The Second First Presidential Debate and Beyond | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

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Hey everybody, Jon Stewart here, bringing you an episode of
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my podcast, The Weekly Show, for all of you TDS
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Ears Edition listeners. We drop new episodes every Thursday in
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our feed, so I hope you join us over there.
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For today, we are bringing you our latest episode, which
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we dropped after the debate, to the ears, people. So
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here you have it. Hey everybody, welcome to The Weekly Show.
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podcast with me john stewart we are back we are
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back with britney memedovic lauren walker our airswild producers we
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have been away for months for years i when we
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left i don't even know who was in the race
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it was it was donald trump versus michael dukakis and
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then things switched around Now it's Donald Trump, Kamala Harris.
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We've only been gone for two weeks, and now we
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come back to the earth-shaking debate, which, as ABC told us,
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will change everything. Nothing is the same. No. It's raining dogs,
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night is day. Nothing is the same.
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Our lives are changed forever.
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I assume that you both watched with bated breath. I
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found myself... really nervous based on just how consequential the
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last one was, where two minutes into it, I was like, oh,
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he's going to have to leave. He's not going to
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be able to run for president. So I was happy
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to see it not necessarily be revelatory or answer a
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lot of questions, but at least bring us back to
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a slightly more normal cycle, even if that meant Donald
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Trump yelling about people eating pets.
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Yeah, it's weird that that's normal. Like, that's where the
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bar is.
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I think we've gotten to this point where because there's
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so much coverage of everything, there is an expectation that
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everything is the Super Bowl. And I guess the debates
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are probably the closest thing that you can have to that.
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But I do think it might be nice to get
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back to the idea that these political campaigns are grinding
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it out, convincing people. That you've got policies that are
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going to positively impact their lives rather than a series
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of gala events that will change everything and do that.
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Because I think that drama feels very manufactured. Where did
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you watch the debate, Lauren?
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Oh, just my house. Watch Party of One.
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Nice.
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I ate a sandwich and I kind of like white
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knuckled it for two minutes because it seemed like the
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energy was nervous.
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Right.
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The handshake thing, I was like.
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I liked the handshake. John, what did you think?
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I would have done bro hug. I'm always, I'm a
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big bro hug. Like if I were her, I walk in.
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First of all, I love the way she did it
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because it was very clear that she had decided on
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a game plan. And it's sort of, to me, it's
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set it set the tone for this idea that she
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had a very clear idea of what she wanted to execute.
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And he really was like, what time's the debate? Yeah.
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Let me show up at eight and whatever happens, happens.
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So I like that it sort of set this idea
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that she was going to be intentional and purposeful throughout it.
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He wouldn't look at her for the entire debate.
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It was so weird.
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I thought that was... was super odd. But I can't remember.
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He did look at Biden a few times, but I
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think that was more like, is this dude all right?
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I never felt like he had that relationship with like
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Hillary Clinton. So you could say like, well, she's a strong,
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smart woman. So maybe he's intimidated by that. But with
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Hillary Clinton, like he followed her around like a looming shadow.
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I don't think he would have done that to Kamala Harris.
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I do think he's oddly... kind of not sure what
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to do.
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He's intimidated.
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He can't be normal.
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Yeah.
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I don't know what to do.
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Well, that could be the title of his biography.
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I can't be normal.
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Donald Trump, I really can't be normal. I have a
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very difficult time being normal. Well, we've got two reporters
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that are actually covering these campaigns that are going to
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give the insight because we can all talk. I talk
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all the shit I want. I very rarely know what's
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actually going on with any of those. So Our two
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guests today are reporters, and we're going to get their
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thoughts on what the hell happened. So let me jump
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in on that, and I'll see you guys on the
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other side. All right, everybody. We are in post-debate glow, aura, enjoyment.
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We are going to be joined by Ashley Parker, Senior
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National Political Correspondent for the Washington Postman's Covering Elections Committee.
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won Pulitzer Prizes as a team covering elections. We've got
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David Graham, staff writer of The Atlantic, written about Harris
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and Trump and following these things very closely. Guys, thank
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you very much for joining us, David and Ashley. Of course.
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Yeah, thanks for having us.
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Let's talk about the debate. And I feel sorry for
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the national political reporters, the people that are following after us.
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This may be the last event that we have. It
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may now be just 10 weeks of following people around
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on a bus. Have you interviewed both candidates extemporaneously? Have
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you spent time with Trump, with Kamala Harris?
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I have spent a tremendous amount of time with Donald Trump.
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I started- Ashley, I'm.
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Going to stop you right there. I hear the exhaustion
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and the pain in your voice. I see it in
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your demeanor changed when I said, have you spent time
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You said it in the way of someone that perhaps
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has been at the DMV for 30 to 35 years.
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And there was there was a pain in your voice.
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I could feel it.
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I'm not going to weigh in. But I mean, I
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will just say I started covering. This was when I
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worked for The New York Times. But I started covering
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Donald Trump two days after poor, sad, curmudgeonly, but ultimately
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sweet Jeb Bush dropped out. And I have basically covered
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him in some capacity ever since.
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Imagine you start your presidential campaign with the high hopes
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of adding an exclamation point to your name. That's how
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well you thought this. What punctuation should we use here?
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Question mark period. Jeb Bush put an exclamation point next
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to his name on the posters. And two days after
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running into Trump, he had to leave. Why was Donald
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Trump so successful in sort of steamrolling Trump? all of
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the Republicans back in those days?
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I think, I mean, a couple of reasons. One, and
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this is why he's still fairly successful. A certain thing
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is I think shamelessness is his superpower. And he, covering
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previous candidates, right? We might do, if I covered Mitt Romney,
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you might do a fact check on Mitt Romney, something
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he's saying, and you say, Well, actually, Massachusetts wasn't always
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number one in job creation. You know, that year it
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was tied with Texas or that other year it actually
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came in third. And Mitt Romney would then change what
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he was saying on the stump, not because he cared
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that the Washington Post had given him four Pinocchios, though
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we think those noses matter.
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Solid, solid rating system.
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But because he believed he would pay a penalty with
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voters for seeming dishonest. And Trump sort of realized- that
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there would be no penalty with his base and his voters,
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that if he just repeated something enough and confidently enough
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and forcefully enough and shamelessly enough, that it could become
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a certain type of truth.
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That, I got to tell you, that's the confidence. But
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what was most surprising was Donald Trump immediately in the
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spin room, confidently saying, I don't think there's going to
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be another debate because I won this so, I believe
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the phrase was, tremendously. I believe he said he won
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it tremendously. And it was such a knockout that he
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didn't think, you know, he said the only people that
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asked for rematches are the losers. I've so clearly won it.
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Is that the process that he was going through? Sort
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of what Ashley was saying, which is I'm shameless. I
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know I got my ass kicked. I'm just going to
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run out there and go, wow, I'm awesome.
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Yeah.
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I mean, it's amazing.
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You know, even his closest allies were saying, well, you know,
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he had a hard time. He was going against, it
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was three on one because of the moderators. And you
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see Trump just being like, no, I won.
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I had that.
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I think that is very much the kind of bravado
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and the willingness to say whatever he feels like he's
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got to say.
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What about the Harris campaign? What was your feeling of
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how their team was reacting to it?
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I mean, I think they were already kind of floating.
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And then to receive the Taylor Swift endorsement on top
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of that, I don't think their spirits could have been
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a whole lot higher.
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Is that actually me? What is the Taylor Swift endorsement act?
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Like I knew it was a nice piece of pop
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culture and I know that she obviously has very dedicated fans,
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but is there any thought that there were Taylor Swift
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fans sort of in the Venn diagram that were not,
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you know, that she was going to say, you really
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should look at this Kamala Harris character and her fans
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would be like, I don't know. I've been really leaning
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Trump on this one. Like, is that a meaningful thing?
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I think maybe. And I think the reason is it
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turns people out.
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It's not about persuasion. It's about whether people will do it.
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And so, you know, she puts in a link to
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voting registration website and the government said, I think they'd
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gotten three or 400,000 hits on that site just from
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her Instagram post.
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So, you know, enough of those votes in swing states
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could make a difference.
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Not because she's going to persuade anyone, but just because
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maybe if they were kind of on the fence about
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whether to vote or feeling blasé, that'll get them fired up.
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I was struck during the debate by which subject areas
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the candidates were most confident in. It was very clear
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during the abortion part of the debate that Kamala Harris
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was feeling it on a visceral level. was able to deliver,
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I thought, maybe her best moment, maybe that in Ukraine,
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where she was confident, she was purposeful, she was visceral
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in her response. And I thought it put Trump back
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on his heels. I thought Trump was most confident in
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the warning for people's pets. Ashley, in your mind, what
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were the areas that you thought were most confident and
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least confident?
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Yeah, so I think you're absolutely right on abortion. It
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was interesting because the vice president, her first kind of
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broad answer, you could tell her voice was like a
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little shaky, a little nervous, and then abortion came up.
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Right afterwards, she 100% hit her stride. And I feel
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like that sort of gave her the confidence and sort
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of just the sense of grounding to proceed with that
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vibe throughout the debate. I mean, the other thing where
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I thought she was very confident and in talking to
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her team, this is something they practiced, they rehearsed from
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that opening handshake, right? Which they described to me as
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a power move.
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Wait, that was... So the handshake is everything is choreographed.
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Like that... you're going to walk out there and no
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matter what, you're going to him and you're hitting him
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with a handshake.
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Yes.
