Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: I want you to imagine the future. The year is
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. Taylor Swift is head coach of the
Speaker 2: Kansas City Chiefs. Mitch McConnell has been frozen for four
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty seven consecutive days, and Joe Biden is
Speaker 2: up for reelection against a twice impeached, convicted felon. And
Speaker 2: even though the Paul will show a dead heat right now,
Speaker 2: Vice President Kamala Harris is feeling pretty confident.
Speaker 3: The Biden Harris ticket is running neck and neck with
Speaker 3: Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Why are you not thirty points ahead when.
Speaker 4: The American people are able to take a close look
Speaker 4: at election time on their options. I think the choice
Speaker 4: is gonna be clear. Bill, We're gonna win. Let me
Speaker 4: just tell you that we're gonna win.
Speaker 2: Will you, Kamala? Will you? Because I just took a
Speaker 2: poll of that man's face and it's not looking good.
Speaker 2: Regardless of what Kamala says. Democrats are clearly nervous about
Speaker 2: this election, and they should be because, Yeah, Biden has
Speaker 2: accomplished a lot historic investments in green energy, record breaking
Speaker 2: job growth, and he even got a black woman on
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court. Yeah, I mean with a six or
Speaker 2: three conservative majority, she's powerless there, but she at least
Speaker 2: got a free rode. But despite Biden's record as president,
Speaker 2: it's still close, which is a hell of a thing.
Speaker 2: You think running against someone who has ninety one felony
Speaker 2: charges against them, who you already beat, would be a
Speaker 2: pretty easy victory. So the question is how the actual
Speaker 2: is Joe Biden losing to Donald Trump. I have a
Speaker 2: theory and it's something I want to discuss more in
Speaker 2: tonight's long story short Now, when Joe Biden first ran
Speaker 2: for president in twenty twenty, it was a lot simpler.
Speaker 2: Campaigning is easy. Just make a bunch of promises. It's
Speaker 2: like when you're about to move into a new building
Speaker 2: and the landlord is all, nice promise and he'll fix this,
Speaker 2: paint that. But then you move in and he goes missing,
Speaker 2: like black news anchors on CNN. Now, I mean they're
Speaker 2: basically gone. But the point is, once you get the job,
Speaker 2: you actually have to follow through on those promises and
Speaker 2: whatever the reasons. Out of the ninety nine biggest promises
Speaker 2: Biden made the people, he's only following through on about
Speaker 2: thirty percent of them. That's a seventy percent rate of
Speaker 2: letting you down. You can't spit any game with those numbers. Hey, girl,
Speaker 2: you want to come over, I promise that only seven
Speaker 2: times out of ten you'll leave unsatisfied. But the other
Speaker 2: three who is on There's some ladies that will take
Speaker 2: that deal right now? But yeah, Biden has let people down.
Speaker 2: He promised not to drill for oil in Alaska. Now
Speaker 2: he's doing it. He said he would never build more
Speaker 2: border wall, but that's exactly what he's doing. And again,
Speaker 2: all presidents break promises. George H. W. Bush said no
Speaker 2: new taxes, Obama said fold Gantona mo after y'all said
Speaker 2: he'd take a stand for the working man, but he
Speaker 2: was in a wheelchair the whole time. America can forgive
Speaker 2: all that, but one thing America doesn't forgive is weakness.
Speaker 2: They want to see you fighting for your goals, and
Speaker 2: on some key issues, Biden seems to be waving the
Speaker 2: white flag.
Speaker 5: President Biden today is explaining why he thinks he had
Speaker 5: no choice but to approve new oil drilling in Alaska.
Speaker 6: My strong inclination was to disapprove of it across the board,
Speaker 6: but the advice I got from counsel was that if
Speaker 6: that were the case, I may very well lose that
Speaker 6: case in court to the oil company.
Speaker 7: I haven't gone the full extent of my executive authority
Speaker 7: to do on my own anything about guns, and.
