Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Wow, when did movies become
Speaker 1: like a daylong event? Can anybody tell me this? While moving?
Speaker 1: Like the New Batman is three hours? Guys, three hours?
Speaker 1: Now It's like I'm in book territory now, do you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? The whole reason I went into
Speaker 1: the movies because I didn't have time for the book.
Speaker 1: Now I'm in the movie. Now I'm just like, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess this is the book. But now I'm stuck
Speaker 1: at the pace that the movie goes. Why why are
Speaker 1: we making movies this long? What is it for? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? It's like like a documentary series.
Speaker 1: Now I'm just gonna watch the parts of Batman that
Speaker 1: I don't find interesting. And this is Batman doing his
Speaker 1: Texas Bruce. The company is struggling. Why is this in
Speaker 1: the movie? It's coming to you from the heart of
Speaker 1: Times where in New York City, the only city in America.
Speaker 1: It's The Daily Show. Here's edition tonight, the State of
Speaker 1: the Union, the State of Ukraine. Stay Abrams, this is
Speaker 1: the Daily Show with ever know? Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
Speaker 1: Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Trevor Noah and joining
Speaker 1: me for today's headlines is our very own running check.
Speaker 1: What's going on, Reache. I've missed you, man, Trevor. Good
Speaker 1: to see you. I too, have been dismayed by recent events,
Speaker 1: namely Russia invading Ukraine, and I've been doing my part
Speaker 1: on social media. Now I'm not trying to say I'm
Speaker 1: my hero, but I've been asking this stupid bott on
Speaker 1: my Instagram comments to off and I think I may
Speaker 1: have single handedly turned the tide of this war. So look,
Speaker 1: we all in this together. It's not about me. But
Speaker 1: if you see me comment on the Instagram post, please
Speaker 1: like my comment. Powerful stuff, Ronnie. I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: didn't make it about you like most people would, but
Speaker 1: really powerful. Thank you. All right, let's jump into today's headlines.
Speaker 1: We kick things off with the latest from Ukraine, where
Speaker 1: despite fierce resistance from the Ukrainian people, Russian troops are
Speaker 1: now moving into major cities and advancing on the capitol
Speaker 1: of Kiev, and folks, there is really no hiding from
Speaker 1: this war. Russians have reportedly attacked hospitals, schools, and yesterday
Speaker 1: Russian bombs even hit a Holocaust memorial, which I'm sorry
Speaker 1: that like is the final show that goes to show
Speaker 1: how evil Houton is. Like the guy's bombing Holocaust memorials.
Speaker 1: I don't even feel comfortable using a bathroom at a
Speaker 1: Holocaust memorial. It's too disrespectful. I'm just like, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: find a Starbucks. It's fine. And the foremot from the
Speaker 1: rest of the world continued today as the United Nations
Speaker 1: approved the resolution demanding that Russia stop this war. But
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're honest, you and resolutions don't really
Speaker 1: mean ship to Russia. You know. The United Nations may
Speaker 1: as well have come out and made one of those
Speaker 1: imagined videos where everyone sings. Still wouldn't have done anything,
Speaker 1: but at least we would have laughed. And so if
Speaker 1: you're looking for for more bad news, clearly sick person.
Speaker 1: But here it is. There's now a hint that this
Speaker 1: invasion may only be the first in a series, as
Speaker 1: a world wonders what Lad of your boots next move
Speaker 1: might be his ally, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko,
Speaker 1: may have given away the game Tuesday when he was
Speaker 1: pictured in front of a battle map that may have
Speaker 1: indicated plans for Moldova, which lies to the west of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Lukashenko stood in front of a Ukrainian map detailing Russia's
Speaker 1: battle plan, which suggests moving troops from Odessa into neighboring Moldova. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just crazy, man. There's a chance that Russia
Speaker 1: is planning to invade Moldova after Ukraine. And what's even
Speaker 1: crazier is that we know this because this guy the
Speaker 1: leader of Belarus and clearly the stepdad in every eighties
Speaker 1: Porno filmed himself giving away the plans, just standing there.
Speaker 1: This is the plan. This is the plan. Like I
Speaker 1: almost got like this compy real life, you know, because
Speaker 1: this is what happens in the movies. You know, there's
Speaker 1: always like a henchman who's like, DC is the master plan.