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I mean, their goal was to make sure, and this
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started before the debate, their goal, and it was borne
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out as successful, was to make sure that, as they
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put it, that Trump was triggered by the time he
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walked on stage. So that started with they released an
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ad featuring former President Obama talking about crowd size on
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the morning of the debate. With Obama, right, doing that
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hand motion. They blanketed... They blanketed Philadelphia where the debate
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was held with billboards and ads designed to troll Trump, right?
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One was a crowd-sized one that featured a full Philadelphia
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pretzel for Harris and then a piece, just a mere
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piece of a Philadelphia pretzel that looked like a limp
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pretzel for Trump, right?
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So the idea being as he's being driven in a
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van towards the venue, he's going to look at that
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and go, Limp pretzel, wait, what? No, I'm a full pretzel.
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Right, like limp pretzel, I have to abandon all self-discipline
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and control when I step on that debate stage. So then,
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and you could watch it from that, again, that opening handshake,
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walking over, getting in his space, introducing herself, pronouncing her
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name correctly. Then there was some- Oh, shoot.
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She literally was going up to him and trolling him
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with the pronunciation. This is unbelievable. I have to say,
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coming off of the NFL's first weekend, This is sounding
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so much like when you listen to football analysts talking
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about schematics and a game plan for their. I mean,
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it is. We have a scripted first 15 plays. You're
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going to go in there. They have a weakness in
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the backfield. I mean, this is. It really feels like
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a game. football game plan.
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And they had, I mean, I won't take you through
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all of them, but you could watch that debate step
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by step. They had these little Easter eggs, things she
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would say and do that they had practiced and believed
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that Trump, and they were almost always correct, would be
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unable to resist wasting time digressing into that. So a
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very subtle one that people might not have noticed was
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when she used, you know, there's a million analyses you
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can pull on, but when she wanted to rebut his
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economic plan, She did so by mentioning Wharton, which is,
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of course, where Trump famously went and takes a lot
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of pride. And you saw him. He kind of he
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kind of rears back and says, well, I went to
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the Wharton school.
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And that's what she said. The 19 Nobel Prize economists,
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including ones from Wharton and then. He couldn't help himself.
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He couldn't help himself. That was the first one. That's
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very subtle for those of us who have been covering
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Trump since 2015. A more obvious one was when she
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invited people to watch his rallies.
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Sure, that. Right.
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The crowd size says people are leaving out of boredom. First,
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he responded to that- It was the.
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First time you saw his eyes went wide.
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Yes, you saw the eyebrows went up, the eyes went wide.
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He adopted that like 10,000 foot gaze scowl.
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Right, right, right.
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And it was that thing that then led him into
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the now most viral digression about our nation's cats and dogs.
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Which by the way, as a pet owner, as somebody myself,
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I was watching with my dog and there was a
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lot of, I could see a lot of fear. That's
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actually been my favorite thing from the, If you go
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on like a TikTok or an Instagram, they're putting out
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these reels of Donald Trump saying that. And it's just
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reaction shots of pets who are looking unbelievably frightened. David,
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you were kind of writing more about Trump during all this.
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Did they have a similar Belichick-like game plan as they
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walked in down to, I mean, everybody talks about his
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game planning as, you know, he's ready for anything. Did
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they do any of that? Right.
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They say, you know, he's been preparing for this his
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whole life. And while the Harris campaign was letting it
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be known that she had spent all this time and
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talking about who was doing the prep and how, you know,
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there was an aide dressed up like Trump in a
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boxy suit, you know, with a whole nine yards.
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They went method. They had to go method.
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Yeah, they totally went method. And they wanted people to
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know they were going method.
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Yeah, sure. Trump is blustering about, oh, I don't need
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to prep. And it was interesting to see, you know,
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you could hear his allies, some of them saying, oh,
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he's going to be fine. And then other people a
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little bit nervous about that. And the moment that he
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started to get off track, you know, the moment we
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started hearing about the cats and dogs, then you see
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the recriminations. And you see people think, you know, is
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it really too much to ask him to prepare? And
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what we've seen from a decade of this is it
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is too much to ask him to prepare. And if
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Joe Biden collapses on stage, that works for him. But
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if Joe Biden doesn't collapse on stage, then he tends
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to kind of struggle.
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Right. I thought he did have a good first, I thought,
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two and a half to three minutes. I thought then,
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as it, you know, his preparation for that early two
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and a half to three minutes, I thought, Worked out
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very nicely. But then you could see he started to
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get distracted and things started to collapse and fall apart. Okay.
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We got to take a quick break. We're back. I
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want to talk about the people around them and how
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that manifests for the candidates themselves. psyche and i want
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to start with trump my sense of him is look
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a monarchy makes a lot of sense to him he
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runs the trump organization he doesn't even run it's not
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a public company he doesn't have a board of directors
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it's donald trump when he hosted the apprentice my favorite
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part of the apprentices after he mediated a dispute between
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meatloaf and gary bucey you know in the end and
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bucey had to leave and meatloaf was going to stay
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there was always two people next to him at the table.
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There was always that last coda of the end of
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The Apprentice. And it was either, you know, Ivanka or
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that dude, George or somebody else. And he would go, oh,
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that was tough. And they would go, you made the right,
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you made the good call, boss. Well done. That was,
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you couldn't have done anything else. Is that the vibe
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around him? Are there people there who tell him the
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truth or is he bathed In the kind of you
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are our little prince world that seems like has been
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following him his entire life.
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Yeah, he gets a lot of that. I mean, there
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are people who try to tell him the truth. And
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what happens is they tend to fall out of favor.
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They don't hang around long or as is the case
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with a lot of Trump people, they sort of cycle through. Um,
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so they come back again, but, but they don't, they
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don't stay long. And I think, you know, what you're
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describing of his experience, the Trump organization has been borne
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out in how he runs campaigns and it was how
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he was president too. I mean, you'd see him frustrated
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that he couldn't just do things unilaterally. Like he, he
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had not watched the schoolhouse rock and he couldn't believe
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that he couldn't just do things with the power of
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the presidency. And that's just his attitude is, you know,
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he knows best and he wants to do it his way.
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Is that in some ways comforting in that maybe his
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authoritarianism isn't malevolent? It's born of spoiledness. It's born of
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a more adolescent view based on being the golden child. No.
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I think you're right. Do you want to take some time?
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David, take your time with this. You don't have to
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answer right away.
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I think the result is the same, unfortunately.
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Right. It's so there is the, the, the, the anger
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is real. The malevolence is real. Yeah. Oh boy. That's
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for those of you who are on the podcast, uh,
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David is just nodding enthusiastically about that. Ashley, uh, what,
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what about the Harris campaign? Uh, can she be told
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the truth? Is she surrounded, you know, how much of
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this I'm always struck by, uh, how insulated and isolated, uh,
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these politicians are?
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So a couple of things. It's different from the Trump campaign,
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first of all, because on the one hand, she has
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cycled and churned through a tremendous amount of staff going
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back to her days in California, to the Senate, to
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the campaign, to the vice presidency, which is normally an
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indictment of someone's management style. But all of that staff,
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and this is something she has done very deliberately, is
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she is elevated and surrounded herself by women, by people
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of color, by women of color. So her staff just
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look like they look different than Trump's staff. And they
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bring different perspectives and life experiences. So that's one thing.
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The second is recently after she moved to the top
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of the ticket, a small handful, but a significant handful,
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sort of top people from Obama world and one from
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Clinton world came in, right? So David Plouffe.
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Obama world and Clinton world. They sound like closed down
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amusement parks where they, oh, they came in, there was
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Obama world. It was opened up in Nashville for a while,
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but then it closed down. So she brings on people
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who have run or have been involved in other campaigns
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for Democratic leaders. Yeah.
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And not just that. I mean, the thing that's striking
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to me, especially about the Obama people, and she brought
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in Jennifer Palmieri, who was key in Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful campaign,
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is these are people who have done two things successfully
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that she will likely need to do successfully to win.
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And it's sort of the question of can they recreate
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that magic? One is they were able to harness Obama's
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sort of authentic excitement and enthusiasm into actually like getting
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information from voters and mobilizing that to the polls. That's
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something she'll need to do. And the other thing is
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Obama and Clinton took a very different approach and got
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a very different electoral outcome. But Obama sort of did
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not make race the center, the historic nature of his candidacy,
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the centerpiece.
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Of his- Let that speak for itself.
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Yeah.
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His view is.
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People would look at him and understand he was a
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black guy, right? And so he didn't need to constantly
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talk about it. And he talked about race in a
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way that to many Americans felt inclusive and inspiring. And
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that's also something you're seeing Kamala Harris doing with her
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historic candidacy.
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David, is it in your mind, you know, we talk about, boy,
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that was a terrible night for Trump. He's going to
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have to do something. Does he have to do something?
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In some measure, the day he came down the golden
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escalator and said, I think most Mexicans are rapists, but
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like sometimes they send some good people. From that moment on,
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it became somewhat clear this was an antibiotic-resistant candidate. The
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normal things that would take out a candidate have no idea. Oh,
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the Access Hollywood tape and all those different things. Well,
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that was 2016. He's been through more of this than anybody.
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It doesn't seem as though these moments that would be disqualifying...
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I mean, honestly... in any other political campaign, in any
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other environment, if you stood on the stage, true or not,
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and just shouted, immigrants are eating dogs and people's pets.
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I mean, Howard Dean was a little loud with a scream.
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Michael Dukakis somewhat answered a question intemperately, like they'd be done.
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It doesn't seem to have any impact in any way,
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shape or form. Yeah.
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I mean, the amazing thing about him is just how
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consistent his support is. He's always there in the mid 40%.
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When he's winning, when he's losing, it just doesn't move
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no matter what he does. And I don't think we've
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ever seen anyone like that in American politics who has
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such stable approval. He can't get above 50% and he
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can't fall below 40%.
