you want? But you, you know, because
Speaker 1: you travel so much and because you've talked to so so
Speaker 1: many people on the ground, I've always felt like I
Speaker 1: should listen to you when you're worried, because you talked
Speaker 1: to like America. Yeah, yeah, And I will say on
Speaker 1: this show, I'm going to keep talking to America. I
Speaker 1: just went down to Florida, UM, which is the place
Speaker 1: like vow never to return to each time I go,
Speaker 1: and yet I keep going down to Florida. That's what
Speaker 1: makes it great. Exactly. It was a hundred and seven
Speaker 1: degree a hundred and seven degrees down there, and what
Speaker 1: Governor de Santis is doing in that state is worthy
Speaker 1: of a very close examination. And so we went down
Speaker 1: there and looked specifically at the ways in which Christian
Speaker 1: nationalism has worked its way into Florida public schools. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about that this week and some
Speaker 1: of the very alarming things that teachers are being trained
Speaker 1: to teach public school students on UM. You know, I
Speaker 1: I will say you should be worried, Trevor, because, um,
Speaker 1: not just this is happening in Florida, but this is
Speaker 1: very much seen as a model for what's happening across
Speaker 1: the rest of the country. Rhonda Santis maybe the Republican
Speaker 1: nominee for president, which which people think of as like
Speaker 1: a good thing because they go like, oh, he's calm.
Speaker 1: You know, he has a demeanor about him. Trump is crazy,
Speaker 1: but it seems like Trump's crazy was also the reason
Speaker 1: he couldn't get things done. Yes, Rhonda sanctist. Everyone says
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, he's he's got all his cards, he's
Speaker 1: ready to play them. And he has a network of
Speaker 1: conservative activists and donors and power players in his corner.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the result. This is a harvest
Speaker 1: of multiple years of trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: re indoctrinate students into a certain line of conservative ideology,
Speaker 1: and the Santis has made it happy been. But he
Speaker 1: has a lot of people behind him, and there are
Speaker 1: other governors. Carry Lake in Arizona is the Republican nominee
Speaker 1: in Arizona, and she was on the stump I think
Speaker 1: it was yesterday praising de Santis and saying, am I
Speaker 1: allowed to say this on this family program? That he
Speaker 1: had big dick energy just like Donald Trump? Like not
Speaker 1: even kidding, she said, b d e if you know,
Speaker 1: you know big de Santis energy, but really saying that
Speaker 1: what we needed was more big dig energy, the kind
Speaker 1: that Rhonda Santis and Donald Trump have. So that's where
Speaker 1: we are as a country, Trevor, and I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you, I'm alarmed you you are going to be
Speaker 1: the person who is informing so many people about what's
Speaker 1: going on in the country. You know, as as as
Speaker 1: an anchor on a show like yours, you're in an
Speaker 1: interesting position because on the one hand, you want people
Speaker 1: to understand the states of the country. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: you don't want people to exist in a perpetual state
Speaker 1: of panic, because then what happens is people start getting
Speaker 1: tired and there like I I don't care anymore, nothing
Speaker 1: is actually happening. How do you find that balance? Well,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I don't want to be pollyannish
Speaker 1: about things. Right when things are bad, I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you they're bad. But I also think we we
Speaker 1: haven't given up on democracy. And the reality is, if
Speaker 1: you don't like what Governor Ronda Santis is doing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I spent ten hours in a Brevard County school Board meeting.
Speaker 1: You can run for school board and stop some of
Speaker 1: this stuff from happening. You can participate in midterm elections.
Speaker 1: You can call your senators and congressmen. I mean that stuff.
Speaker 1: As cliche as it sounds, as small ball as it sounds,
Speaker 1: it matters because the decision that the Brevard County school
Speaker 1: Board makes about whether or not kids can have book
Speaker 1: fairs again and read certain books and talk about being
Speaker 1: homosexual or transgender, that means something. And those decisions are discreet,
Speaker 1: but they are part of our larger system of governance.
Speaker 1: And I don't want people to ever lose the hope
Speaker 1: that the project of America is a fed, a complete
Speaker 1: and it is a rap, because it's not. I mean,
Speaker 1: and you can swing the pendulum back. I still believe
Speaker 1: that we generally take two steps forward and maybe one
Speaker 1: in three quarter steps back. A lot of one, and
Speaker 1: that's a lot of stocks back. I mean, I hope
Speaker 1: look at look at you and me, Trevor. You know
Speaker 1: I'm hosting the nine pm hour of a very important
Speaker 1: cable network. You are the voice of a generation. Our
Speaker 1: stories are unlikely. We're too brown people that weren't ever
Speaker 1: supposed to be in these positions of power, and look
Speaker 1: at us, you know, and true, and that's true. It's
Speaker 1: it's true. Sometimes I go the fact that it is
Speaker 1: the exception is what makes it scary a little bit sometimes.