Speaker 1: We're going through Old No, Mr Bunk took a picture
Speaker 1: with his commodore Penis. Get him. Also, feel bad for
Speaker 1: the intern who had to get that map. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: probably killed everyone in that Kinko's to keep it a secret,
Speaker 1: and then his boss just puts it on TV. He
Speaker 1: has where we here's how it's gonna go. Actually, Trevor,
Speaker 1: I mean right now we live in the age of misinformation,
Speaker 1: so we don't know what that is. We'll know if
Speaker 1: that's real, we'll know if that's photos edited. We don't
Speaker 1: even know if Belarus is a real country. I mean,
Speaker 1: all we do know is that, I mean, that guy
Speaker 1: could be pointing to anything. Maybe that's his marketing strategy
Speaker 1: for bringing Paramount plus to Ukraine, you know, and the
Speaker 1: arrows are like the marketing forces. And or maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that's a map of Middle Earth and
Speaker 1: he's pointing. He's telling Fraudo where the volcano is so
Speaker 1: he can end everything. You know, we don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's an n f T. I'm just saying, even if
Speaker 1: we even if we think that that is a map
Speaker 1: of Ukraine and that is his battle plans, maybe he's
Speaker 1: the greatest double agent ever. Maybe this is his way
Speaker 1: of leaking intel to the West without anyone figuring it out.
Speaker 1: So before we call this guy a dumb boomer, let's
Speaker 1: just figure out the facts first. You might be the
Speaker 1: most optimistic person I've ever met. Ronnie. That's my middle name,
Speaker 1: Ronnie Chang. Positive and optimistic. All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Spring is on its way in America, and you know
Speaker 1: what that means. Sunny days, flowers blooming, eating your weights
Speaker 1: in Clareton. But there's one spring tradition that is unfortunately
Speaker 1: getting canceled. For the first time in more than a
Speaker 1: quarter century, Major League Baseball is canceling games over a
Speaker 1: labor dispute. The calendar dictates that we're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to play the first two series of the
Speaker 1: regular season, and those games are officially canceled. That's games
Speaker 1: so far. Economics are at the heart of it. Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball saw revenues go from around eight billion to
Speaker 1: nearly eleven billion right before the pandemic. Yet player salaries
Speaker 1: went down slightly for four straight years, and of the
Speaker 1: four major American sports, baseball has the lowest minimum salary
Speaker 1: at around five seventy thousand. No, oh no, don't cancel
Speaker 1: the baseball games. How else will I get to spend
Speaker 1: forty five dollars on a hot dog? That's a little
Speaker 1: to drive a The MLB is canceling games because the
Speaker 1: players and the league cannot agree on who gets to
Speaker 1: share the money. Yes, and I'll be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I was shocked that baseball players minimum pay is less
Speaker 1: than all the other leagues, especially considering that this sport
Speaker 1: brings in eleven billion dollars, And yes, I know dollars
Speaker 1: is a lot of money. It is a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But when you think about it from the players point
Speaker 1: of view, think about how long a baseball game is.
Speaker 1: What is that break down to It's like what four
Speaker 1: dollars an hour? And by the way, please remember this.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people go like I hate
Speaker 1: the sport, but don't remember that when this happens, a
Speaker 1: lockout doesn't just affect the players. It affects everyone who
Speaker 1: works in and around the game, like the people who
Speaker 1: work at the stadium, the people who work just outside
Speaker 1: the stadium, right. It affects the HighRes, the guys selling beer,
Speaker 1: the security guard who tackles the naked guys who run
Speaker 1: out into the field. Yeah. In fact, just to pay
Speaker 1: the bills, Mr Mets has already had to start an
Speaker 1: only fans account. It's sad, sexy. Everyone's being very alarmous
Speaker 1: about this. All right, dude, this is America. As though
Speaker 1: they're gonna stop baseball, it's gonna come back. Of course,
Speaker 1: they're gonna find an agreement. What's alternative, They're just gonna
Speaker 1: never play baseball again. Of course it's gonna happen. This
Speaker 1: is like, it's like an encore to Billy Joel concert.
Speaker 1: You know he's gonna play piano. Man, just calm the downs. Wait,
Speaker 1: there's no patience here in America. We love baseball. We
Speaker 1: don't like patients, which is ironic because it's the game
Speaker 1: you need the most patience for because it's long. Alright, finally,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the movies. The only way to legally
Speaker 1: stay at Chris Evans for two and a half hours.
Speaker 1: During the COVID pandemic, millions of people decided that going
Speaker 1: to movie theaters wasn't worth the risk. I mean, going
Speaker 1: to the movies was already a risk before COVID. You know,
Speaker 1: best case scenario that sticky patch you was sitting in
Speaker 1: withda So with movie theaters losing ticket revenues during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: one major chain has come up with a really slick idea.
Speaker 1: They're going to charge more for the movies that people
Speaker 1: actually want to see. You may still have to pay
Speaker 1: a little bit more to go to the movies. A
Speaker 1: m C has started testing a new pricing model, starting
Speaker 1: with higher prices for tickets to The Batman. AMC is
Speaker 1: trying out a variable pricing system, which means new movies
Speaker 1: will cost you more than older releases playing at the
Speaker 1: very same location. Who wa wa wa wa hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on hollo AMC is gonna make us pay more
Speaker 1: to see new movies. That's not fair. Oh, that's that's
Speaker 1: not fair people, because what we're we gonna do. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have to pay to see the Batman, Like we
Speaker 1: can't not pay otherwise. How are we ever going to
Speaker 1: know where he came from? Huh? Like there's no other
Speaker 1: way to know, Like he's one of his parents, a
Speaker 1: bat and the other man. This is the first opportunity
Speaker 1: we have to find it out and look. To be honest,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is the worst model. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always found it where that you pay the same
Speaker 1: amount for old movies as you do for the latest releases.
Speaker 1: You know, So this is this is actually gonna make sense.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like going back to the blockbuster rules. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that business did well, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But I will say this, I'm worried that this is
Speaker 1: a slippery slope. Man, It's gonna be just like the airlines. Yeah,
Speaker 1: first they say they're just charging us extra for the
Speaker 1: new movies, then they're gonna say certain seats in the cinema,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cost extra. Next thing, you know, AMC won't
Speaker 1: let me bring in a big bowl of my favorite
Speaker 1: soup from home. What is happening to American man? You're
Speaker 1: seeing this Joe Byron. In fact, here's my counter offer
Speaker 1: to a MC. If you want to charge us more
Speaker 1: for new movies, fine, but as movie goers, we're gonna
Speaker 1: start paying you in increments throughout the movie. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't just give you all the money up front. We
Speaker 1: don't know if it's gonna be shipped every fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: which is gonna be like, here's five dollars, show me
Speaker 1: the beginning, all right, here's another five. I want to
Speaker 1: see what happens to that guy. After that'll be like
Speaker 1: now I'm done, I'm done. Yeah, you got you gotta
Speaker 1: entertain me the whole time. I'm sick of these movies
Speaker 1: that take ninety minutes to get going and then they
Speaker 1: have like one scene that's dope and yes, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to you, Power off the dog. Wait, Trevor, you know
Speaker 1: how this dynamic price is gonna work? Like they're gonna
Speaker 1: it's an algorithm based and you're gonna have to track
Speaker 1: your data to determine what you like, and that's how
Speaker 1: you more for it. So easy solution. Okay, just keep
Speaker 1: the movies you want to watch, just keep talking about
Speaker 1: how much they suck. Then your phone pick up on that.
Speaker 1: You'll get an algorithm, and then your movies will be cheaper,
Speaker 1: like right now, Like, let's just start it right now.
Speaker 1: Call that Patterson as Batman. That's gross. Bring back ben Affleck. Also,
Speaker 1: everybody knows they don't get you on the ticket price. Okay,
Speaker 1: the movie theaters get you on the snacks. That's why
Speaker 1: I always keep some popcorn right in my teint just
Speaker 1: in case I ever need to go watch a movie.
Speaker 1: They'll never get me on this. I even like to
Speaker 1: keep some Snickers melted in there, just so it's sweet
Speaker 1: and salty. You know what I'm saying. You want some?
Speaker 1: You know? That is one of the most disgusting things
Speaker 1: I have ever seen. You can't mix snickers with popcorn.
Speaker 1: You can't mix. It's like a different don't knock get
Speaker 1: to you. Try it. Try a little bit. I mean
Speaker 1: a little bit. There's more way that came from. That's tinty.
Speaker 1: That's nice. That's actually really good. Oh man, I need
Speaker 1: to go to the movies with you more often time. Man,
Speaker 1: all right, we gotta take a quick break so me
Speaker 1: and Ronnie can eat some popcorn. When we come back,
Speaker 1: we'll recap Joe Biden's first ever State of the Union
Speaker 1: address and Stacy Abrams, Yes these, Stacy Abrams is joining
Speaker 1: me right here on the show. You don't want to
Speaker 1: miss it. Don't eat it all by yourself. Come on,
Speaker 1: I found some more. I found some more. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't eat it all by yourself. Come on, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Daily Show. Let's talk about the State of
Speaker 1: the Union address, the one it's a year Joe Biden
Speaker 1: stays up past six pm. It's also the one night
Speaker 1: a year where the President gives the country estates as
Speaker 1: update about how things are going, which, if we're honest,
Speaker 1: there's always been a little bit weird to me. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like, why does it only happen once a year,
Speaker 1: Like you get more updates from your doggie daycare in
Speaker 1: one afternoon, then you get from the president an entire year.
Speaker 1: It's a little weird, but whatever, the point is, it's
Speaker 1: an important night, which is why everyone everyone from senators
Speaker 1: to Supreme Court justices to military generals all show up,
Speaker 1: although this year it was interesting because there were fewer
Speaker 1: people in attendance than normal because some lawmakers didn't want
Speaker 1: to follow the COVID protocols. Yes, like Marco Rubio who said, quote,
Speaker 1: he didn't have time to take a COVID test, and honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't have time to take a COVID test. Is
Speaker 1: a brave stance for someone who's tweeted like fifty times
Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours, to be honest, it
Speaker 1: is actually kind of relatable. You know. This is like
Speaker 1: when I say I don't have time to make now
Speaker 1: because I'm watching TikTok. You've seen those auts. Know they're
Speaker 1: so cute and they'll kill you, but they're cute. But
Speaker 1: once everyone who had forty seconds to take the test
Speaker 1: was seated, it was time for Joe Biden himself to
Speaker 1: enter the chamber and greet his guests. And I'm proud,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen to say that we at the Daily
Speaker 1: Show have exclusive footage of what he said to these
Speaker 1: people as he walked to the podium. The President of
Speaker 1: the United States, Hey, oh ship, I can't find my speech. Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: quit you what's the state of the Union. Hey, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? Is the Union strong? Is it a weak?
Speaker 1: Is it? Emo? Vibe shift ah ship, I'm ringing at
Speaker 1: a time. I'll just ring a I know rough start
Speaker 1: for Biden recovered people. Oh he recovered you see. Joe
Speaker 1: Biden launched into this speech that touched on everything, Russia, COVID, inflation,
Speaker 1: so much more. Entering a chamber filled with yellow and blue,
Speaker 1: the colors of the Ukrainian flag, President Biden forcefully condemning
Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin. He thought he could roll in the Ukraine
Speaker 1: and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with
Speaker 1: the mall wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined.
Speaker 1: He met the Ukrainian people, Ukraine's ambassador to the US,
Speaker 1: receiving a standing ovation and an embrace from First Lady
Speaker 1: Jill Biden. The President also suggesting America is finally emerging
Speaker 1: from the pandemic. Stop looking at COVID as a partisan
Speaker 1: dividing line. See it for what it is. I've got
Speaker 1: awful disease. And despite a fast growing economy, President Biden
Speaker 1: acknowledging too many people are still feeling the pain of
Speaker 1: rising prices. Inflation is robbing the moving games. They thought
Speaker 1: otherwise they would be able to feel I get it.
Speaker 1: In one surprising moment of unity, the president trying to
Speaker 1: move his party to the middle with a message on
Speaker 1: Time that even got some Republicans on their feet. It
Speaker 1: answers not to defund the police, is to fund the
Speaker 1: police funding funding. Yeah, you heard that right, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: said fund the police. But I thought that was a
Speaker 1: Republican thing. I thought Democrats wanted to build those police
Speaker 1: stations and replace them with community poetry centers. Maybe, but
Speaker 1: not Joe Biden. People forget I don't know why people
Speaker 1: forget this. For years, Joe Biden has been saying that
Speaker 1: he wants to invest more resources and training into the police.
Speaker 1: For years. He's been saying this. The reason you probably
Speaker 1: might have missed it is because of how he speaks.
Speaker 1: We've got a police, the funding and fund the funders.