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But even within that stable approval, now they talk about
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he's picking up more support in the black community or
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the Hispanic community, but he's losing more support in women.
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There are groups that move in and out, but he
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is consistently reckless. Right. And it seems to matter not.
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I think one thing we're seeing this campaign from Democrats
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is a realization that and it took a long time
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for them to get to this, that there's not going
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to be like the moment or the gaffe that doesn't Trump.
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I think there was always this hope like, well, you know,
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he's going to do it this time. And, and they
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seem to have realized that just, it's not a thing.
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My favorite thing about Democrats. My favorite thing about Democrats
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was that he got indicted. Now we've got them. Like
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there's all these things that, Oh, there was always that
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moment where like, as soon as that Mueller report comes out, goodbye,
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Donald Trump, like at each turn, it always seems like
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this is the conclusive moment. Look, he's on tape saying,
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I want Putin to win because I love him. And
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just everybody's like, oh, that'll do it. None of it
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does it. Right.
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Exactly.
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And so he, what pressure does he feel? What does
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he think he has to do?
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I think he thinks he has to turn out the base.
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He consistently does not do things that would look like outreach.
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And he, you know, I, People make fun of his
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kind of silent majority rhetoric as being out of touch
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and being like Nixonian. But that doesn't mean he doesn't
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believe it. For all the things he will say that
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he doesn't believe, I think he really thinks that if everyone.
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Goes to win.
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He should believe it because they always underestimate him in polls.
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And when the elections come out, he always has, you know,
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that that silent base. I wouldn't call them the majority,
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but they're certainly silent.
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I mean, I think the reason he shouldn't believe it
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is in 2016, he won less of the vote than
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Hillary Clinton. In 2018, when he made himself the center
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of their campaign, Republicans did poorly. In 2020, he lost.
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In 2022, when he made himself the center of the campaign, again,
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Republicans did poorly. So there's evidence for it, but he
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still is really, he believes it.
484
00:25:27.069 --> 00:25:29.990
What's fascinating, I never understood. In addition to the belief
485
00:25:30.029 --> 00:25:32.519
that Donald Trump would win and become presidential, there was
486
00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:35.369
also this belief that he could win and move to
487
00:25:35.400 --> 00:25:38.069
the center, which seemed a little more legitimate because he had.
488
00:25:38.210 --> 00:25:41.369
Oh, dear God. How many times has Van Jones given
489
00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:47.170
you that? Dewey-eyed CNN. I believe Donald Trump today has
490
00:25:47.230 --> 00:25:50.319
become the unifier for like There's always that moment where
491
00:25:50.339 --> 00:25:52.559
somebody's like, he's really different now. Never.
492
00:25:52.740 --> 00:25:58.029
But what is fascinating is that his base is immovable.
493
00:25:58.109 --> 00:26:01.250
He is almost certainly never going to lose them. And
494
00:26:01.309 --> 00:26:03.890
so there is this world where he could maybe bring
495
00:26:03.930 --> 00:26:06.309
them along a little bit. But since covering him, there's
496
00:26:06.410 --> 00:26:09.089
all these moments. And so the second thing is Donald Trump,
497
00:26:09.210 --> 00:26:11.130
the way to understand him, or one way, is he's
498
00:26:11.230 --> 00:26:15.089
always trying to win, like– the minute, the hour, the day,
499
00:26:15.190 --> 00:26:17.569
the person directly in front of him. This is not
500
00:26:17.630 --> 00:26:21.390
like four-dimensional chess. So people would never understand. Well, why
501
00:26:21.410 --> 00:26:23.539
when he was talking to the dreamers, did he say,
502
00:26:23.970 --> 00:26:26.940
you guys are wonderful valedictorians. Of course, you should stay
503
00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:28.819
in the country. And then 10 minutes later, when they
504
00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:31.339
brought in a group of sheriffs, was he like, the
505
00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:33.420
dreamers are just out in the outer awful. Let's round
506
00:26:33.460 --> 00:26:35.980
them up and send them back. It makes no sense,
507
00:26:36.059 --> 00:26:38.589
but he's always trying to win the people in front
508
00:26:38.619 --> 00:26:40.670
of him. But when he is faced with those two things,
509
00:26:40.789 --> 00:26:42.950
as we've seen on say abortion, where he's been all
510
00:26:43.009 --> 00:26:47.950
over the map, he will always, always ultimately retreat back
511
00:26:48.089 --> 00:26:50.789
to what his far right base wants. He'll move to
512
00:26:50.809 --> 00:26:53.609
the middle, the right wing echo chamber will freak out
513
00:26:53.650 --> 00:26:56.769
at him and he will ultimately come down on their side.
514
00:26:57.390 --> 00:27:00.250
Does he though, you know, so let's talk about that.
515
00:27:00.329 --> 00:27:02.670
Is that a purposeful move? You know, is it the
516
00:27:02.789 --> 00:27:08.220
idea that he so understands how loyal his basis that
517
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:10.759
he can stand up on a debate stage and say,
518
00:27:10.779 --> 00:27:17.299
I actually created IVF. I will personally inseminate any woman
519
00:27:17.660 --> 00:27:20.559
with sperm that wants it. That's how much I believe
520
00:27:20.619 --> 00:27:25.220
in IVF. I love it. Does he do that because
521
00:27:25.259 --> 00:27:28.710
he thinks I've delivered so well for my, my base,
522
00:27:28.890 --> 00:27:31.170
they'll never leave me. I can say whatever I want.
523
00:27:31.890 --> 00:27:33.579
No, because then he freaks out.
524
00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:39.880
So even that's not strategic.
525
00:27:40.019 --> 00:27:42.839
Because then he freaks out, right? Like he said something
526
00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:44.839
on the Florida abortion rule. He thought it should be
527
00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:46.740
longer than six weeks.
528
00:27:46.759 --> 00:27:47.700
Six weeks is too short.
529
00:27:47.819 --> 00:27:48.740
Right. Six weeks is too short.
530
00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:50.910
Then his base flipped out. And then he came out
531
00:27:50.950 --> 00:27:53.049
and said, well, actually, I am going to vote. That
532
00:27:53.089 --> 00:27:54.450
seems very reasonable.
533
00:27:54.910 --> 00:27:58.410
Right. I think it's interesting that, you know, look, what
534
00:27:58.430 --> 00:28:02.460
has been the Trump or far right kryptonite, it would
535
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:06.059
seem to me, is the court system. So- Anybody can
536
00:28:06.140 --> 00:28:11.720
say anything about anything on the radio or on Fox
537
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:15.180
News other than the false claims about Dominion and getting sued.
538
00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:18.509
But it's very clear that when they talk about, oh,
539
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:21.490
the fraudulent voting and there were so many illegal immigrants,
540
00:28:21.609 --> 00:28:23.210
and then when they go to court, they get thrown
541
00:28:23.269 --> 00:28:25.890
out because they have no proof and they get laughed out.
542
00:28:26.730 --> 00:28:31.009
I do think her style as a prosecutor, Kamala Harris,
543
00:28:31.809 --> 00:28:34.529
in some ways embodies a little bit of that kryptonite
544
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:40.099
And I thought in the debate, she could even do
545
00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:42.380
more of it in the way I was struck that,
546
00:28:43.400 --> 00:28:46.559
especially when talking about the economy, when she talked about abortion,
547
00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:49.299
she took that prosecutorial style. When she talked about the economy,
548
00:28:49.339 --> 00:28:53.220
she didn't. Ashley, is that because they lack the confidence
549
00:28:53.819 --> 00:28:57.829
in that narrative or they hadn't thought through that litigation yet?
550
00:28:58.779 --> 00:28:59.519
I mean, the.
551
00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:04.299
Economy is an incredibly tricky issue for the Biden-Harris administration
552
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:08.420
because there's an actual there's a lot of economic indicators, right?
553
00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:11.180
If you're like pointing to these tangible things, you can
554
00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:14.690
argue that the economy has improved under their administration, uh,
555
00:29:14.750 --> 00:29:18.009
versus former president Trump, but the things that people actually
556
00:29:18.109 --> 00:29:20.609
feel right, which they vote on, which is like, what
557
00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:22.609
are interest rates? And can you afford to buy a
558
00:29:22.670 --> 00:29:24.579
new house? Or do your three kids still have to
559
00:29:24.619 --> 00:29:26.140
share a bedroom? And what is the, I mean, this
560
00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:28.539
sounds cliche, but what is the cost of eggs and milk?
561
00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:30.980
And when you're driving, you know, I had someone in
562
00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:34.960
the Biden administration to say every single gas station, um,
563
00:29:35.650 --> 00:29:38.299
with the cost of gas is a billboard that hurts
564
00:29:38.460 --> 00:29:41.970
us when you're driving. Those things have not changed yet, right?
565
00:29:41.990 --> 00:29:42.789
Because they're lagging.
566
00:29:42.829 --> 00:29:45.839
Well, the gas certainly has. I mean, the billboards for
567
00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:46.259
that has.
568
00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:50.420
But sort of, again, like the vibes, the feel and
569
00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:53.720
the sense, people feel that things felt better under Trump.
570
00:29:53.819 --> 00:29:57.779
And so there's something incredibly insulting to voters who are
571
00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.359
stressed about money or stretched to get to the end
572
00:30:00.380 --> 00:30:03.829
of the month. to hear Harris saying things are fantastic now.
573
00:30:03.869 --> 00:30:05.990
So it's hard to prosecute that case.
