cover of episode Trump’s Contradictions & Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Enduring Weight of Oppression

Trump’s Contradictions & Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Enduring Weight of Oppression

2024/10/1
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official website for deals to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Jon Stewart. Welcome to The Daily Show. My name is Jon Stewart.

We've got a fabulous show for you tonight. First of all, let's go Mets. Second of all, Goats is going to be joining us later to talk about his book, The Message. But, New York, finally getting back to normal traffic-wise, the U.N. General Assembly is over. And by the way, what a successful General Assembly it was. The world just exploding with peace right now. Just... Great session, guys.

Now that the assembly's gone, New York is getting ready for its next big event, the vice presidential debate tomorrow night. Honestly, I'm not even going to watch it. And I'm going to tell you why. I already know who I'm voting for vice president-wise. But I'm going to be honest. President? Still undecided. So here's the thing. As in undecided, it's basically me and six people who were kicked in the head by very powerful horses. Um...

I've been leaning towards Kamala Harris because of her impressive resume and her ability to switch from Indian to black like that. Like that. And if we were doing this show 15 years ago, I would probably be doing The Voices. A long time ago. But on the other hand about Kamala Harris, I've been hearing some very concerning things about her.

She's come under some criticism for being relatively vague in her policy proposals. They don't have enough specifics on the solution. When she tried to explain what she would do, it made no sense. It's gibberish. The public demands a detailed plan of action, and they're not getting it from her. We demand that! If there is one thing...

that the American public demands. It is a detailed plan of, ooh, the golden bachelorette. I hope they selected candidates who live nearby her because old people are not known to want to change their lives. Anyway, back to the point. The point is, Harris speaks gibberish because she is part Indian, part black, and part gibber.

If Kamala Harris dissolves into gibberish every time she's asked for specific policies, then I dare say she will not earn my completely irrelevant New Jersey vote.

I will get rid of unnecessary decree requirements for federal jobs. Low and no interest loans to small businesses. Expand the tax deduction for startups to $50,000. $6,000 in tax relief to families during the first year of a child's life. Capital gains will be 28%. Excuse me, but as Americans, we demanded a detailed plan of action, not random numbers.

You have left the door wide open, lady, because clearly Donald Aloysius Trump would not, he would not trifle with America in that manner. What are the specific mechanics of how prices come down? You know, the steps that would be taken in a second term for you. Good question. Mr. Trump, what is your detailed plan of action for bringing down prices? And I believe I'll mark your responses...

on this handy-dandy channel. I already have my... I'll have my pen ready all the way up here at the top of specificity and make sense-itude begin! First of all, she can't do an interview. She could never do this interview because you ask questions like, give me a specific answer. She talks about her lawn when she was growing up. This woman is not equipped to be president. -♪♪

i guess i had the wrong chart and the question sir was specific to how are you going to bring down inflation your answer so far has been but perhaps i cut you off unfairly she's not equipped to deal with president xi who i was very i took in hundreds of billions of dollars with him and putin we had no war with putin remember and i'm just going to go off just for this with bush they took a lot russia with

Biden, they're trying to take everything. With Obama, they took a lot. With Trump, Russia took nothing. Just remember that. You know what? Maybe he didn't really want to talk about his inflation policy since economists say it would make inflation worse, which, you know, is the wrong direction. Let's give Trump a second chance.

If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make childcare affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance? Oh, that's a fabulous question. That's a fabulous question. Children need childcare, whether it's a nanny or duct tape to a chair with an iPad. But it costs money. Obviously, duct tape and iPads and in-app purchases are...

Well, I would do that. And we're sitting down. You know, I was somebody we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that because the child care is child care.

Now we can let the tape continue where he says we will pay for child care with the trillions we're going to receive by levying tariffs on foreign nations, which apparently isn't how that works, but f*ck it. One more. Political opponents are saying that you want to ban IVF. Those who are watching here tonight who may be going through this same struggle and are concerned about being able to have this option, and I'd love for you to talk to them about how they should feel.

Life is pretty tough. It can be beautiful, but it can be difficult. We are doing something with IVF because IVF, as you know from friends, people you know, it's really worked out very well for a lot of people. It gave them a child when they would not have had a child. And I told my people I wanted to look at this a couple of weeks ago.

And as you know, we have no taxes on a thing called tips. You know that? What the actual f*** are you talking about? How do you want people to feel about IVF? Well, I have no taxes on a thing called tips. You know what? I do actually see the connection. I get it now. So you see, IVF fertilizes an egg with a sperm, and sperm comes from a penis, and a penis has a tip. So...

I can only assume Donald Trump is talking about circumcision, which Jews call a tax on tips. All right, let's move on. So clearly what people like about Donald Trump is not his clear, specific policies as they demand from Kamala Harris. But I'm still open. I'm an undecided voter, you know, because of the horse kicked him ahead. Let's.

Let's hear some of Trump's passionate supporters explain what they see as his strengths. He has really become the candidate of the working man, of the everyman. President Trump cares deeply about rig workers, truck drivers, roughnecks. He worked with plumbers and electricians. He worked with painters and bricklayers. President Trump is the best friend American workers have ever had in the White House. He's our best friend!

Donald Trump is the champion of hardworking men and women. He's behind every kind of worker from auto to sex. Donald Trump is behind the kind of people who have to work overtime to pay the bills. I know a lot about overtime. I'd hated to give overtime. I hated it. I'd get other people. I shouldn't say this, but I'd get other people in. I wouldn't pay. I hated. You're right. You shouldn't have said that.

You shouldn't have said it at all because you're admitting to f***ing people over who worked for you. I mean, it's funny, but it undercuts the working man's friend thing. It's fine. You don't want to give them overtime, but it's not like you think it's funny to fire them when they complain about something like not getting overtime. Well, you, you're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit? They go on strike. I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's okay. You're all gone. You're all gone. So every one of you is gone.

I gotta say, every time Trump talks about workers, it's like watching a Christmas carol in reverse. I just fired these three ghosts who are trying to get overtime. So the supporting the working man thing is nonsense. What other things do his supporters like about him?

I think in 65 days the American people are going to vote for President Trump because they know he's the guy who will defend their right to speak. We are aligned with each other on other key issues like protecting freedom of speech. Okay, I get it now. So it's not really a policy case for Trump. It's a principal case for Trump. The man, no matter what is said about him, he believes in the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. The government should never punish speech, even if you don't like the speech.

Mr. Trump saying publicly the FCC should revoke ABC's license over unfounded claims about ABC News allegedly rigging the presidential debate. Former President Trump

says that he will deport students who participate in pro-Palestinian protests. Donald Trump said that anyone who criticizes the Supreme Court justices should be arrested and jailed. Donald Trump earlier today said you burn the American flag, you should get a year behind bars. During the 2024 campaign, Trump has been, quote, venting about the need to punish late-night comedians for their anti-Trump material. Isn't being on basic cable at 11 p.m. punishment enough? All right.

So we know the policy thing about free speech and the hero of the working class thing. Bullshit! But I'm still undecided. I'm still open. Give me something I can work with. He's an anti-war guy. He is going to get us out of these endless wars. President Trump believes that the next four years, we need no new wars. First of all, I didn't know Max Headroom still had a show.

But Phil, anti-war. I'm anti-war. I'm absolutely behind that sentiment. If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We're going to blow it to smithereens. You can't do that.

That's just war with Iran. Middle East doesn't count. We've been bombing them for 40 years. They love it. Okay, forget about ideals. Forget about policies. What are the personal qualities you're voting for? People just like that, that honesty of Donald Trump. He tells it like it is. A man of his word. He's a truth teller. Are you f***ing kidding me right now? Are you f***ing kidding me?

kidding me right now? He is a truth. They're eating the dogs. And by the way, they're eating the cats. Anything else? They're eating the pets of the people that live there. Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow, meow. Of the people that live there. Am I the only mother****er on TikTok? No? Nobody else?