Speaker 2: What can you do?
Speaker 7: So I can't do anything except Leader of the Congress
Speaker 7: to act reasonably.
Speaker 4: Specific about what you did to try to reappropriate those
Speaker 4: border funds, especially when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
Speaker 6: The wall thing, what you're talking about, Yeah, they passed. Well,
Speaker 6: I was told that I had no choice.
Speaker 2: I was told I have no choice. I was told
Speaker 2: I have no choice. By who aren't you the president?
Speaker 2: If someone tells you no, just showed him a picture
Speaker 2: of a drone and the conversation. Well, see, that's why
Speaker 2: I think Biden loses so many people. He just looks weak.
Speaker 2: And I'm not talking about physically. People want to see
Speaker 2: that president going to the mat to get what he wants.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't help that anytime Biden does take a
Speaker 2: strong stand on something, his staff comes out to say
Speaker 2: he didn't mean it.
Speaker 1: The White House was back in cleanup mode over another
Speaker 1: round of confusing coins made by the president.
Speaker 6: Is the pandemic over the pandemic is over. The White
Speaker 6: House rushed out to walk it back, saying the president's
Speaker 6: comments do.
Speaker 5: Not mark a change in policy toward the administration's handling
Speaker 5: of the virus.
Speaker 3: President Biden delivered a fiery speech Warsaw, perhaps carried away
Speaker 3: by the moment Biden seemed to call for an end
Speaker 3: to Vladimir Putin's rule.
Speaker 7: For God's sake, this man cannot remain power.
Speaker 3: Secretary of State Anthony blink and quickly walked.
Speaker 1: Back Biden's words.
Speaker 5: We do not have a strategy of regime change in
Speaker 5: Russia or anywhere.
Speaker 1: Else for that matter.
Speaker 5: President Biden starting controversy over comments that he made about
Speaker 5: defending Taiwan.
Speaker 7: To be clear, Sir, US forces, US men and women
Speaker 7: would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 7: The White House walked that back almost immediately, saying, our
Speaker 7: policy hasn't changed on Taiwan.
Speaker 2: God damn, It's amazing how often Joe Biden has to
Speaker 2: walk things back, considering he can badly walk forwards. So voters,
Speaker 2: especially progressive voters, have seen Biden give up or get
Speaker 2: over rooted to be fan of Biden. Not on everything, though,
Speaker 2: like student loan relief. The Supreme Court said he couldn't
Speaker 2: do it, but Biden's been finding he's because that's how
Speaker 2: much he cares about driving young people to vote for him.
Speaker 2: But on too many issues he's rolling over. Now, say
Speaker 2: what you will about Trump. You might not agree with
Speaker 2: any of his policies, but you've probably noticed he fights
Speaker 2: for him. He even fights for the ones that are
Speaker 2: stupid as.
Speaker 1: Out seeks toilets and showers. You don't get any water.
Speaker 1: I go my people, environmental people. Why are we doing this?
Speaker 4: Because when you wash your hands it takes you five
Speaker 4: times longer get to the Water's I come.
Speaker 1: You got soap, you can't get it off. You go
Speaker 1: into this shower, right, you turn in the water. Drip, drip, drip.
Speaker 1: People are flushing toilets ten times, fifteen times.
Speaker 6: Ten times, right, ten times, bomb Bob, Not me, of course,
Speaker 6: not me, but you yeh.
Speaker 2: He's so dangerous but so entertaining. Trump's the only president
Speaker 2: to get his daily intelligence briefing from everyone. Poops.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The point is that that's why many people like Trump.
Speaker 2: He fights. He's not gonna let something like congressional red
Speaker 2: tape or judicial rulings or even the Constitution itself stop
Speaker 2: him from getting what he wants. The man fought to
Speaker 2: stay in power after he lost the election.
Speaker 1: Who does that? Gainst us?
