Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello, how are you. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm so delighted to be sitting down with you.
Speaker 1: You are just a star of the Democratic Party. And
Speaker 1: I am just so delighted to be sitting here with
Speaker 1: you because who wasn't rooting for you that I knew,
Speaker 1: no one. That was a very very tight race that
Speaker 1: you were in. Well, thank you, it's great to be here,
Speaker 1: and I'm proud of what Georgia did. Yeah. Um, and
Speaker 1: now you don't have an election. You don't have a
Speaker 1: runoff or a special election or any election for the
Speaker 1: next six years. That's right. My name was on the
Speaker 1: ballot five times in two years, so clearly I wanted
Speaker 1: this dog on job and finally have a six year term. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's very that's very refreshing news for all of us,
Speaker 1: so we never have to deal with that sort of
Speaker 1: chicanery again. I'm excited that you wrote a book. It's
Speaker 1: called Put your Shoes On and Get Ready, which is
Speaker 1: about you growing up in a household. You were one
Speaker 1: of twelve children, and you were number eleven, one of
Speaker 1: twelve children in my family, I'm number eleven out of twelve.
Speaker 1: My parents were both preachers. Clearly they read the scripture
Speaker 1: be fruit, be fruitful, and multiply. Yeah, well it was
Speaker 1: also nice nice of you. I mean, did you write
Speaker 1: a children's book so that herschel Walker would be able
Speaker 1: to read it? So so I have I have two
Speaker 1: small children. My my daughter is six and my son
Speaker 1: is four. And the title of the book put your
Speaker 1: shoes on and get ready to something. My dad told
Speaker 1: me every morning. He had a fierce work ethic. You
Speaker 1: didn't sleep late in his house, and every day he said,
Speaker 1: get up, put shoes on, and get ready. And it's
Speaker 1: something I passed on to my children. For me, it
Speaker 1: represents preparation, but also a sense of purpose and the
Speaker 1: recognition that all of us have a place. I believe
Speaker 1: in the world. We've got gifts and things were supposed
Speaker 1: to do, and I'm fighting every day to make sure
Speaker 1: that every kid has a place in America. And also
Speaker 1: we're also fighting pretty hard to be able to work
Speaker 1: across party lines and work with a lot of Republicans
Speaker 1: that would we would a normal person would think it
Speaker 1: was too hard to work with people like Ted Cruz.
Speaker 1: Um you're working with him on something I know. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you, like how how do how do
Speaker 1: you operate that? Like, how does that work for you? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm a pastor, so you know, I'm used to inviting
Speaker 1: whosoever will. I'm used to working with all kinds of folks,
Speaker 1: and um, I have found that in the Congress. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have our differences, They're real, but you're right. I
Speaker 1: did an amendment with Ted Cruz. He he and I
Speaker 1: are on the Commerce Committee together. Uh. I disagree with
Speaker 1: him most of the time. Um. Honestly, some days I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there listening like really, uh. But but as it
Speaker 1: turns out, one day there was something he wanted to
Speaker 1: get done that I also wanted to get done. We
Speaker 1: couldn't get it done in committee. We had to take
Speaker 1: it to the floor of the Senate, and the night
Speaker 1: we passed it by partisan infrastructure bill, he stood on
Speaker 1: his side of the out arguing about why he thought
Speaker 1: we should do it. I stood up on my side
Speaker 1: arguing why I thought we should also do it. And
Speaker 1: then I closed with words I never imagine hearing myself say.
Speaker 1: In closing, I'd like to associate myself, uh with with
Speaker 1: with the words of the senator from Texas. My colleagues,
Speaker 1: I think half of them didn't know what was in
Speaker 1: the amendment, but they said, if he's for it, and
Speaker 1: he's for it, let's pass it. It passed overwhelmingly, and
Speaker 1: it's really it was just an amendment to get us
Speaker 1: closer to building a highway out that goes through Texas,
Speaker 1: but it also goes through Georgia. And even in this
Speaker 1: divided time, I think that there's a highway that runs
Speaker 1: through our humanity that's bigger than partisan politics. It's certainly
Speaker 1: bigger than race. And if we build out the highway,
Speaker 1: everybody can get to where they need to go. I
Speaker 1: think that's my job as a legislator, and I think
Speaker 1: that's the job of every citizen to try to find
Speaker 1: common ground to get the work done. And Yeah, and
Speaker 1: considering the state of politics and the divisiveness of you
Speaker 1: know where we are right now in this country, I mean,
Speaker 1: are you hopeful about voting rights? I know that's something
Speaker 1: that you're working hard for and that you're also uh
Speaker 1: with police brutality that you guys had a caucus with
Speaker 1: the President. How do you see these things playing out
Speaker 1: in this time? Look, change is slow, it's difficult, It
Speaker 1: comes and fits and starts, but we have to keep
Speaker 1: working at it. So I'm not about to lose hope.