Speaker 1: You know, come on, Jack, he's a fine negro putting
Speaker 1: multiple speeches in one. I see what he's doing is
Speaker 1: saving time. So look, this was not a surprise from
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. And honestly, I'm just glad he didn't get
Speaker 1: too swept up and that applause and go even further
Speaker 1: fund the police. All lives matter, Let's go Brandon. Wait
Speaker 1: that was about me. But it is kind of crazy
Speaker 1: that nothing has really changed when it comes to the police, right,
Speaker 1: Just think about it for a moment, Like whether you
Speaker 1: want to defund the police or like Biden, spend even
Speaker 1: more money on reforming them, You've got to admit that
Speaker 1: neither of those things have actually happened. And fatal police
Speaker 1: shootings actually went up last year. Yeah, so really, when
Speaker 1: you think about it, after all the marches and the
Speaker 1: protests and the national conversation, oh we rarely got was
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi's can take clothing line. But aside from policing
Speaker 1: and COVID and Ukraine, Biden also brought up a lot
Speaker 1: of policies last night that he wanted Congress to pass
Speaker 1: this year, like letting Medicaan negotiate the price of drugs
Speaker 1: and doubling clean energy production and raising taxes on corporations
Speaker 1: and strengthening voting rights, which are all great ideas that
Speaker 1: I can't wait for him to bring up again at
Speaker 1: next year's State of the Union because I mean, if
Speaker 1: we're honest now, that ship is going to pass through
Speaker 1: this Congress. But Biden himself was doing his thing. Man
Speaker 1: was giving a speech, he was in his elements, and
Speaker 1: Biden being Biden. There were a bunch of moments in
Speaker 1: the speech that were just a little bit weirder than
Speaker 1: they had to be, you know, um like when he
Speaker 1: said this, if you get COVID nineteen, the fiser pill
Speaker 1: reduces your chances have ended up in the hospital. By
Speaker 1: I've ordered more pills than anyone in the world has. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I guess the parties that Joe Biden's asked tonight. It
Speaker 1: would be funny if he meant that he ordered all
Speaker 1: of those pills, but just for himself. If I get Corona,
Speaker 1: I'm all set. Good luck to the rest of you bitches.
Speaker 1: Oh and then there was also this moment where Joe
Speaker 1: Biden was praising the people of Ukraine. Putin a circle
Speaker 1: Keeve with tanks, but it will never gain the hearts
Speaker 1: and souls of the Iranian people. Technically true. It is
Speaker 1: technically true. Putin can do whatever he wants in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Nothing will make the Iranians back down. You know. At
Speaker 1: times the speech was like a birthday card from a
Speaker 1: four year old. A lot of the words didn't make sense,
Speaker 1: but you got what it was trying to say. And
Speaker 1: a pound of Ukrainian people, proud, proud people, pound for pound,
Speaker 1: ready to fight with every inch of urenergy they have,
Speaker 1: proud pound pound pround, pound pound proud. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: bad safe. You have to admit it wasn't the worst
Speaker 1: save in the world. Here's a question I have, honest question, America.
Speaker 1: How come no politician in this country can never just
Speaker 1: go excuse me and then correct themselves, Like why do
Speaker 1: they just carry on as if it wasn't Trump did
Speaker 1: this all the time too. You know, they always gonna
Speaker 1: twist the words and then make it sound like they
Speaker 1: didn't mess up. This country was built on fandom, freedom
Speaker 1: of fandom and idea of freedom. And who's not a
Speaker 1: fan of freedom anyway? This country was built on freedom
Speaker 1: by a guy named Fandom. I love fandom. And then,
Speaker 1: of course there was the thing that Biden said rights
Speaker 1: at the end of his speech, which wasn't a mistake
Speaker 1: but left everybody con used. God bless you off, I
Speaker 1: may God protect our troops. Thank you, Go get him.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, God, protect our troops. Go get him. Get
Speaker 1: who Go get God or the troops should get putin.
Speaker 1: Who go get him? Who? What? What is that? What
Speaker 1: does Biden just randomy shop go get him? Sometimes? I
Speaker 1: mean it would explain why his dog kept attacking people.
Speaker 1: But honestly, the weirdest moments would would like Biden just
Speaker 1: like doing these things and go go get him, Go
Speaker 1: get him, go get him. Was it one singular plure?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I actually I stand crazy. Those weren't
Speaker 1: the weirdest moments. Actually, the weirdest moments didn't come from Biden. No,
Speaker 1: they came from the people who couldn't figure out when
Speaker 1: to clap for Biden, Like this moment from Chuck Schuma
Speaker 1: the American Rescue Plan, The American Rescue Plan, help working
Speaker 1: p people and left no one behind. Hilarious. You see that.
Speaker 1: It's like it was like it was trying to rehearse
Speaker 1: his standing ovation. Okay, first the legs and then you
Speaker 1: put the hands. Okay, I think I got it, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm ready, I'm ready. Look, man, there's a simple rule
Speaker 1: in life. If you stand up in a speech at
Speaker 1: the wrong time, you've just gotta commits. All right, You
Speaker 1: stand up, you clap, and then you walk out that
Speaker 1: building and straight into the ocean. You die like a man.
Speaker 1: And if you thought that was really bad, then please
Speaker 1: tell me what the hell Nancy Pelosi was doing here.