574
00:30:06.690 --> 00:30:19.680
All right, we'll be right back. We're back. So let me,
575
00:30:20.140 --> 00:30:22.309
I think this is a great place for us to
576
00:30:22.369 --> 00:30:24.009
talk about a little bit, because I think this talks
577
00:30:24.069 --> 00:30:28.789
to how you just described it, Ashley, sounds perfectly reasonable
578
00:30:28.829 --> 00:30:32.609
to me. And I don't understand why a candidate feels
579
00:30:33.009 --> 00:30:37.269
that at least that beginning framing is something that they
580
00:30:37.309 --> 00:30:40.170
are not allowed to do. You know, that they're not
581
00:30:40.210 --> 00:30:43.869
allowed to say, look, the economy is incredibly complex. I
582
00:30:43.910 --> 00:30:47.250
think we've made some strides in the right direction through
583
00:30:47.269 --> 00:30:49.289
the pandemic. Let me walk you through what some of
584
00:30:49.309 --> 00:30:52.190
those decisions were. I know that if you're at home
585
00:30:52.509 --> 00:30:54.509
and it doesn't feel that way to you, you know,
586
00:30:54.930 --> 00:30:58.109
the economy is very personal to people. Why can't that
587
00:30:58.190 --> 00:31:01.269
be the discussion? Instead of, are you better off than
588
00:31:01.309 --> 00:31:04.190
you were four years ago? And the first thing is,
589
00:31:04.339 --> 00:31:08.299
I'm going to give everyone $ 6, 000 for childcare. And you're like, wait,
590
00:31:08.460 --> 00:31:13.019
what just happened? David, why can't candidates, and I thought
591
00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:16.279
this was a real issue during the pandemic with our
592
00:31:16.299 --> 00:31:21.700
healthcare officials, why can't they trust us enough to talk
593
00:31:21.740 --> 00:31:25.569
to us like human beings in those areas where they
594
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:28.950
feel like it's not completely black and white?
595
00:31:29.670 --> 00:31:33.269
The people who they're talking to, they think are not
596
00:31:33.309 --> 00:31:36.890
the most sophisticated voters. And I think they are probably right.
597
00:31:37.049 --> 00:31:39.259
Undecided voters are not the people who are paying close attention.
598
00:31:40.259 --> 00:31:41.970
Some of them may have really nuanced views, but a
599
00:31:42.019 --> 00:31:44.710
lot of them don't. And so there's a certain amount of,
600
00:31:46.180 --> 00:31:48.460
they're pandering to the lowest common denominator and they feel
601
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:50.740
like they can't get nuanced.
602
00:31:51.460 --> 00:31:54.039
It's not that they're dumb or that the Harris campaign
603
00:31:54.059 --> 00:31:56.259
thinks they're dumb, but they do understand that this is
604
00:31:56.299 --> 00:32:00.099
a group of voters who is not particularly tuned into politics, right?
605
00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:02.839
They're not paying a ton of attention. They don't really,
606
00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:05.380
they have other things on their mind, including the cost
607
00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:07.809
of groceries, right? Like they're going to tune in at
608
00:32:07.849 --> 00:32:10.450
the very end of the election. They're also, and this
609
00:32:10.490 --> 00:32:13.390
is kind of fascinating, one of the most skeptical groups
610
00:32:13.450 --> 00:32:16.069
of voters. I was talking to a Democratic strategist who said,
611
00:32:16.089 --> 00:32:19.130
when we do focus groups with swing voters and I say,
612
00:32:19.170 --> 00:32:21.490
you know, You know, well, what if I told you
613
00:32:21.529 --> 00:32:25.809
that Donald Trump appointed the three most conservative justices who
614
00:32:25.849 --> 00:32:26.890
helped overturn Roe v.
615
00:32:26.930 --> 00:32:27.150
Wade?
616
00:32:27.170 --> 00:32:28.950
Would that change your view of him? And the first
617
00:32:28.970 --> 00:32:31.710
thing out of these voters' mouths is like, well, if
618
00:32:31.769 --> 00:32:33.609
that's true, I'm going to have to go home and
619
00:32:33.630 --> 00:32:34.109
Google it.
620
00:32:34.490 --> 00:32:34.710
Right.
621
00:32:34.789 --> 00:32:35.769
So there are also.
622
00:32:36.349 --> 00:32:36.910
Dear God.
623
00:32:36.930 --> 00:32:36.990
So.
624
00:32:37.660 --> 00:32:40.980
So it's a group of voters who are very distrustful
625
00:32:41.099 --> 00:32:44.720
of institutions, of political parties, of the media. So that
626
00:32:44.779 --> 00:32:46.799
is all part of the discussion of how do we
627
00:32:46.839 --> 00:32:48.900
message them? How do we win them over? When do
628
00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:50.619
we win them over? When do we hit them with
629
00:32:50.660 --> 00:32:52.920
this message? When do we just get them to trust
630
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:57.720
that we're someone they should consider? That's absolutely all.
631
00:32:57.660 --> 00:32:58.500
Part of the discussion.
632
00:32:59.059 --> 00:33:01.700
See, this is the most fascinating thing. I'm so struck by,
633
00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:04.980
you know, Every debate and all the things, you know,
634
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:08.140
we all have kind of now a boilerplate format that
635
00:33:08.180 --> 00:33:10.480
we go through. There's the debate. Then we go to
636
00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:13.769
the pundits. And then immediately you go to and now
637
00:33:13.809 --> 00:33:15.769
we've got our own pollster and he's with a group
638
00:33:15.809 --> 00:33:18.589
of undecided voters and they do that. And that always
639
00:33:18.609 --> 00:33:23.170
struck me as one of the most ridiculous exercises in
640
00:33:23.269 --> 00:33:26.190
nothingness that I have ever seen in my life. Well,
641
00:33:26.380 --> 00:33:28.220
I listened to it. How many of you now are
642
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:31.599
for Kamala Harris? Oh, I whatever we just watched. Sure,
643
00:33:31.660 --> 00:33:36.130
that's fine. aren't we infusing that undecided group of voters
644
00:33:36.670 --> 00:33:42.029
as an idea that they've been vetted for their indecision?
645
00:33:42.690 --> 00:33:46.430
Whereas like half the time it's political operatives just standing
646
00:33:46.470 --> 00:33:50.190
there or the same person on the panel every four years.
647
00:33:51.829 --> 00:33:54.630
You know, there's a certain, when you put somebody on
648
00:33:54.670 --> 00:33:58.809
a news channel, there's a sense that that has been vetted.
649
00:34:00.109 --> 00:34:02.759
And when you really drill down into it, It doesn't
650
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:07.019
seem that way at all. Ashley, is there any value
651
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:11.230
in those kinds of theatrical moments with the panels?
652
00:34:12.050 --> 00:34:15.559
So I think there's tremendous value in focus groups. Is
653
00:34:15.579 --> 00:34:19.050
there value in those TV focus groups immediately after debates
654
00:34:19.230 --> 00:34:22.789
with undecided voters? And also, let's just pause. What does
655
00:34:22.829 --> 00:34:25.650
it actually mean to be undecided in the year of
656
00:34:25.730 --> 00:34:29.300
our Lord, 2024, when your choices, regardless of what you think,
657
00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:36.400
are so diametrically opposite that you're just truly... it's sort
658
00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:39.079
of like an existential question of like, how does this
659
00:34:39.139 --> 00:34:42.889
even happen? But focus groups in general are incredibly valuable
660
00:34:43.300 --> 00:34:46.190
and insightful. And whenever anyone lets me sit in on one,
661
00:34:46.309 --> 00:34:47.469
I always do so.
662
00:34:47.570 --> 00:34:49.510
And like- What is the difference between one that you've
663
00:34:49.530 --> 00:34:51.570
seen on TV and one that you've sat in on?
664
00:34:52.429 --> 00:34:56.329
So often ones, you know, campaigns and these groups are
665
00:34:56.469 --> 00:34:58.889
running them for different things. Like they're not trying to
666
00:34:58.929 --> 00:35:01.349
find out who, after this debate, who are you going
667
00:35:01.369 --> 00:35:03.469
to vote for? You know, they're trying to find out like,
668
00:35:03.960 --> 00:35:06.260
How do you feel about these issues, for instance, and
669
00:35:06.420 --> 00:35:09.980
what what might be a compelling message? Right. So one
670
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:11.860
thing I think of a Democratic strategist, I was not
671
00:35:11.880 --> 00:35:13.800
in this group, but he told me he said they
672
00:35:13.820 --> 00:35:15.449
were talking to some voters and they said, you know,
673
00:35:15.489 --> 00:35:18.230
let's say Kamala Harris comes to your town and you
674
00:35:18.269 --> 00:35:20.329
get to do an activity. You get to bring her
675
00:35:20.349 --> 00:35:22.349
and show her something in your town. What would you
676
00:35:22.389 --> 00:35:22.750
show her?
677
00:35:23.349 --> 00:35:27.550
And a voter said, oh, it's like a bachelorette hometown. Yes. Oh,
678
00:35:27.610 --> 00:35:30.030
that's lovely. I'm going to I'm going to take them
679
00:35:30.070 --> 00:35:31.639
to meet my family and then we're going to go
680
00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:32.739
to the custard shop.
681
00:35:33.099 --> 00:35:33.340
Right.
682
00:35:33.659 --> 00:35:36.380
But but this voter said I want I would I
683
00:35:36.420 --> 00:35:38.260
would bring her to work with me. I would bring
684
00:35:38.300 --> 00:35:40.239
her to my first job and then I would bring
685
00:35:40.300 --> 00:35:41.739
her to my second job.
686
00:35:41.820 --> 00:35:41.980
Right.
687
00:35:42.019 --> 00:35:43.880
We would take the three buses it takes to get
688
00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:46.530
from my first job to my second job because I
689
00:35:46.590 --> 00:35:49.530
want her to understand like how hard I am working
690
00:35:49.630 --> 00:35:53.610
and how I am still barely surviving. So that is
691
00:35:53.789 --> 00:35:56.889
kind of relevant and useful information of where voters are
692
00:35:57.210 --> 00:35:59.389
and what they need from the candidates in their lives.
693
00:36:00.659 --> 00:36:04.440
You know, for me, it's shocking that that's what it
694
00:36:04.500 --> 00:36:08.380
would take for a candidate to understand what people's working
695
00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:11.860
lives are like. The idea that that would be revelatory
696
00:36:12.900 --> 00:36:18.110
speaks almost more to how insulated politicians are from the
697
00:36:18.170 --> 00:36:21.389
day-to-day lives of their constituents. I mean, that's what I
698
00:36:21.449 --> 00:36:25.739
seem to... have learned from my time in Washington is
699
00:36:25.820 --> 00:36:34.019
how unbelievably eccentric the culture of Washington is and how
700
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:39.409
easily it sets up barriers between the people you represent
701
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:41.519
and the culture of the town that you live in.
702
00:36:41.809 --> 00:36:45.809
Washington runs on a completely different currency than the rest
703
00:36:45.849 --> 00:36:48.269
of the world. Let me ask you both then, having
704
00:36:48.389 --> 00:36:53.829
experienced these campaigns, to you, Do you feel the disconnect
705
00:36:53.949 --> 00:36:56.449
that candidates have with the constituents or in the country?
706
00:36:57.230 --> 00:37:02.030
And for your experiences, what has struck you as the
707
00:37:02.070 --> 00:37:06.170
biggest disconnect between Washington in general and the country at large?
708
00:37:07.190 --> 00:37:10.489
I'll start because I can double advocate it. Thank you.
709
00:37:11.380 --> 00:37:14.539
Before Trump was even like the word on people's tongues
710
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:18.800
as a politician, I did a road trip in like
711
00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:23.820
2014 driving like the old Rook. 60 or 66 out
712
00:37:23.889 --> 00:37:25.829
to Indianapolis is where I flew home. And it was
713
00:37:25.869 --> 00:37:28.389
just talking to voters. It was talking to like hundreds
714
00:37:28.449 --> 00:37:31.429
upon hundreds of voters. And the thing I picked up,
715
00:37:31.449 --> 00:37:33.530
because again, it's always good to talk to voters, was
716
00:37:33.570 --> 00:37:39.130
the sense that like these people, Democrats, Republicans, whoever, were furious, right?
717
00:37:39.170 --> 00:37:41.250
Like you would go to these houses and they all had,
718
00:37:41.309 --> 00:37:43.349
I was with a photographer who noticed this, like visually
719
00:37:43.369 --> 00:37:46.159
it wasn't me. They all had like bits of Americana, right?
720
00:37:46.179 --> 00:37:49.909
Like flags and things like that, um, on house and
721
00:37:49.949 --> 00:37:52.340
a lot of houses that, you know, maybe needed like
722
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:53.820
a new code. We're kind of crumbling.
723
00:37:53.940 --> 00:37:54.199
Right.
724
00:37:54.440 --> 00:37:56.739
Um, and they, what they were furious was, and what
725
00:37:56.760 --> 00:37:59.900
they said was, look, I did everything right.
726
00:38:00.059 --> 00:38:00.280
Right.
727
00:38:00.340 --> 00:38:02.559
Like I got a job. I worked nine to five.
728
00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:04.889
I had a pension. Um, I moved to this district
729
00:38:04.929 --> 00:38:06.909
to go to the right school. I bought a house
730
00:38:07.050 --> 00:38:09.269
that my bank told me I could buy, right. That
731
00:38:09.329 --> 00:38:12.070
it would be irresponsible for me not to buy. Now, look,
732
00:38:12.250 --> 00:38:15.889
every single house on my block is foreclosed. Um, And
733
00:38:15.909 --> 00:38:19.550
those clowns in New York and Washington who ruined my
734
00:38:20.050 --> 00:38:24.090
401k and now I can't retire, who did all of this,
735
00:38:24.289 --> 00:38:27.739
there's no consequences for them. And they were furious. And
736
00:38:27.780 --> 00:38:30.719
they didn't have the language, but they wanted to burn
737
00:38:30.760 --> 00:38:34.260
it all down and drain the swamp. And that was something,
738
00:38:34.300 --> 00:38:36.599
for instance, that this was not a disconnect at all.
739
00:38:36.980 --> 00:38:39.119
Donald Trump, and again, I don't think it was from
740
00:38:39.619 --> 00:38:41.539
doing a road trip and talking to hundreds of voters,
741
00:38:41.639 --> 00:38:46.969
but he viscerally, instinctually understood that anger, understood that frustration
742
00:38:46.989 --> 00:38:47.650
with the system.
743
00:38:48.030 --> 00:38:50.730
But that's my point. How is it that, I mean,
744
00:38:50.869 --> 00:38:53.769
after the 2008 financial crisis and everything that occurred, how
745
00:38:53.849 --> 00:38:57.289
is it that Washington did not understand that? And the
746
00:38:57.349 --> 00:39:01.320
problem with Trump is not necessarily what his diagnosis is.
747
00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:04.039
It's what his prescription is. Look, the idea that he
748
00:39:04.079 --> 00:39:07.260
figured out people were disconnected and angry and all those things,
749
00:39:07.500 --> 00:39:09.019
and they wanted to drain the swamp is one thing.
750
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:12.079
But He doesn't look like someone who wants to reform
751
00:39:12.119 --> 00:39:14.420
the system in a positive way to take the corruption out.
752
00:39:14.679 --> 00:39:16.739
He wants the deed to the swamp signed over to
753
00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:22.329
him because he wants full and total, you know, monarchical
754
00:39:23.150 --> 00:39:25.969
control over everything. So I think that's we're sort of
755
00:39:26.050 --> 00:39:28.809
talking about the same thing, which is how the fuck
756
00:39:29.070 --> 00:39:34.000
does Washington. and politicians who are from these districts not
757
00:39:34.199 --> 00:39:38.800
understand that in their bones and, and try and reform
758
00:39:38.840 --> 00:39:42.510
this system that's created this anger rather than just take
759
00:39:42.550 --> 00:39:43.489
it over, David.
760
00:39:44.230 --> 00:39:46.969
I mean, I think one thing that struck me when
761
00:39:47.150 --> 00:39:51.449
I first moved to Washington was the Um, how, how
762
00:39:51.530 --> 00:39:54.880
actually most of the people in politics are totally normal. Um,
763
00:39:55.039 --> 00:39:59.300
like they're, you know, when you're reading about them from afar,
764
00:39:59.780 --> 00:40:01.690
they seem like they're special. And then you get there
765
00:40:01.710 --> 00:40:03.190
and you're like, oh, these are just, these are just
766
00:40:03.250 --> 00:40:03.849
ordinary jerks.
767
00:40:03.929 --> 00:40:08.349
Like they're as lame as everyone else. And I think
768
00:40:08.369 --> 00:40:11.190
part of the problem is as you elevate, you do get.
769
00:40:11.110 --> 00:40:14.429
Further removed from those things. You have fewer opportunities to
770
00:40:14.469 --> 00:40:16.750
be a normal person and to be around normal people.
771
00:40:16.969 --> 00:40:18.650
You're around the same people in politics and they start
772
00:40:18.670 --> 00:40:20.369
to rub off on each other. And I don't know
773
00:40:20.409 --> 00:40:23.050
how you saw that because if you're running the government,
774
00:40:23.070 --> 00:40:25.679
you have to run the government. I need my senators
775
00:40:25.739 --> 00:40:28.639
to be paying attention to the legislation they're dealing with
776
00:40:28.699 --> 00:40:31.340
and also to actually be in touch with real people.
777
00:40:31.780 --> 00:40:33.159
I think it's a tough thing to do. And I
778
00:40:33.219 --> 00:40:37.059
think the structures of government push against that. And I
779
00:40:37.099 --> 00:40:38.980
also think the pandemic was a problem for that. I
780
00:40:39.019 --> 00:40:42.099
think a lot of politicians just recently lost touch because
781
00:40:42.139 --> 00:40:45.969
they were not, especially Democrats, were not actually campaigning outside
782
00:40:45.989 --> 00:40:48.010
of Zoom. And I think that has created a disconnect.
783
00:40:48.050 --> 00:40:51.150
And they're having to work hard to try to rebuild
784
00:40:51.190 --> 00:40:54.269
that and to remember how to talk to civilians.
785
00:40:54.570 --> 00:40:57.889
Right. Ultimately, I think that these are great points in
786
00:40:57.929 --> 00:41:01.570
getting out there. And in your minds, you know, Would
787
00:41:01.610 --> 00:41:05.969
more debates be more helpful, do you think, for voters?
788
00:41:06.269 --> 00:41:08.469
Would you like to see more? I don't know that
789
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:10.780
I would want to watch another one because I don't
790
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:14.860
feel that I would learn anything particularly astonishing. And it
791
00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:17.739
would be like watching in the way that people watch
792
00:41:17.780 --> 00:41:20.099
sometimes motor races, which is like, I just want to
793
00:41:20.139 --> 00:41:22.760
see somebody spin out and flip over, you know, and
794
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:28.539
have something unbelievably terrifying or exciting happening. Is there more
795
00:41:28.559 --> 00:41:32.849
to learn in your minds? from that that we haven't
796
00:41:32.909 --> 00:41:35.769
seen already? Or would it be an exercise in spectacle?
797
00:41:36.309 --> 00:41:39.809
Why not both? I think they're important.
798
00:41:39.829 --> 00:41:40.670
You can have it all.
799
00:41:41.110 --> 00:41:42.349
Yeah, I do think they're valuable.
800
00:41:42.469 --> 00:41:44.909
And I think part of that is because the candidates,
801
00:41:45.110 --> 00:41:48.260
both of them spend so little time in situations where
802
00:41:48.300 --> 00:41:49.760
they don't get to choose the questioner.
803
00:41:50.099 --> 00:41:52.280
They don't get to pick a friendly person. It's not
804
00:41:52.300 --> 00:41:53.199
a controlled environment.
805
00:41:53.300 --> 00:41:55.550
And so whether they're taking questions from David Muir and
806
00:41:55.570 --> 00:41:58.369
Lindsay Davis or taking questions from the other candidate, it
807
00:41:58.429 --> 00:42:00.349
forces them to do something they don't do all the time.
808
00:42:00.389 --> 00:42:03.719
And that provides us a better sense of like what
809
00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:05.960
their character is, how they think on their feet, what
810
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:06.920
they actually believe.
811
00:42:07.360 --> 00:42:08.420
And so I think it's worthwhile.
812
00:42:09.079 --> 00:42:09.820
Ashley, what do you think?
813
00:42:10.539 --> 00:42:13.599
Yeah, I mean, our debates is helpful with getting more
814
00:42:13.619 --> 00:42:16.460
information than if, say, each candidate sat down with like
815
00:42:16.860 --> 00:42:19.739
the subject matter experts at The Washington Post, The Atlantic,
816
00:42:20.010 --> 00:42:22.639
The Wall Street Journal. No, absolutely not. But are those
817
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:25.960
two candidates going to do that? No, absolutely not. So
818
00:42:26.340 --> 00:42:29.739
to David's point, debates may be the best of the
819
00:42:29.780 --> 00:42:30.909
not particularly great options.
820
00:42:30.949 --> 00:42:34.750
To focus it, right. Ashley, as somebody who's had the
821
00:42:34.829 --> 00:42:39.650
pleasure of moderating one of those, is there a change
822
00:42:39.710 --> 00:42:43.369
that you would make in the formats? I mean, I think, unfortunately,
823
00:42:43.449 --> 00:42:45.869
moderating a debate is like hosting the Oscars. There's really
824
00:42:45.909 --> 00:42:50.590
not much of an upside. And I thought They did
825
00:42:50.670 --> 00:42:53.449
a fine job, as most of the people that have
826
00:42:53.489 --> 00:42:56.090
done it have done a fine job. Is there a
827
00:42:56.159 --> 00:42:58.440
change that you would make in the format that you
828
00:42:58.480 --> 00:43:04.619
believe would make it more informational, more revelatory, more insightful?
829
00:43:05.260 --> 00:43:07.780
It's a good question. I mean, I actually thought they,
830
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:10.159
I mean, moderating in a debate, right, it's sort of
831
00:43:10.199 --> 00:43:12.599
like being a kicker in football, right? Like you're only
832
00:43:12.679 --> 00:43:14.619
remembered if you go wide, you know?
833
00:43:14.639 --> 00:43:15.579
Wide, right. Yeah. Yeah.
834
00:43:16.349 --> 00:43:18.409
So the best thing for debate moderators to be on,
835
00:43:18.429 --> 00:43:20.090
you know, you remember the debate, you remember the moments,
836
00:43:20.150 --> 00:43:22.710
not the moderators. I mean, I thought David Muir and
837
00:43:22.730 --> 00:43:25.670
Lindsay Davis did a fantastic job, including it is it
838
00:43:25.730 --> 00:43:29.090
is incredibly difficult as someone who has interviewed him to
839
00:43:29.130 --> 00:43:32.690
fact check Donald Trump in real time. And they in
840
00:43:32.909 --> 00:43:36.929
certain key moments, they were prepared. And David Muir, especially
841
00:43:37.630 --> 00:43:39.849
in some of those moments, like with the cats and dogs.
842
00:43:40.070 --> 00:43:42.369
I mean, he had the information at his disposal from
843
00:43:42.389 --> 00:43:45.750
a verified, reliable source. And he was so confident. He
844
00:43:45.789 --> 00:43:48.989
was so sort of calm, which is not easy to
845
00:43:49.030 --> 00:43:50.590
do in those situations.
846
00:43:50.909 --> 00:43:55.280
Yeah, no, absolutely. Do you think, would it be possible
847
00:43:55.360 --> 00:43:59.199
to do, you know, sort of two candidates sitting in
848
00:43:59.260 --> 00:44:03.179
front of each other just talking? Is that something that
849
00:44:03.219 --> 00:44:06.280
we could even pull off in a modern political era?
850
00:44:07.110 --> 00:44:08.849
Can you imagine Donald Trump doing that?
851
00:44:10.190 --> 00:44:15.820
Personally, I cannot imagine him doing anything where he is
852
00:44:15.940 --> 00:44:20.429
not the sole arbiter of the rule book and the
853
00:44:20.489 --> 00:44:22.969
rules of engagement. I just think, I mean, it gets
854
00:44:23.010 --> 00:44:26.150
back to what we had said earlier. I think his
855
00:44:26.230 --> 00:44:32.030
entire upbringing has been as the inheritor of the castle
856
00:44:32.750 --> 00:44:35.889
and that everything that's been done has been to his, look,
857
00:44:37.090 --> 00:44:42.019
his first mentor outside of his father was Roy Cohn. Like,
858
00:44:42.199 --> 00:44:46.719
you don't do that when your methodology is collaboration and openness. Like,
859
00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:48.480
you do that when you want to get away with
860
00:44:48.539 --> 00:44:51.389
shit as best you can and go scorched earth on
861
00:44:51.429 --> 00:44:57.590
everybody else. So I just think that's his methodology. But
862
00:44:57.730 --> 00:44:59.989
as a country, it seems like we might be better served,
863
00:45:01.050 --> 00:45:02.769
you know, if they could.
864
00:45:02.789 --> 00:45:05.760
Yeah, I mean, I think it's tricky because the reason
865
00:45:05.800 --> 00:45:09.119
that they– the reason that you see people, you know,
866
00:45:09.159 --> 00:45:12.059
candidates demagoguing and bending the truth and doing whatever in
867
00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:14.579
these things is because the cameras are rolling. And also
868
00:45:14.599 --> 00:45:16.900
they're valuable because the cameras are rolling and voters can
869
00:45:16.929 --> 00:45:18.989
see that. If you could somehow get them to forget
870
00:45:19.300 --> 00:45:22.269
what was going on, I think that would help. But it's,
871
00:45:22.329 --> 00:45:25.869
you know, in the same way that C-SPAN.
872
00:45:25.889 --> 00:45:29.170
You just blew my mind. Like, so it's almost like
873
00:45:29.250 --> 00:45:33.289
Schrodinger's candidate. Like if we weren't watching this and we
874
00:45:33.329 --> 00:45:36.969
weren't filming it. So how much has coverage, do you think,
875
00:45:37.820 --> 00:45:41.570
changed our politics. Like we all talk about sunlight is
876
00:45:41.610 --> 00:45:46.650
the best disinfectant and transparency, but has our transparent, like
877
00:45:46.849 --> 00:45:50.309
would these guys be much better if we weren't there?
878
00:45:50.789 --> 00:45:52.809
I mean, I think you can make a pretty convincing
879
00:45:52.909 --> 00:45:56.469
argument that C-SPAN helped break Congress because.
880
00:45:56.050 --> 00:45:59.300
Suddenly you can watch them doing it. So yeah.
881
00:46:02.289 --> 00:46:03.510
Fucking C-SPAN.
882
00:46:03.849 --> 00:46:04.489
I knew it.
883
00:46:04.909 --> 00:46:07.650
Those pricks. We've been all looking in the wrong direction
884
00:46:07.670 --> 00:46:11.429
to blame somebody. It's C-SPAN's fault for putting security cameras up.
885
00:46:11.469 --> 00:46:12.800
Yeah, turn the camera around.
886
00:46:14.039 --> 00:46:17.039
That sounds like a slate pitch to me, David.
887
00:46:18.320 --> 00:46:22.500
Done. C-SPAN's fault. Well, guys, I know you've got another,
888
00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:24.489
what is this, 10 weeks of this? What do we
889
00:46:24.510 --> 00:46:26.130
got now? Somewhere around there?
890
00:46:26.530 --> 00:46:27.010
Who even knows?
891
00:46:27.030 --> 00:46:30.659
Yeah, something. You guys aren't doing it like you're prisoners
892
00:46:30.679 --> 00:46:32.780
where you're just checking off days as you go along.
893
00:46:32.820 --> 00:46:35.070
You're just in it right now and that just is
894
00:46:35.110 --> 00:46:35.530
what it is.
895
00:46:35.650 --> 00:46:38.449
Well, also I'll just say I think people are skeptical
896
00:46:38.590 --> 00:46:40.849
that it necessarily ends on election day.
897
00:46:41.610 --> 00:46:43.750
Oh, right. I keep forgetting that that's– yeah. Are you
898
00:46:43.809 --> 00:46:49.320
seeing the campaigns being as aggressive with the post-election strategizing
899
00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:52.159
and scheming and game planning as they are for the
900
00:46:52.199 --> 00:46:54.300
debates and such? Yeah. Yeah.
901
00:46:54.820 --> 00:46:57.099
Absolutely. And again, it's not just until the electoral, right?
902
00:46:57.139 --> 00:47:00.880
It's like, will if Donald Trump loses, will he accept
903
00:47:01.239 --> 00:47:06.300
the results? He's shown no indication. What will his supporters do? Right? Like,
904
00:47:07.039 --> 00:47:08.579
that's another open question.