Speaker 2: And America's got a thing for that. Gainst the shit. Now,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, I don't want the president to
Speaker 2: break the law or stage your cool to get what
Speaker 2: he wants. But voters are attracted to strength. So long
Speaker 2: story short, if Biden and the Democrats want to retain
Speaker 2: power in the next election, stop telling us how much
Speaker 2: you are not like Trump, and maybe in this one way,
Speaker 2: just one way, start acting like gainst Us, fight like
Speaker 2: hell on the things you care about instead of rolling
Speaker 2: over and throwing up your hands. America wants the president
Speaker 2: to fight for them the same way the Alabama Riverboat
Speaker 2: crew fights for each other. And if you don't understand
Speaker 2: that the quote President Biden, you ain't black, all right?
Speaker 2: When we come back, author Doug Melville will be joining
Speaker 2: me on the show, so don't go anywhere. Welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Daily Show. My guest tonight is an author
Speaker 2: whose new book is called Invisible Generals, Rediscovering family legacy
Speaker 2: and a quest of honor America's first black generals. Please
Speaker 2: welcome Doug Melville.
Speaker 1: Doug, my guy, how are we doing tonight? How's everything?
Speaker 2: Man? Bless Black and Holly Favorite?
Speaker 1: How do you feel right? I'm feeling just the same now.
Speaker 2: Invisible Generals. This book was partially inspired by you going
Speaker 2: to see Redtails and you hated it.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: When I went to go see a screening for Redtails,
Speaker 5: the main character in the movie, who was played by
Speaker 5: Terrence Howard, is actually like the patriarch and center of
Speaker 5: our family. So when he came out and his name
Speaker 5: was changed, really upset about it. I went home and
Speaker 5: I talked to my dad about it, and he said, Doug,
Speaker 5: if you think changing the name in a movie is bad,
Speaker 5: let me tell you the family story to let you
Speaker 5: know how I lived, and then maybe you could see
Speaker 5: why that doesn't mean as much to me as it
Speaker 5: means to you. And he shared with me the family
Speaker 5: story of the Invisible Generals, and that's what was the
Speaker 5: impetus for me to write my books.
Speaker 2: Tell us who the Invisible Generals are.
Speaker 5: So the Invisible Generals are America's first two black generals,
Speaker 5: a father and a son, General Benjamin O'Davis Senior and
Speaker 5: General Benjamin O'Davis Junior, and these two men at the
Speaker 5: start of World War Two were the only two black
Speaker 5: officers in the whole United States military out of three
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty five thousand people, and they worked together
Speaker 5: to help desegregate the military, create the Tusky Airmen, and
Speaker 5: so many more things. But their story had never been told,
Speaker 5: and it was my passion to go out and write it.
Speaker 2: That's right. Going back to else for a second, why
Speaker 2: do you think a lot of military moves struggle with
Speaker 2: getting history right.
Speaker 5: I think the challenge with Redtaiales is that when people
Speaker 5: look at it, they feel that it's true American history,
Speaker 5: but it's actually just the facade of that. It actually
Speaker 5: is an amalgamation of the stories. And not paying the
Speaker 5: families and using different fictional names allows you to have
Speaker 5: a little bit more with the storytelling, But then the
Speaker 5: families feel a certain way because this is how people
Speaker 5: recognize the story. Yet the families aren't compensated, and the
Speaker 5: stories that are actually happening are never really told.
Speaker 2: So just a way to not pay y'all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a way to not pay us.
Speaker 2: Did George Lucas or the writer interview you other family
Speaker 2: members when crafting the story?
Speaker 5: No, some other Tuskegee Airmen were contacted, but my family
Speaker 5: in particular was not contact, which I thought, you know,
Speaker 5: as the commander and the creators of the Tuskegee Airmen,
Speaker 5: I thought that there would be a little bit more
Speaker 5: you know, effort to go reach out to the family,
Speaker 5: But that wasn't the case in this.