Speaker 1: And so what's interesting about America when you when you
Speaker 1: look at it as a whole, is it feels like
Speaker 1: sometimes like in the run up to Donald Trump, it
Speaker 1: feels like the country knew this was happening, and then
Speaker 1: people on the coast, we're like, oh, that will never happen.
Speaker 1: Tramp could never have. It feels like there's a certain
Speaker 1: complacency now. Is people relax, you know, they want to
Speaker 1: watch succession, they want to read what's happening, watch people
Speaker 1: enjoy themselves. But it seems like conservatives are being told
Speaker 1: constantly that they're under assault, that this is the end
Speaker 1: of the world, they need to run for school boards,
Speaker 1: and so they believe it and they do it. And
Speaker 1: so I love to know, as somebody who's gonna be
Speaker 1: on MSNBC, you're in a position where you have part
Speaker 1: of your audience, which is in a bubble. Many of
Speaker 1: us do you know how do you or do you
Speaker 1: even think it's possible at the stage to just pop
Speaker 1: out of that bubble? Is there a way you can see?
Speaker 1: As Alex Wagners, as the journalist who's gone around the
Speaker 1: country talking to Trump supporters and you know, Biden supporters
Speaker 1: are like, do you think there's a way you can
Speaker 1: get through to people who maybe don't agree with you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna damn well try. I mean, you can't just
Speaker 1: say we're only We're only gonna talk to like live
Speaker 1: liberals And this is for the seller corridor, you know,
Speaker 1: like this is I'm a journalist, and you are gonna
Speaker 1: hear from some Republicans. Sometimes sometimes they may be critical
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump. Sometimes sometimes they may not be. But
Speaker 1: I think it is my job to show people what's
Speaker 1: happening in the world, and not just what they want
Speaker 1: to see. I mean, listen to the future of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party matters not just two Republicans, but to Democrats
Speaker 1: and independence too. If one of the two parties in
Speaker 1: this country is forever broken or populated by clowns or worse, like,
Speaker 1: we're not going to get anything done done as a country.
Speaker 1: We are for better or worse in a marriage, and
Speaker 1: we gotta figure out a way to make it work,
Speaker 1: because we know what divorce kind of looks like. We
Speaker 1: tried it in eighteen sixty and we can't. It didn't
Speaker 1: go so well. So your first episode tomorrow, it is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: If you will on the show today, don't don't give
Speaker 1: anything away because you obviously will tease anything. But if
Speaker 1: you will on the show today, what would you what
Speaker 1: will be the number one story? Bet Well, listen, I
Speaker 1: think for sure we're gonna be talking about Trump and
Speaker 1: mar Lago and what exactly he was doing with those
Speaker 1: papers and the degree to which this is part of
Speaker 1: a very serious investigation at the d o J. But
Speaker 1: I don't think. I mean. The other thing that I
Speaker 1: want everyone to focus on is the fact that we
Speaker 1: have to significant primaries tomorrow happening Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin,
Speaker 1: And what we very well could see this week is
Speaker 1: the exit of Liz Cheney, probably the standard bearer for
Speaker 1: integrity inside the GOP, be escorted off the stage stage right.
Speaker 1: And for Sarah Palin, who in many ways is the
Speaker 1: proto Trump re entering American politics as a Republican congresswoman
Speaker 1: from Alaska, and I think as we take stock of
Speaker 1: where the country is at, we need to take stock
Speaker 1: of where the Republican Party is at. And those two
Speaker 1: entrances and that entrance and exit tell us a lot
Speaker 1: about where we're headed in the GOP. And I think
Speaker 1: it's deeply problematic, and I think it warrants further investigation
Speaker 1: and analysis. This is why you're the best person to
Speaker 1: host the show, because you know luck, You travel luck,
Speaker 1: you meet the people, um and don't hang out with you.
Speaker 1: You don't get overwhelmed. No, you don't get Thanks for that,
Speaker 1: I'll take it, but no, you don't get overwhelmed. Really,
Speaker 1: one thing I've always admind about you is the fact
Speaker 1: that you don't get overwhelmed by the delusion of information
Speaker 1: that's coming at you. Rather, you find a way to
Speaker 1: process all of it in one of the most fantastic
Speaker 1: ways that I've ever seen. Congratulations on the show. Backul
Speaker 1: be joining me again. We're gonna be watching everybody don't
Speaker 1: Forget Tuesday to Friday, nine pm. Wat's the Daily Show
Speaker 1: Central Armed Comedy Central in stream fool episodes anytime I'll
Speaker 1: on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast