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Speaker 1: Daily Show my gost tonight. He is the co founder
Speaker 1: and co chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Please
Speaker 1: talking to the program, Frank Farnkoff, Let me first of all,
Speaker 1: welcome you to the show and explain very quickly the
Speaker 1: reason on the Commission for Presidential Debates kind of got
Speaker 1: blown out of the water. You guys would run the debates.
Speaker 1: The two candidates, Trump and Biden, the two main candidates,
Speaker 1: made their own agreement and kind of cut you guys
Speaker 1: out of the process. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Well, they're trying.
Speaker 1: To I see. Why would they do that.
Speaker 3: Because we're not nice people, I guess.
Speaker 1: And they seemed so nice. But why what was the
Speaker 1: reasoning behind not having it in the way that it's
Speaker 1: been since eighty seven?
Speaker 3: You know, it started in eighty seven for a reason.
Speaker 3: We were created after two studies, one at Harvard, one
Speaker 3: at the Georgetown not familiarly for the center, and because
Speaker 3: there was so many problems with the candidates on both
Speaker 3: sides over the years, we went sixteen years without any
Speaker 3: presidential debates because they wouldn't participate. No one can be
Speaker 3: forced to debate.
Speaker 1: They thought it was troo partisan when it was the
Speaker 1: legal women.
Speaker 3: Vite that's right, And so we were created. Paul Kirk
Speaker 3: was then the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I
Speaker 3: was President Reagan's chairman of the RNC, and we created
Speaker 3: the Commission and have done them now for well, we've
Speaker 3: done thirty three over the last thirty six years. And
Speaker 3: we were created for one purpose, to be in the
Speaker 3: middle of the candidates, representing the people. Commission not non
Speaker 3: part non part of IC. And so at this point
Speaker 3: in time, with this particular UH battle, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of things unexpected happening, and I don't know what the
Speaker 3: hell is going to happen. Is we go forward? Agreed,
Speaker 3: so we have to wait and see. Now they agreed,
Speaker 3: supposedly they've agreed, but now the question is.
Speaker 1: You know, there's gonna be one debate on Sanna apparently,
Speaker 1: and then one other debate. I'm not exactly ABC.
Speaker 3: UH. Now the questions that aren't been settled because I
Speaker 3: hear that the former president today said he won't appear
Speaker 3: unless a drug test is taken by Biden to show
Speaker 3: he wasn't hopped up like he allegedly was when he
Speaker 3: made his speech, you know, the State of the Union speech.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think that the prey they want Biden drug
Speaker 1: tested because they think he's trans what what? What do
Speaker 1: they think is out of it?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: What do they believe?
Speaker 3: We believe? I guess that that he was hyped up
Speaker 3: there at when.
Speaker 1: I say speech, and would Trump then also drug test?
Speaker 3: I don't think so?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: And the other thing is what's undecided, John, is how
Speaker 3: did they walk out on the stage or they see.
Speaker 1: These things they decide where to sit?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, a lot of things.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: The mute button. I put a mute button in four
Speaker 3: years ago because they weren't obeying the rules that they
Speaker 3: weren't supposed to talk for two minutes when the others.
Speaker 1: I put one of those in my TV and I
Speaker 1: used it as soon as they started. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you a question, and perhaps this may not what are
Speaker 1: we missing? Like? So let's say they don't go with
Speaker 1: the Presidential Commission, and they don't go with what are
Speaker 1: we really losing? I mean, to be perfectly frank, I
Speaker 1: don't get much substantive out of these debates anyway, the
Speaker 1: idea that their answers have to be a minute and
Speaker 1: a half and there's a buzzer, there's a meat.
Speaker 3: So that's all been changed. We changed that some time ago.
Speaker 3: What happens is the debates ninety minutes or divided in
Speaker 3: the six fifteen minute pods that each answer a question
Speaker 3: from the moderator for two minutes without interruption, and then
Speaker 3: the moderator can drill down. It's no of these two minutes,
Speaker 3: one minute and all the rest like existed a long
Speaker 3: long time ago. Those are the things we changed, and
Speaker 3: so you know what they're going to do here. They
Speaker 3: haven't answered those questions.
Speaker 1: But do you believe that those debates were fruitful? Like
Speaker 1: when I think of the debates between Trump and Hillary,
Speaker 1: or Trump and Biden or Trump, and let's say, Adore,
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily, I didn't find much.
Speaker 3: What we do, what we do after each cycle is
Speaker 3: we go out and ask the public did the debates
Speaker 3: have an effect with any good for you? In making
Speaker 3: this decision, and about sixty five to seventy percent say
Speaker 3: it's not the only and the most significant factor, But yes,
Speaker 3: it does play a part. And you know, we look
Speaker 3: at it in two ways. John. Not only are they
Speaker 3: answering the questions about issues that are important to the
Speaker 3: people they want to hear, but you'll learn an awful
Speaker 3: lot about the personality, the attitude of a person, how
Speaker 3: they conduct themselves in the debates. For example, I think
Speaker 3: for former President Trump, really hurt himself in the first
Speaker 3: debate last time. I think al Gore back in nineteen
Speaker 3: or in two thousand walking across the stage in front
Speaker 3: of door, So they learned that.
Speaker 1: Isn't that? I think that's kind of my point, which is,
Speaker 1: if what we take away from it is al Gore
Speaker 1: side and war rouge, so he shouldn't so he shouldn't
Speaker 1: be president. That strikes me as a methodology that is
Speaker 1: terribly flawed.
Speaker 3: Well, you tie that with what the answers to the
Speaker 3: questions were also on.
Speaker 1: It, but no one remembers those, and isn't because I
Speaker 1: think the point is you have this sort of system
Speaker 1: set up for tradition, but the media has changed so drastically.
Speaker 1: It's so polarized, it's so sensationalized. They're not looking to accomplish.
Speaker 1: What maybe the Commission even is looking to accomplish is
Speaker 1: that now at.
Speaker 3: Odds, what we lose is this number one, We lose
Speaker 3: the town hall meeting in this situation where there are
Speaker 3: private citizens who are on the stage and get to
Speaker 3: ask the president, former president whatever questions. That's a real
Speaker 3: big part of this. Plus we go to campuses we've got.
Speaker 3: I mean, there are four schools right now, Texas State,
Speaker 3: Virginia State, Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, the University of Utah
Speaker 3: and Salt Lake. They're cramped, they're they're they're working up
Speaker 3: right now to put on what they do. They teach civics,
Speaker 3: special civics courses. I mean, there's an awful lot that's done.
Speaker 3: Those schools really deserve a hand because they're whole.
Speaker 1: They just.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure those schools are supposed to be teaching civics.
Speaker 1: Whether there's a debate or not. I do think we
Speaker 1: should give them applause. Like you know, Mention in Utah
Speaker 1: is teaching physics and civics. Uh. I guess my worry
Speaker 1: is we have this. Are we clinging to an institution
Speaker 1: that nobody is particularly satisfied with, whether they think the
Speaker 1: moderators are too part in, whether they think the rules
Speaker 1: are too archaic or too steeped in Robert's rules of order,
Speaker 1: and we're not working hard enough to design a system
Speaker 1: that will help our democracy flourish rather than just become sensationalistic.
Speaker 3: Fact, I think that that is a criticism that's been there,
Speaker 3: But we have changed what we do now. Wasn't what
Speaker 3: happened when we how we did it back when it started,
Speaker 3: or how it was done before us. Just dividing in
Speaker 3: fact the ninety minutes in the six minutes.
Speaker 1: Monitoring an audience seems to me a way of dispelling
Speaker 1: a little bit of the theatrical nature.
Speaker 3: But you know that was both parties, both candidates. He said, Well,
Speaker 3: at our debates there were people are booing, and those
Speaker 3: are the primary debates. We have nothing to do with
Speaker 3: the primary debates. In our debates. You can go back
Speaker 3: and look at all thirty three of them. Very few
Speaker 3: times do you even hear that there's an audience. They
Speaker 3: may laugh if something funny you said. The ticket said
Speaker 3: you're not allowed to make a noise. If so, the
Speaker 3: Secret Service is going to come and r give up.
Speaker 3: So they've been pretty good. They've been pretty good.
Speaker 1: The Silver Service really drag people out for making noise. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I don't think you're making the case for democracy connecting.