Speaker 2: Why do you think Hollywood likes to gloss over the
Speaker 2: real stories of African Americans in the military. Like, don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, I love movies like Major Pain, but
Speaker 2: I'm sure it was like I'm sure I have like
Speaker 2: a real black major story that was ignored.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think the biggest challenge with this is I think
Speaker 5: the people that are the decision makers have a certain
Speaker 5: narrative or a certain formula that works really well for them.
Speaker 5: But if you ask me, the story of the Tuskegee
Speaker 5: Airmen and particularly the Invisible Generals, is one of the
Speaker 5: greatest American stories ever told. And I think we have
Speaker 5: to encourage people to go out and actually get their
Speaker 5: own family stories and talk to the individuals on the
Speaker 5: couch and say, tell me what happened, and then also
Speaker 5: take the effort to write the narrative because whoever writes
Speaker 5: the narrative or photographs, the narrative owns the copyright. So
Speaker 5: if it's not the family learning and this is what
Speaker 5: I want to tell all veterans and all family of veterans.
Speaker 5: Your stories in the public domain, you don't actually control
Speaker 5: it or own it. If a journalists tells it what
Speaker 5: writes it, they take control of the narrative. So it
Speaker 5: was important for me as a family member to say,
Speaker 5: I am going to take control of this narrative and
Speaker 5: I am going to write it so the actual words
Speaker 5: in history that happen can be told in an accurate way.
Speaker 2: Wow, a lot of people, a lot of people think
Speaker 2: movies and books like this glorify war, but how do
Speaker 2: the stories of veterans do the opposite.
Speaker 5: Actually, the stories of veterans are really stories of leadership
Speaker 5: and stories of the United States of America. I think
Speaker 5: we need to look more as what defines an American,
Speaker 5: not always chop it up into different subsets, but actually
Speaker 5: look at these as American stories, and then I think
Speaker 5: when we have that set, then we can look at
Speaker 5: these stories as a way to unify. I think leadership
Speaker 5: is an important quality that all veterans have, and many
Speaker 5: veterans go on to work in the private sector, but
Speaker 5: we don't talk about their military service. You know, coach
Speaker 5: k graduated from West Point, but you think of him
Speaker 5: as the coach of Duke basketball. You don't look at
Speaker 5: him as a veteran and.
Speaker 2: Why he learned how to be such a disciplinarian.
Speaker 5: Exactly, and that's why his leadership was taken from what
Speaker 5: he learned at the academy. So it's important to realize
Speaker 5: a lot of veterans aren't, you know, walking around and fatigues.
Speaker 5: They're actually everyday people, CEOs, people that spent time supporting
Speaker 5: their country and now is their opportunity to do it
Speaker 5: in the private sector.
Speaker 2: In the book, you tell the story of getting West
Speaker 2: Point the name the new Barracks after your great uncle Ben,
Speaker 2: and that happened around the same time people started tearing
Speaker 2: down Confederate statues. Do you think that movement had an
Speaker 2: impact on getting the military to honor of it.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 5: I actually think that was a very unique moment in
Speaker 5: time where there was a lot of statues coming down,
Speaker 5: particularly of Lee. So that was the person who was
Speaker 5: kind of the center point of it, Robert E.
Speaker 1: Lee.
Speaker 2: And they knew you weren'talking about Lee Daniels. Yeah, Robertie Lee.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Lee Daniels. Yeah, of course, but Roberty Lee had
Speaker 5: the statues. And this was a unique opportunity because West
Speaker 5: Point at that time had nothing named after a black graduate.
Speaker 5: So this was a chance for them to They were
Speaker 5: building their biggest largest barrack. There was three names up
Speaker 5: for consideration, and when I went and told them the
Speaker 5: story of the Invisible Generals as I had researched it,
Speaker 5: they named the building after him. And it's the largest
Speaker 5: barracks on the middle center of the West Point Cowege.