My wife sent me that like 10 times. And so we find ourselves not in a dilemma, but in a bit of a conundrum. The qualities and policies that people profess to be what they admire and love about former President Trump don't seem to be an accurate reflection of said former president. It's as though they've created a fictional character.

a bizarro Trump, whose accomplishments and character bear little resemblance to the self-aggrandizing perpetual victim guy, he continues to tell you explicitly that he is. It makes you wonder, what country does Donald Trump think he's running to lead? Our cities have already become hell holes, a crime-ridden, gang-infested, terror-filled hellhole.

Oh wait!

I see this fictional Trump, who is portrayed as much better than he actually is, is running to be president of a country he paints as much worse than it actually is. But I got to tell you, whatever country that is, where families are routinely murdered several times while making breakfast, could really use actual Donald Trump. The rest of us, when we come back, Tallahassee Coates will be here. Don't go away.

Hey everybody, Jon Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show. It's going to be coming out

Every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGIT. Thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.

And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance, it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart wherever you get your podcasts.

The Daily Show. My guest tonight, a critically acclaimed, best-selling author. His new book is called The Message. Please welcome back to the program, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Hello. Hello. My friend, you are grappling. This is a book of grappling. It is. It's

reparations, the purpose of art, the purpose of writing, your role, your responsibility, the Israel-Palestine. I can see you want to go back to just writing comic books again for five years. This is... What was in you that you thought, I need to take on these big questions, including what is this for? What is writing for? I have...

for a long time had in the back of my head that we do not have a complete understanding of politics.

That is to say, we think of politics as what happens inside of a voting booth. You go in and you choose, you know, pull a lever for whatever. Right. But there's a whole entire architecture that happens outside of that voting booth that defines what goes on inside of it, what issues are appropriate, frankly, who is human and who is not. And that is the work of stories, movies, television shows, writing, all of that. And being a writer, and this coming out of, you know, me talking to my students at Howard University at the time,

I really, really wanted to address that. You know, so often I get the question, why should I write? Your students will say that? No, in general, but by the time they get to me, they usually, my students are like there. But a lot of, you know, other times when I'm, you know, out in the world, what is writing going to do? Like, what is it actually going to change? And what I wanted people to understand is writing actually shapes the world around you entirely. Right. See, I would have said basic cable, but okay, writing. But somebody has to write the scripts, right? That's exactly right. Exactly. Is that...

Do you grapple with that as a burden or a call to arms? What is, for you, how do you wear it? Oh, it's exciting. It's exciting? Yeah, it gets me up in the morning. Right. It, like, pumps my blood. Like, I can't wait. You know what I mean? Like, there are people who... I got a friend who's an ER doc, right? And I was texting this morning about, you know, everything that was going on. Right. And he disappeared for a second. He said, sorry, this guy just got shot. I'm sorry. Right.

And I said to him, how beautiful is it to have work that actually matters? Like, y'all, they're saving people's lives. And I'm not an ER doctor, but it is a blessing to feel like what I write actually matters in the world. Right. You know what I mean? It gives me meaning and purpose. And I kind of wanted to convey that, you know, to all the young writers, you know, who hopefully... As inspiration. Yes, yes. Your friend was at work when the guy got shot, right? He was, yes, he was. He was.

Because for a second, I was like, wait, he was at work, right? Yeah, he was. He was at work. It wasn't like you were talking to him. He was like... No, no, no, no. He was at work. All right. That's very good. Do you get frustrated, and this is something that I think about sometimes, that the world that you would prefer to see, that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice and the work of writing is trying to help facilitate that, that it is... that that arc of moral justice is so resilient against bending, that it's so hard...

to matter in that form? I get sad. Right. And there are a lot of moments in here where I was really sad. Right. You know, but at the same time, like I said, it fills me with purpose. I don't know if I would have had that purpose I talked about just a few minutes ago, you know, without that great difficulty. Honestly, it feels great to

to know that if I actually try really, really hard at the thing, if I actually work really, really hard to write the best book I possibly can, you know, I could be here talking to you. Oh, you could have written a shitty book and been on air, right?

Listen, if that's the case, I can tell you that you didn't have to work nearly as hard. But it is. It's a beautifully felt book. I want to ask you, there's a certain aspect of your career that has really tried to reconcile not with things in the present, but their vestiges, the structures of

Racial politics, slavery, economic injustices, where it might not be the active virus, but it's these vestiges of it that still, you know, leach into the groundwater and make it toxic and polluted.