905
00:47:08.599 --> 00:47:09.510
Oh, yeah.
906
00:47:09.590 --> 00:47:10.829
I mean, you've got the legal war rooms.
907
00:47:10.869 --> 00:47:13.469
But you also just have this sort of like contingency planning.
908
00:47:14.230 --> 00:47:15.929
I like to take a vacation after the election because
909
00:47:15.949 --> 00:47:17.679
I'm usually exhausted. And I'm just like, when is that?
910
00:47:17.760 --> 00:47:22.260
Is that January 7th? Is it January 21st? I have
911
00:47:22.300 --> 00:47:22.699
no idea.
912
00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:25.079
It's like, when can I use my Marriott points?
913
00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:29.599
Thank you both very much for joining us and talking
914
00:47:29.619 --> 00:47:32.019
about that. Ashley Parker, Senior National Political Correspondent for The
915
00:47:32.059 --> 00:47:35.309
Washington Post. David Graham, Staff Writer at The Atlantic. Guys,
916
00:47:35.329 --> 00:47:40.369
your insights into what? Thank you for giving a much
917
00:47:40.449 --> 00:47:44.280
clearer perspective, having been involved in all this. and really
918
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:48.070
helping us understand sort of what's going on behind what
919
00:47:48.130 --> 00:47:50.190
C-SPAN is showing us. I really do appreciate it.
920
00:47:50.550 --> 00:47:50.929
Thank you.
921
00:47:50.949 --> 00:47:51.329
Thank you.
922
00:47:56.250 --> 00:48:00.210
I don't, what they do, the day-to-day, I could not
923
00:48:00.269 --> 00:48:02.469
do that. I would lose my shit.
924
00:48:02.949 --> 00:48:04.110
It already feels too much.
925
00:48:05.750 --> 00:48:08.150
I lost my shit just being in the conversation with
926
00:48:08.170 --> 00:48:12.769
them for an hour. It's so claustrophobic. Yeah.
927
00:48:13.059 --> 00:48:13.699
Props to them.
928
00:48:14.380 --> 00:48:16.039
I thought it was really interesting, though. They were like,
929
00:48:16.300 --> 00:48:18.929
I don't know when to plan the vacay. Like, your
930
00:48:18.969 --> 00:48:22.150
whole life is consumed by sort of these endless campaigns.
931
00:48:22.650 --> 00:48:25.280
And they're like, oh, yeah, we used to know November 8th.
932
00:48:25.989 --> 00:48:28.250
I could get a Club Med and Turks and Caicos
933
00:48:28.309 --> 00:48:31.030
and decompress for five days. And now they're like, could
934
00:48:31.050 --> 00:48:34.050
be January. Might have to then jump in and cover
935
00:48:34.090 --> 00:48:36.219
the Civil War. Like, we don't even know what's going
936
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:36.599
to happen.
937
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:37.880
Topsy-turvy.
938
00:48:38.260 --> 00:48:41.960
Topsy-turvy. What else we got as we roll on? Now
939
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:46.369
we're back. Weekly show pod, banging out the episodes every week.
940
00:48:46.389 --> 00:48:47.090
What else we got?
941
00:48:47.349 --> 00:48:49.449
Well, while we were gone, we put out a call
942
00:48:49.489 --> 00:48:54.989
for our listeners to either give us some suggestions for
943
00:48:55.010 --> 00:48:58.170
what we should cover, why they might be upset with you,
944
00:48:58.369 --> 00:49:01.420
et cetera. So I think just to get started, I'm
945
00:49:01.440 --> 00:49:05.260
going to start with someone had a really interesting new
946
00:49:05.340 --> 00:49:09.079
idea for how we should handle debates, which I think
947
00:49:09.139 --> 00:49:12.019
is cool. They said, If anything productive is going to
948
00:49:12.059 --> 00:49:15.309
get discussed, we need two desks, two pens, one prompt,
949
00:49:15.590 --> 00:49:19.750
five paragraphs, dueling five paragraph essays. If we ask that
950
00:49:19.869 --> 00:49:21.880
of our children to graduate high school, it's fair to
951
00:49:21.960 --> 00:49:23.219
ask that of our elected reps.
952
00:49:23.940 --> 00:49:26.119
Boy, what a nice idea. You give them a prompt,
953
00:49:26.380 --> 00:49:29.820
you give them 45 minutes, pencils down, and then they
954
00:49:29.860 --> 00:49:31.960
have to read their essay and discuss it.
955
00:49:32.199 --> 00:49:34.199
But can you imagine Trump doing that?
956
00:49:35.409 --> 00:49:38.880
Can you? Is there anything more exciting than watching people write?
957
00:49:39.860 --> 00:49:42.239
Oh, actually, this person went on and said, we should
958
00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:45.780
do ASMR of the pen and paper. You could cut
959
00:49:45.820 --> 00:49:46.900
that up on TikTok.
960
00:49:47.139 --> 00:49:48.900
You know, this is a person that clearly put in
961
00:49:48.940 --> 00:49:51.099
a lot of thought into this and in many ways
962
00:49:51.500 --> 00:49:54.039
should be called upon. Forget about the League of Women
963
00:49:54.079 --> 00:49:57.019
Voters or the debate commission. I think we should put
964
00:49:57.599 --> 00:50:02.820
whatever it is at banana 12, you know, he should
965
00:50:02.840 --> 00:50:05.389
be there. She should be there. the producer of the
966
00:50:05.429 --> 00:50:07.010
next movie. That's lovely.
967
00:50:07.489 --> 00:50:07.789
Okay.
968
00:50:08.349 --> 00:50:08.590
All right.
969
00:50:08.610 --> 00:50:11.550
We have a good question. And actually, this is something
970
00:50:11.610 --> 00:50:16.570
that we've talked about, but how, this person wants to know,
971
00:50:16.769 --> 00:50:20.409
how do you talk to someone who believes conspiracy theories?
972
00:50:21.289 --> 00:50:25.159
Oh, I don't think you can. I think it depends
973
00:50:25.219 --> 00:50:27.119
on how far gone they're gone. But, you know, one
974
00:50:27.139 --> 00:50:29.199
of the things you realize about people who believe conspiracy
975
00:50:29.219 --> 00:50:31.099
theories is they're not, because they always say, I'm just
976
00:50:31.139 --> 00:50:34.500
asking questions. But when you ask questions, if you're not
977
00:50:34.579 --> 00:50:37.760
willing to hear answers, then you're clearly not just asking questions.
978
00:50:37.800 --> 00:50:42.110
What you're trying to do is just sow doubt. The
979
00:50:42.150 --> 00:50:44.909
thing that always strikes me about conspiracy theories, because I'm
980
00:50:45.170 --> 00:50:48.190
generally skeptical, right? And that's always the basis of a
981
00:50:48.289 --> 00:50:51.110
conspiracy theory. The official story that you've been told is
982
00:50:51.150 --> 00:50:54.710
not the total story, which is an ethos. I believe
983
00:50:54.750 --> 00:50:58.570
in that. I believe that oftentimes, generally, I don't believe
984
00:50:58.610 --> 00:51:01.530
it's through malevolence, although I think at times it's through malevolence.
985
00:51:01.570 --> 00:51:05.329
I think it's either through incompetence or that generally stories
986
00:51:05.829 --> 00:51:09.590
are not linear and there are facts that are inconvenient
987
00:51:09.610 --> 00:51:12.170
or don't quite fit in. But the problem I have
988
00:51:12.190 --> 00:51:16.250
with conspiracies is they don't apply the same skepticism to
989
00:51:16.289 --> 00:51:21.039
the counter narrative. And it's very hard to permeate that.
990
00:51:21.940 --> 00:51:24.260
And it's not to suggest that people shouldn't be skeptical
991
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:27.900
or that they shouldn't challenge the official line and they
992
00:51:27.940 --> 00:51:31.360
shouldn't be aware. But what they should understand is very
993
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:34.960
rarely Do official lines have their shit together to the
994
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.400
point that there won't be inconsistencies? But those inconsistencies are
995
00:51:39.539 --> 00:51:45.510
different than a malevolent and sure-footed interpretation that it was
996
00:51:45.769 --> 00:51:50.050
actually fully this other thing. That's hard.
997
00:51:50.449 --> 00:51:53.429
I think a new trend is that the conspiracy theory
998
00:51:53.510 --> 00:51:56.710
minded people don't necessarily have a counter narrative. They just
999
00:51:56.750 --> 00:52:00.260
poke holes in the narrative and say something else is true.
1000
00:52:00.780 --> 00:52:01.670
Yeah. Right, right, right.
1001
00:52:01.690 --> 00:52:03.949
You don't need to have like a full narrative anymore.
1002
00:52:04.269 --> 00:52:07.389
Do you have friends that are conspiracy theorists in those areas?
1003
00:52:07.730 --> 00:52:09.570
And what would those be? Yeah.
1004
00:52:09.849 --> 00:52:11.789
I mean, that's why this question really stood out to
1005
00:52:11.829 --> 00:52:16.469
me was like, you know, holidays and it's people I love,
1006
00:52:16.610 --> 00:52:19.400
people I'm very close with. And it also goes to
1007
00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:21.699
like coffee is going to kill you, right? Like the
1008
00:52:21.739 --> 00:52:25.760
COVID vaccine is the reason that you're getting skin cancer, whatever.
1009
00:52:25.800 --> 00:52:29.989
Like all of these things are– Instagram. And I'm seeing
1010
00:52:30.010 --> 00:52:31.389
it on the internet. I mean, we even saw in
1011
00:52:31.409 --> 00:52:33.849
the debate, like he was like, I saw it on TV.