Speaker 2: Wow wow, wow, wow. Now this is interesting. After your
Speaker 2: grandfather served, he worked for the Department of Transportation and
Speaker 2: he basically created the speed limit.
Speaker 5: Yeah so yeah, yeah, so actually, this is a great story.
Speaker 5: So after he left the military in nineteen seventy, he
Speaker 5: worked for the Department of Transportation, and in that role
Speaker 5: he created the TSA what became the TSA Airport Security.
Speaker 5: He created the United States Air Marshall Program to keep
Speaker 5: the sky safe, and he was so successful that they
Speaker 5: asked him to do it for transportation, not aviation, and
Speaker 5: that where he led the creation of the fifty five
Speaker 5: mile an hour speed limit. So these were all created
Speaker 5: by one guy and we don't even know who he is.
Speaker 5: Is impossible for me to comprehend.
Speaker 2: The speed limit and the TSA. Yeah, well, what is
Speaker 2: now known is the TSA?
Speaker 1: What is it all?
Speaker 2: Back then? Did they even have a name for it?
Speaker 1: Security?
Speaker 2: Should they be more outreach the servicemen and women of
Speaker 2: color now they encourage them to write and tell their
Speaker 2: own stories to make sure their stories aren't lost.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think every single veteran, and even if you're
Speaker 5: not a veteran, if there's a veteran in your family,
Speaker 5: or even if you have someone in your couch who
Speaker 5: wasn't serving but lived a really different life, we should
Speaker 5: go and ask our ancestors and our relatives, you know,
Speaker 5: what did you go through and what are their stories?
Speaker 1: Legacy is so important.
Speaker 5: We are driven by the generational collateral that our families
Speaker 5: laid out before us, but we don't even know what
Speaker 5: that is. The greatest stories in America are sitting on
Speaker 5: our couches. The greatest stories in America could be from
Speaker 5: families the veterans I didn't serve. But it's so important
Speaker 5: that we take this time because we only have so
Speaker 5: much time and we take the stories from our family.
Speaker 5: We own the stories from our family, and we put
Speaker 5: them down on paper so our legacy can be preserved
Speaker 5: in an accurate way.
Speaker 2: What you're saying is so true, man, And you make
Speaker 2: me think like you make me think that sadly, a
Speaker 2: lot of our great stories are you know, homeless, you know,
Speaker 2: sitting on the corner our stories, asking us for change
Speaker 2: while they're holding up a sign telling us that they
Speaker 2: fought in the war, which pisses me off. I hate
Speaker 2: out his country treats his veterans.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we could do a lot more for the veterans.
Speaker 5: And it's everyday things, you know, going to read to veterans,
Speaker 5: donating time, but also money grants. There's so many things
Speaker 5: we could do, but it starts with first knowing your
Speaker 5: legacy and knowing the stories of the people in your
Speaker 5: living room, and then going ahead and saying, how can
Speaker 5: I now take my generational collateral and add to the
Speaker 5: narrative and help others like they helped us.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's expound on that. Just a little Veterans Day
Speaker 2: is coming up.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: Veterans Day comes to eleven eleven, yep, eleven eleven At
Speaker 5: one to eleven.
Speaker 2: How do you think we could best memorialize and celebrate
Speaker 2: these heroes.
Speaker 5: I think the best thing we can do for Veterans'
Speaker 5: Day to start off, visit a museum, Go support a VA,
Speaker 5: Go to a VFW, which is a veteran a foreign
Speaker 5: war outpost. Do something that you can do to lend
Speaker 5: a helping hand. If you don't have the money, dedicate
Speaker 5: your time. If you don't have the time, let your
Speaker 5: staff off so they can spend their time. But there's
Speaker 5: always something more we can do, and it's the least
Speaker 5: we can do for people who fought for the United
Speaker 5: States of America.
Speaker 2: That's right, Man.
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