Speaker 1: I mean, if the preacher losers hope, then we were.
Speaker 1: You know, we're in a dangerous place. So I'm not
Speaker 1: about to lose hope. UM. I was John Lewis's pastor.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any reason to believe that he could win.
Speaker 1: I think we looked back at the civil rights movement
Speaker 1: and we act as if these victories were inevitable, when
Speaker 1: in fact they were quite improbable. They kept fighting the
Speaker 1: good fight. He fought until the very end. Who am
Speaker 1: I to give up? And Uh, I was disappointed that
Speaker 1: we didn't get voting ranks done last Congress. Um, but
Speaker 1: I'm not about to stop fighting. The last time we
Speaker 1: passed voting rights in this country, uh, it passed on
Speaker 1: the Republican president, it passed the Senate, I think nineties
Speaker 1: to zero. Some of those folks are still in the Congress.
Speaker 1: And democracy for me is not just one issue alongside
Speaker 1: other issues. It's the framework in which we get to
Speaker 1: fight for everything we care about. Climate change, UH, the
Speaker 1: issues around police brutality, UH, giving people access to affordable,
Speaker 1: affordable health care. All of these things are fought for
Speaker 1: within the framework of our democracy. And so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep fighting until we get voting rights done. And with
Speaker 1: speaking on the subject of books, we have a you know,
Speaker 1: uh governor in Florida who is trying to ban books
Speaker 1: and trying to ban critical race theory. And uh, let's
Speaker 1: just talk for a second about how damaging that is
Speaker 1: for little children growing up in this country. Oh, I
Speaker 1: think I think it's it's quite unfortunate. And we have
Speaker 1: to reject the idea that our children will be so
Speaker 1: traumatized by the truth of our complicated American story that
Speaker 1: they can't bear it. Um. Uh, you know the script.
Speaker 1: Forgive the preacher for quoting scripture, but Jesus said, you
Speaker 1: shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Speaker 1: And um all all stories that complicated. All families have
Speaker 1: complicated stories, and so does the American family, and all
Speaker 1: of us have to push back against this idea that
Speaker 1: education as the enemy all of us red, yellow, brown, black,
Speaker 1: and white. This black history is the American story. And uh,
Speaker 1: that's why I wrote this book. I deal with the
Speaker 1: issue of race in this in this book. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if my book would be banned or not. Uh,
Speaker 1: but but I'll tell you as a dad. I was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to talk to my kids
Speaker 1: about what I know they will encounter, and um, I
Speaker 1: think I deal with it in a way that honors
Speaker 1: the legacy of my dad, who, as I talked about
Speaker 1: in the book, was a He served in the army
Speaker 1: during the World War Two era, all state side, and
Speaker 1: one day he was asked to give up his seat
Speaker 1: on a public bus while wearing his soldiers uniform. For
Speaker 1: some the skin he was wearing was more important than
Speaker 1: the uniform he was wearing, and so he had to
Speaker 1: give up his seat. That's a part of the American story.
Speaker 1: But here's the other part of the American story. My
Speaker 1: dad had to give up his bus seat. Now I
Speaker 1: have a seat in the United States Senate, a kid
Speaker 1: who grew up in that's right. Only in America. Only
Speaker 1: in America is my story possible. And we can't give
Speaker 1: in to the demagogus. We can't give in to those
Speaker 1: who pedal in division, because people who have no vision
Speaker 1: traffic and division. We have to fight for that grand
Speaker 1: American covenant e pluribus run them out of many one.
Speaker 1: That's what makes our country great, and I'm deeply on it.
Speaker 1: To represent the people of Georgia. Yeah. Yeah, And the
Speaker 1: people of Georgia are honored to have you because you
Speaker 1: instilled so much faith in them. When the race was
Speaker 1: tight and you had another election and against you know who,
Speaker 1: you said, I believe the people of Georgia will make
Speaker 1: the right decision, and they did make the right decision.
Speaker 1: So it all ended up in the way that it should.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, you're a pleasure to have serving in
Speaker 1: the United States Senate. It's great to watch you. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Yeah right, I'll put your shoes on
Speaker 1: and get ready. It's available now. Explore more shows from
Speaker 1: the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weeknights
Speaker 1: at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central and stream full
Speaker 1: episodes anytime on Fair Amount Plus. This has been a
Speaker 1: Comedy Central podcast