Speaker 1: And our troops in Iraq and faced in Rafghanistan faced
Speaker 1: many dangers. One being stationed the base is breathing in
Speaker 1: toxic smoke from burn pits. Many of you have been there.
Speaker 1: I've been out of Iraq and Afghanistan over forty times.
Speaker 1: What is that? What is that? Huh? Looks like someone
Speaker 1: found all those pills. Joe Biden ordered ship like her face,
Speaker 1: her hands, her body, because such a weird like giddiness,
Speaker 1: you know what it looks like, almost makes it look
Speaker 1: like a cartoon character that's floating towards an apple pie
Speaker 1: tasty and I can't get over the hands, like just
Speaker 1: let's let it go. And he looks like she was
Speaker 1: playing like rock papers is with herself and then somehow
Speaker 1: just ended in the makeout says oh yeah, you like
Speaker 1: that rocks, don't you. So that was basically the state
Speaker 1: of the Union. That was it in a nutshell to
Speaker 1: be honest, I mean, according to Joe Biden, inflation is bad,
Speaker 1: but he will try to make it better. Drug prices
Speaker 1: are bad, but he will try to make it better.
Speaker 1: And I don't know who him is, but someone's coming
Speaker 1: to get him. And you know what that makes me?
Speaker 1: Just me? Okay, all right, when we come back, Stacy
Speaker 1: Abrams will be joining me right here on the show,
Speaker 1: so don't go away. Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 1: My guest tonight is eaching rights activists and entrepreneur Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 1: She's here to talk about her latest book and about
Speaker 1: running again for governor of Georgia. Stacy Abrams, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the show. Thanks for having me again. I don't
Speaker 1: even know where to start, because every time I see you,
Speaker 1: I feel like you're doing more and more things. So
Speaker 1: let's start with the book. Okay, level up. Very few
Speaker 1: people can say that they have run for governor. And
Speaker 1: also is it a three times New York Times best
Speaker 1: seller or four? Well? Forgive, I mean it's it's counting
Speaker 1: four times four times in New York Times. Business an
Speaker 1: advocates and my I love that. Um you like yes?
Speaker 1: Here's my first question? Maybe is that as like you
Speaker 1: do so well writing, why why stress yourself with politics?
Speaker 1: I love writing, but I also love people, and people
Speaker 1: do better when they have good leadership. People do really
Speaker 1: well when they have leaders that like them, and so
Speaker 1: I want to be one of those people who actually
Speaker 1: likes people and wants to help them from the office
Speaker 1: of governor. Okay, people feel that level up. A book
Speaker 1: about essentially small businesses and how to grow them and
Speaker 1: the challenges that you do. You share the fact that
Speaker 1: you had businesses that failed. Most politicians will always just
Speaker 1: be like, no, that didn't fail. I pivoted. It's the pivot.
Speaker 1: People love the pivot. One of the big things you
Speaker 1: learn about when reading the book is just how many
Speaker 1: small businesses fail. Now. I don't know if I'm in
Speaker 1: the minority here, but I sometimes wonder if there's too
Speaker 1: much of an obsession with starting your own business in America.
Speaker 1: Like it. It feels like there's this thing. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's attached to the American dream, but it
Speaker 1: feels like everyone is told you have to start your
Speaker 1: own business. Is there a reason you chose to start
Speaker 1: your own business and not to just work in a
Speaker 1: field that was already you know, all business that already exists. Oh,
Speaker 1: I like paychecks. They made me very happy. I was
Speaker 1: like pechecks. I was a tax attorney, and that was
Speaker 1: a nice paycheck, and then I began what my mother
Speaker 1: has called my trajectory of downward economic mobility. When I
Speaker 1: left there, it became deputy City attorney for Atlanta when
Speaker 1: I decided to run for office, though I couldn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't feel right staying in my job as a lawyer
Speaker 1: for the city when I was running for political office,
Speaker 1: and so I left and I became what I call
Speaker 1: a redeluctant entrepreneur. I had to find a way to
Speaker 1: pay for my mortgage since I was going to leave
Speaker 1: my job, and that's when I started my business. And
Speaker 1: for a lot of people starting a small business, isn't
Speaker 1: this Horatio Alger story. It's not because they all want
Speaker 1: to be many moguls. It's often circumstances. A mom who
Speaker 1: needs to take care of her kids but also needs
Speaker 1: to make a living, and so she starts a business
Speaker 1: in her in her front, in her kitchen. It's people
Speaker 1: who need opportunities. And so my mission is to say,
Speaker 1: regardless of why you start your small business, here's what
Speaker 1: you need to know about it. Because these are the
Speaker 1: things no one's going to tell you. Shark tank is
Speaker 1: not going to happen for most of us. So here's
Speaker 1: what we need to do, and that it's going to
Speaker 1: be difficult in Georgia. Right now, of the businesses in
Speaker 1: Georgia are small businesses. Of the employees are employed by
Speaker 1: small businesses. And so if we don't understand small businesses,
Speaker 1: we're in a lot of trouble. And if we don't
Speaker 1: do our work to prop them up and to help them,
Speaker 1: support them as they grow, oh and more importantly, help
Speaker 1: them scale, then we're actually hurting the very people we
Speaker 1: say we want to help in our economy. If you
Speaker 1: were should become the governor of Georgia, people are screaming
Speaker 1: as I say that and cheering right now. If you
Speaker 1: were to become the governor of Georgia, what are some
Speaker 1: of the first steps you think you would take to
Speaker 1: help small businesses? If you say them, awesome, all businesses
Speaker 1: in Georgia. What do you think could change? We can
Speaker 1: government step in and and and WI should that um,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of that marriage end between the government
Speaker 1: helping a small business whilst also making a business of business.