This book felt a little different in that you were also going into the present. Yeah. And bringing those lessons with you. And I thought that was a really moving part of the book. Yeah, that's true. And I guess I'm going to be the one to broach this. But it was obviously most active when I was in Jerusalem, when I was in Haifa, when I was on the West Bank. I mean, it was the history, but the history was active. Right. And that was...

That was tough. That was tough. I'm used to, you know, going to some, you know, slave plantation and saying, well, yeah, this did happen 150 years ago, but here's how, you know, you can still feel the impact. And you go, no, no, it's right now. Right. It's right now. And it comes on the heels of, so in the book, you're also, you take a trip to Senegal. I do, yes.

Is that in relation to your trip to Israel and the West Bank in that same time frame, or was that split up? It was about... So I think I went in... This would have been, like, September of 2022 to Senegal, then May of 23 to the West Bank and to Israel, and...

Weirdly enough, they are in conversation with each other. I can't say I intended that. Right. Well, that's why I was curious. Because there is music there between the two. Yeah, yeah. No, there is. I mean, Senegal is very much about me, frankly, investigating the very stories that gave me my name, you know, and gave me my identity. And trying to work through that. And frankly, not completely working through it by the time I got over there. And then, you know, I take this trip.

you know, with this wonderful organization, a Palestinian, Palestine Festival of Literature. And I get over there, you know, for five days and I spent another five days with these ex-IDF guys, you know what I mean, who had had their own political evolution. And this is very weird to say, but as much sympathy as I had for the Palestinians, watching Zionism in the world, even feeling like this is wrong, what I'm saying is wrong. I was like, my God, I know how you get here.

I know how you get I know how it happens and I don't mean like I approve of it. I see I see how it happens. I totally see how it happens is is how you see how it happens because you talk about Yad Vashem and and going there and be moved is the idea because you have a line in the book that I think is is one of the most powerful which is and I want to make sure that I get it right which is

your oppression will not save you. Yeah. Which is, and you write about that in relation to the black experience in America, but also about the Jewish experience in the Holocaust as well as in Israel. And what did you mean by that? I think we would like to think that

that you go through, you know, a horrific experience, be it the Middle Passage, Jim Crow here, be it the Holocaust or the centuries before that of pogroms, oppression, et cetera, and somehow you will be morally improved by coming out of that. You might be.

You might be, but it's just as likely that you will conclude that in fact the world is a cold, hard place and it's a zero-sum game, you know what I mean? And what matters is who has the guns and who doesn't. Right. You know? I stand opposed to that, just on principle, period. You know what I mean? But...

I get how people take that lesson. Right. You know what I mean? And I think it's disconvincing for us to feel, because we feel sympathy for people. You know what I mean? Of course. I'm walking through Yad Vashem and I'm feeling it on a very, very deep level only to come back here and realize I was, you know, about a mile away from a massacre of a Palestinian village. That's hard to take. Hey, it's, listen, I was, I'm raised in, obviously, cultural Jewish culture.

And I imagine, you know, if you were to feel like people in the name of your people did some things that you found objectionable, it hits you different. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, it does. It does. It does. And it's not a complete parallel, but that's why in that chapter I wanted to talk a little bit about Liberia, for instance. You know what I mean? And just the idea. I get it. The appeal of, hey, we're going to have a state of our own. We're going to get away from these people that did, you know, X, Y, and Z for us. We will have safety there.

And yet then you find yourself enacting, you know, systems that if not are the same or similar, are at least, you know, morally deeply problematic. And having to justify them through either threat or the situation or you don't understand. And what I'm wondering is, is that the story in a condensed form of all of us? Does for society to progress...

Does there also have to be exploitation? Do you grapple with this idea that when we think about anything, whether it's the American story or the Israeli story or any of those, it's stories of empire, whether it was the Ottoman Empire or the caliphate, it's groups of people living under the grace of a leader who controls their lives. And can we progress forward?