Speaker 1: I think I think you're finding yourself in all.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, John, we're not perfect understood.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to get that sense. How does the the
Speaker 1: Commission regain its footing or is it out of the barn?
Speaker 3: And that's the end you say this, as I said,
Speaker 3: we were. We were started so that we could provide
Speaker 3: the middle down the middle for the public. If these
Speaker 3: two candidates.
Speaker 1: Clowns, no, well you know I started with that and switched.
Speaker 3: But if they're successful, if they do this and it
Speaker 3: works out, and so that people sitting at home and
Speaker 3: watching on television have have learned something, we'll salute them.
Speaker 3: We'll salute them now. Whether that doesn't mean we're not
Speaker 3: ever going to come back. But if they crash, which
Speaker 3: they may still, because a lot of things have to
Speaker 3: be figure, we're going to be there. We're going to
Speaker 3: be there until we know for sure.
Speaker 1: What be there to pick up the pieces. This is
Speaker 1: one of the situations where you say to the debate,
Speaker 1: people will be there when you fall, and I.
Speaker 3: Remember that, yes, you will fall.
Speaker 1: All right, frank fur cop, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take this for a break.
Speaker 4: So Vice President Kamala Harris has been out on the
Speaker 4: campaign trail, which is very refreshing. For a long time,
Speaker 4: it felt like the White House was hiding her, possibly
Speaker 4: because whenever she speaks, it's mostly an unintelligible word salad.
Speaker 4: But it turns out that's all on purpose.
Speaker 5: Talking about the significance of the passage of time, right,
Speaker 5: the significance of the passage of time. So when you
Speaker 5: think about it, there is great significance to the passage
Speaker 5: of time. It seems like maybe it's a small issue.
Speaker 6: It's a big issue. You need to get to go
Speaker 6: and need to be able to get where you need
Speaker 6: to go to do the work and get home. And
Speaker 6: it is time for us to do what we have
Speaker 6: been doing in that time is every day.
Speaker 3: Every day.
Speaker 6: It is time for us to agree that.
Speaker 7: She's come so far since our first session. My name
Speaker 7: is Dahlia Rose Hibiscus and I am Vice President Kamala
Speaker 7: Harris's holistic thought advisor. What is a holistic thought advisor.
Speaker 7: It's holistic, yes, and I am advising. And what do
Speaker 7: we mean when we say that? It means that I
Speaker 7: am the one by whom the thoughts are being advised
Speaker 7: from a place of advisement and then, once advised, communicated holistically.
Speaker 7: What mm hmm you get up? I lead the Vice
Speaker 7: President on not so much sentences as idea voyages.
Speaker 5: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Speaker 5: You exist in the context of all in which you
Speaker 5: live and what came before you.
Speaker 7: It's a process I call speaking without thinking. It's not
Speaker 7: about the destination of the thought. It's about the journey
Speaker 7: and how many words you use to describe the journey.
Speaker 5: That's on top of everything else that we know and
Speaker 5: don't know yet based on what we've just been able
Speaker 5: to see. And because we've seen it or not doesn't
Speaker 5: mean it hasn't happened.
Speaker 7: Whenever the Vice President gets a speech from her staff,
Speaker 7: the first thing I do is cut out all the
Speaker 7: words individually, and then I take those words to my
Speaker 7: word cave. That's where I wait to learn what order
Speaker 7: the universe wants them to be in. Words have vibrations,
Speaker 7: the feeling they give you is so much more powerful
Speaker 7: than what they need.
Speaker 5: We have the ability to see what can be unburdened
Speaker 5: by what has been, and then to make the possible
Speaker 5: actually happen.
Speaker 7: I hear the counter arguments all the time. People should
Speaker 7: be able to understand what their leaders are saying when
Speaker 7: they talk. But I prefer to leave Kamalist thoughts open
Speaker 7: to interpretation, like a work of modern art that you
Speaker 7: look at and go, I wonder what that was all about.
Speaker 5: See the moment in time in which we exist and
Speaker 5: are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to
Speaker 5: understand where we exist in the history and in the
Speaker 5: moment as it relates not only to the past but
Speaker 5: the future.
Speaker 7: It really is such a career highlight to be working
Speaker 7: with someone with such an advanced mind space as the
Speaker 7: Vice President. I also sell Essential Oils on Facebook Marketplace.
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