Speaker 1: First thing we need to do is to expand medicate
Speaker 1: to Georgia, which sounds like a completely counterintuitive answer to
Speaker 1: the question you ask it does, but Georgia spends billions
Speaker 1: of dollars and what's called uncompensated care, we pay for
Speaker 1: people who can't afford healthcare. Part of that is the
Speaker 1: fact that we have failed to take money that belongs
Speaker 1: to Georgians and reinvested in healthcare. But Medicaid expansion and
Speaker 1: george will create sixty six or sixty thou new jobs.
Speaker 1: When you expand medicaid, you create small businesses, and it's
Speaker 1: an infusion of capital that comes from commerce, not from loans.
Speaker 1: Number two, we should we should teach young people how
Speaker 1: to start busicists, even if they don't ever want to
Speaker 1: start one of their own. They should know what it
Speaker 1: looks like and then should it makes some better employees.
Speaker 1: If you understand how business works, then you understand why
Speaker 1: your boss who has two employees cannot pay you what
Speaker 1: your friend at Coca colamics. And so it's it's creating
Speaker 1: that that lexicon and that understanding. And the third is
Speaker 1: encouraging financial systems to actually loan money when you have
Speaker 1: to do that in communities that don't have it. After
Speaker 1: the Great Recession, Black communities in particular lost banks and
Speaker 1: they never came back. And so when the p P
Speaker 1: P loans came out a good intention of government. The
Speaker 1: money went to places that we're not willing to lend
Speaker 1: to the very communities that needed. And as governor I
Speaker 1: would pay attention to that. I would say, we need
Speaker 1: to use these small these black owned banks, or these
Speaker 1: Latino owned banks, these community banks, we need to use
Speaker 1: those as depositories so when money comes the next time,
Speaker 1: there's someone in the community who's ready to loan it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about politics, which is everything in a America
Speaker 1: all the time. Um, you are running for a seat
Speaker 1: that in a state that has become, i mean, one
Speaker 1: of the lightning rods of American politics, Georgia. What's interesting
Speaker 1: about this race is the fact that Governor Kemp has
Speaker 1: put into place multiple restrictions on how people can vote,
Speaker 1: when people can vote. He's reduced the availability of voting
Speaker 1: for people. Republicans will argue the same thing. They will say, no,
Speaker 1: all we're trying to do is shore up the vote,
Speaker 1: even though we agree there has been no widespread voter fraud.
Speaker 1: How do you begin tackling an issue like this where
Speaker 1: a you're running so you want to make it better
Speaker 1: for yourself slash fair for everybody. But how do you
Speaker 1: how do you how do you find that balance of
Speaker 1: saying to people, listen, I'm trying to do this for everybody,
Speaker 1: and I know that I hope I will benefit. But
Speaker 1: you get what I'm saying. That's that there's that paradox
Speaker 1: of of of the messaging that you're trying to get out.
Speaker 1: I reject the paradox voting. The process of voting is nonpartisan.