1012
00:52:35.309 --> 00:52:37.630
So it becomes like a real problem where you're like,
1013
00:52:37.769 --> 00:52:40.909
I love these people, but I just can't, you know.
1014
00:52:41.550 --> 00:52:44.530
How do we find that balance between questioning whether or
1015
00:52:44.570 --> 00:52:49.269
not like a COVID vaccine can cause, you know, bad effects.
1016
00:52:50.030 --> 00:52:53.849
And every time a football player gets injured, it's because
1017
00:52:53.889 --> 00:52:56.949
of that. Like there's, there's gotta be a space for
1018
00:52:57.909 --> 00:53:02.579
For skepticism, it's such an important part of discourse, but
1019
00:53:02.619 --> 00:53:05.760
it can't fall into that. Maybe that's it. Maybe saying
1020
00:53:05.820 --> 00:53:09.880
to them, you know, I appreciate your skepticism on that.
1021
00:53:10.340 --> 00:53:14.699
I feel I have questions about what you're saying.
1022
00:53:15.219 --> 00:53:16.460
Yeah.
1023
00:53:16.820 --> 00:53:18.639
Maybe that's a way to diffuse it. I have no
1024
00:53:18.679 --> 00:53:19.239
fucking idea.
1025
00:53:19.630 --> 00:53:19.809
Yep.
1026
00:53:20.550 --> 00:53:21.190
That's a tough one.
1027
00:53:21.750 --> 00:53:21.949
I know.
1028
00:53:22.760 --> 00:53:23.840
Let me know when you figure it out.
1029
00:53:25.460 --> 00:53:27.820
Thanksgiving is coming. I got to figure it out quickly.
1030
00:53:27.940 --> 00:53:28.179
Yeah.
1031
00:53:28.300 --> 00:53:29.280
You got to get this done.
1032
00:53:29.300 --> 00:53:31.659
Do you have room for one more, John?
1033
00:53:31.960 --> 00:53:32.300
One more.
1034
00:53:32.619 --> 00:53:32.900
Bring it.
1035
00:53:32.900 --> 00:53:33.099
All right.
1036
00:53:33.559 --> 00:53:33.849
Bring it.
1037
00:53:33.880 --> 00:53:36.579
People want to know what is the toughest interview you've
1038
00:53:36.619 --> 00:53:37.579
ever done and why?
1039
00:53:39.940 --> 00:53:42.539
I got to tell you, Harry Reid was a tough
1040
00:53:42.639 --> 00:53:46.989
one because Harry Reid was the Senate majority leader, Senator
1041
00:53:47.030 --> 00:53:52.139
from Nevada. Yeah. Passed away. but had a really interesting
1042
00:53:52.519 --> 00:53:56.119
life and had written a book about it. Uh, was
1043
00:53:56.260 --> 00:54:00.969
raised in a literal dirt floor shack in, you know,
1044
00:54:01.010 --> 00:54:06.369
the desert and, you know, really the kind of poverty that,
1045
00:54:07.110 --> 00:54:12.340
you know, is, is dust bully. And so he brings on,
1046
00:54:12.380 --> 00:54:15.539
he comes on to sit down and I'm sitting with
1047
00:54:15.579 --> 00:54:19.679
him and I start to, you know, you were raised
1048
00:54:19.780 --> 00:54:23.380
on a, dirt floor and to come from that to go.
1049
00:54:23.780 --> 00:54:26.599
And he really did not seem familiar with the story.
1050
00:54:27.519 --> 00:54:30.030
And it wasn't a tough interview in that it was combative.
1051
00:54:30.570 --> 00:54:34.329
It was more bewildering. I think it was about three
1052
00:54:34.349 --> 00:54:36.150
minutes in where I was like, have you read this book?
1053
00:54:36.269 --> 00:54:37.769
Because it's fascinating.
1054
00:54:39.090 --> 00:54:40.349
It's fiction?
1055
00:54:40.530 --> 00:54:43.559
It's your story. You should really look at it because
1056
00:54:43.599 --> 00:54:46.880
it's remarkable. But it was just one of those like, look, man,
1057
00:54:47.099 --> 00:54:49.719
these guys are, they're running around all day. They're busy.
1058
00:54:49.820 --> 00:54:51.360
They're up on a book tour. And I think he
1059
00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:55.340
just was in like a brain fart era. But for me,
1060
00:54:55.360 --> 00:54:59.119
I had been invested in reading the whole thing and
1061
00:54:59.400 --> 00:55:02.340
parsing it with him. And he really was like, where
1062
00:55:02.380 --> 00:55:03.460
was that now? Nevada?
1063
00:55:03.480 --> 00:55:06.199
He was giving you nothing.
1064
00:55:06.219 --> 00:55:08.570
We have to find his ghostwriter. Nothing.
1065
00:55:08.849 --> 00:55:09.570
Yeah.
1066
00:55:09.670 --> 00:55:11.670
But those are the tough ones. And then there's always
1067
00:55:11.690 --> 00:55:13.429
the compatible ones. The ones I hate the most are
1068
00:55:13.739 --> 00:55:16.239
there'd be people that write the books that are like liberals,
1069
00:55:16.519 --> 00:55:20.559
skull fuck children. And then you're like, why would you
1070
00:55:20.599 --> 00:55:22.659
say that? And you go, well, I don't think we're
1071
00:55:22.679 --> 00:55:25.949
that far apart, liberals and conservatives. I think we're, you know, it's,
1072
00:55:26.250 --> 00:55:31.289
they take an incredibly strong position for their reactionary audience
1073
00:55:32.070 --> 00:55:33.949
in the book. And then you bring them on and
1074
00:55:33.969 --> 00:55:37.070
they're like, oh, people are just people. And if we
1075
00:55:37.199 --> 00:55:39.400
all just, I'd like to get back to that feeling
1076
00:55:39.460 --> 00:55:42.670
on September 12th. When we were all one nation and
1077
00:55:42.690 --> 00:55:46.429
you're like, well, then maybe you shouldn't write that liberals
1078
00:55:46.530 --> 00:55:50.230
are an enemy column within the United States that are
1079
00:55:50.269 --> 00:55:54.030
trying to destroy it from within. Yeah. So those are also,
1080
00:55:54.269 --> 00:55:56.309
those are the ones that also can give you problems.
1081
00:55:58.150 --> 00:55:58.730
Sounds fun.
1082
00:55:58.849 --> 00:56:01.849
Yeah, it's fun. But it's all good. And we've had
1083
00:56:01.869 --> 00:56:06.400
another lovely pod. We are back now. Our break is over.
1084
00:56:06.539 --> 00:56:09.599
As always, I want to thank lead producer, Lauren Walker, producer,
1085
00:56:09.619 --> 00:56:14.079
Brittany Mamedovic, video editor and engineer Rob Vitolo, who I
1086
00:56:14.139 --> 00:56:18.340
want to tell the audience survived an earthquake during the
1087
00:56:18.400 --> 00:56:21.960
recording of this podcast. Rob, are you still there? Are
1088
00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:25.110
you alive? Hanging in there. We're hanging in there. Rob,
1089
00:56:25.190 --> 00:56:29.530
you survived a 5.1 earthquake while we were talking and
1090
00:56:29.690 --> 00:56:31.050
didn't lose internet.
1091
00:56:31.849 --> 00:56:34.230
Yeah, I don't want to give any utility too much
1092
00:56:34.289 --> 00:56:35.449
credit there, but I.
1093
00:56:35.429 --> 00:56:38.480
Do appreciate it. You're probably right, but you are safe
1094
00:56:38.880 --> 00:56:42.019
and you continue to operate in the genius manner that
1095
00:56:42.039 --> 00:56:43.940
you always do, and we appreciate it.
1096
00:56:44.039 --> 00:56:44.940
Rob's always killing it.
1097
00:56:45.159 --> 00:56:47.900
He's always killing it. Audio editor and engineer, Nicole Boyce,
1098
00:56:47.940 --> 00:56:51.440
researcher and associate producer, Jillian Spear, and as always, executive producers,
1099
00:56:51.480 --> 00:56:54.800
Chris McShane and Katie Gray. What are the socials, Brittany?
1100
00:56:55.300 --> 00:56:59.030
We are Weekly Show Pod on Twitter, Weekly Show Podcast
1101
00:56:59.130 --> 00:57:02.469
on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and The Weekly Show with Jon
1102
00:57:02.510 --> 00:57:03.389
Stewart on YouTube.
1103
00:57:04.510 --> 00:57:06.050
And if any of you are listening to this or
1104
00:57:06.070 --> 00:57:07.889
seeing this right now, that means that there was no
1105
00:57:07.980 --> 00:57:10.320
follow-up giant earthquake and that Rob was able to get
1106
00:57:10.360 --> 00:57:13.579
this thing together enough to send it out over the airwaves.
1107
00:57:13.619 --> 00:57:15.960
Thank you guys very much. And we shall see you
1108
00:57:16.019 --> 00:57:23.300
again next week. And thank you for listening to the episode.
1109
00:57:23.559 --> 00:57:26.480
If you liked it, please follow The Weekly Show with
1110
00:57:26.500 --> 00:57:28.940
Jon Stewart on your favorite podcast app and tune in
1111
00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:33.929
every Thursday for new episodes because It just fills our
1112
00:57:33.989 --> 00:57:46.219
heart with gratitude. Thank you. The Weekly Show with Jon
1113
00:57:46.260 --> 00:57:49.699
Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast. It's produced by Paramount
1114
00:57:49.820 --> 00:57:51.679
Audio and Busboy Productions.
1115
00:58:04.309 --> 00:58:05.530
Paramount Podcasts.