Speaker 1: Everyone should have access to the ability to vote. It
Speaker 1: should be easy to vote, it should be accessible. There
Speaker 1: should be a freedom to vote. Any impediment to that
Speaker 1: is wrong. That's full stop. I don't care who you
Speaker 1: vote for when I'm focusing on the voting system. My
Speaker 1: focus should never be on who you cast your ballot
Speaker 1: for voting itself. The process is nonpartisan. Now, when you
Speaker 1: get in there, I'm going to do everything in my
Speaker 1: power to convince you I'm the person to pick. But
Speaker 1: the fight for the right to vote is something that
Speaker 1: should cut across every demographic, every ideology, every community. We
Speaker 1: are a stronger nation when we allow people to participate.
Speaker 1: And if we've ever doubted that the war that Putin
Speaker 1: is waging against Ukraine, President Zelinsky said it I'm gonna
Speaker 1: paraphrase them, and probably poorly. So this isn't a war
Speaker 1: in Ukraine. Is a war on democracy in Ukraine. When
Speaker 1: we allow democracy to be overtaken by those who want
Speaker 1: to choose who can be heard, and those choices are
Speaker 1: not based on anything other than animous or inconvenience, then
Speaker 1: that is wrong. My mission is to make certain that
Speaker 1: everyone can cast the ballot, even people who don't like me,
Speaker 1: especially those folks. They should be able to go and
Speaker 1: cast their ballot. My job is to make sure that
Speaker 1: more people who like me show up. But that's campaigning,
Speaker 1: that's not voting rights. Yeah. Before I let you go,
Speaker 1: I have to talk to you about the mosque. Yes,
Speaker 1: because I mean I was. I was on social media
Speaker 1: and then I see the picture of the mask. Then
Speaker 1: the picture gets deleted. This is what I found interesting,
Speaker 1: and maybe you'll correct me wrong. It's like it feels
Speaker 1: like with politicians, you have a team around you. Everyone's
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to solve a crisis or
Speaker 1: fix a problem. People say ridiculous things like God said
Speaker 1: it was like I hold my breath when I take
Speaker 1: the picture I and and it creates this weird um uh.
Speaker 1: It creates a situation where people feel like leaders on
Speaker 1: following the rules, or people you know are punished differently
Speaker 1: from leaders, etcetera, etcetera. Why did you say, yeah, I
Speaker 1: messed up and and that's that and going forward, do
Speaker 1: you think you'd be able to maintain that without at
Speaker 1: the same time letting your enemies use that as your
Speaker 1: you know, like, don't vote for Stacey Abrams. She messes
Speaker 1: up my responsibility in that instance, if I created any
Speaker 1: appearance that I did not take children's lives seriously, that's
Speaker 1: a mistake. But your job fundamentally is to acknowledge when
Speaker 1: you make a mistake and try to make it right.
Speaker 1: We have this this narrative that we have invincible leaders.
Speaker 1: That's just not true. What we have our humans who
Speaker 1: want to do a job, and we have to hold
Speaker 1: them accountable for the job they do. But we have
Speaker 1: to have grace when they make mistakes and trust that
Speaker 1: their intentions were right. But you can't trust someone's intentions
Speaker 1: if they never tell you what they were saying I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Saying I made a mistake is about being honest about
Speaker 1: your intention. I intended to do something, I did not
Speaker 1: quite do it, So let me tell you about the gap,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you how I'm gonna make it
Speaker 1: better the next time. I need to remember that for
Speaker 1: the next time I mess up. I'm a law of practice.
Speaker 1: I wrote a book about it. Yeah, I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna pivot. That's what I'm gonna do. All I
Speaker 1: think of when I read it as Level Up. It's
Speaker 1: the first book I can dance to when I just
Speaker 1: read the type Level Up Up, Level Up. Stay Abrams,
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time. Thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us on the show. Thank you for having me. Stacy
Speaker 1: Abrams and Laura Hodgson's book Level Up is available right now.
Speaker 1: Were gonna take a quick break. We will be right
Speaker 1: back after this. Well that's our show for tonight's but
Speaker 1: before we go, families in Ukraine are fleeing violence and
Speaker 1: urgently need emergency aid. CARES Immediate Crisis Response aims to
Speaker 1: reach four million people, prioritizing women and girls, families, and
Speaker 1: the elderly. So if you can, please donate at the
Speaker 1: link below to rush urgently needed water, food, hygiene kits
Speaker 1: and ongoing support in Ukraine until tomorrow. Stay safe out there,
Speaker 1: get your vaccine and remember if you miss baseball. Don't
Speaker 1: forget all the little league games in your community that
Speaker 1: you can go to and get drunk there. What's the
Speaker 1: Daily Show weeknights at eleven central on Comedy Central and
Speaker 1: stream fool episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been
Speaker 1: a Comedy Central podcast