Outside of that, is there an is there do you think about is there another way to do this? Has there been another way to do this? Yeah. If we shine that light on any country that that that grew through, won't there be a story of exploitation and mistreatment that we find? Maybe not as horrific, but but we find it.

Yeah, I think though we have to guard against the temptation to accept that history is necessarily the limit of who we are as human beings. Just because, I mean, you know, that it's been that way, that it necessarily has to be that way. I will, for instance, highlight, you know, the underlying role of nationalism and the belief that a nation state is the way to secure and safeguard a minority. That is a very recent development as a belief system, actually.

That is not eternal. But prior to that, wouldn't it have been tribalism? It would have been something. It would have been a king. It would have been a pope. It would have been my allegiances, X, Y, and Z. But what I'm saying is it is not innate in us to say, I am of this ethnicity. We should all have a state together. And perhaps more importantly, we should deny rights to people who are not of that ethnicity. We don't have to be that way. We don't have to be that way. A man from your lips to God's ears...

I always wonder, you know, there was that, I can't remember the experiment, but it was they assigned a class where people with brown hair got privileges. And all of a sudden, the people with blonde hair were like, and they got set. And then the people with brown hair started to kind of abuse the people with blonde hair. And there's a part of me that thinks, boy, we could solve religious differences. And somehow we would go back to killing each other over something else.

equally as arbitrary. And that... I'm wondering how you get that zero-sum game element that you witnessed up front out of it. Because I'd like to believe it's not malevolence, but...

Ignorance and fear. I think it's a lot of fear. And frankly, I think it's a lot of anger. Right. I think, and obviously, for obvious reasons, you would know this better than me, but I sense that a lot of it is the humiliation of the Holocaust. I think that is, you know, very, very much present. Right.

and not feel like I will never be in that position again. - Sure. - You know? - Well, never, I mean, never again. - Right. - I think the thing that so many Jewish people, and not everybody, look, it's not a monolith either. Jewish religion, Jewish culture is certainly not a monolith, and there's many different opinions. I think if we start from a baseline of, I would like a safe and secure Israel and a safe and secure Palestine, and that's my starting point.

To any argument. And then we're just talking strategy. But I think the idea of never again, you don't, you try to internalize it not just as a self-defense kind of dictum. You hope to think of that as never again for anyone. Right, right. And that's the part that feels the worst. Yeah. When you look at it,

in that way. Yeah, yeah. And I'm curious how you feel, you know, so in Africa, you know, I'm curious about what you think about this idea of diaspora. Yeah.

When people are in diasporas and it carries this weight of you are lost, you are not in a place where you can, you know, I don't think Italian people who live in America think of themselves as I'm in a diaspora. They think of themselves as like, I'll take a tour. But Jewish people, black people, there's this feeling of somehow we're not safe. And I feel like that's a dangerous thing.

That's a dangerous thing to think. But does it not come from being degraded and being made to feel like you are outside of the place that maybe you would like to...

Call Home. This is great. That's interesting. The pity of it all. It's about Jews in Germany. Are you going to make me read something else? No, no, no. It's going to be quick. I promise to be quick about this. I'm still just getting through Breaking Bad. I can't even... But it's all of these, you know, Jews who, all these German Jews who want to be German, right? Like, they really, really want to believe in Germany. Right. And they get the Holocaust. Right. You know what I mean? Like, that has to assault your sense of, you know...

The idea that you can somehow be safe out of the world. And then how much then does humiliation play a part in all of it, including kind of what has been what we would consider the modern age version of exploitation and colonialism? I mean, even when we think about the regions that you went into were kind of a post-World War I mandate that was drawn, you know, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestine mandate. The French are going to take this. The English are going to take that. I mean, it's...

It's, you know, pawns on a board that people are moving around. And does that humiliate a region to the point where if we don't address that,

We can't get through it. Yeah, I think so. I think so. I mean, I will say that one of the hard things about that and getting a little too psychological about this is I spent 10 days there. So you know it all. Right, right, right, right, right. One of the tough things was, I have to tell you, the perspective of Palestinians and the extent to which their perspective has been pushed so far out of the frame

was incredible. I felt like I was seeing a new world. - Right. - You know what I mean? And that's like shameful for me to admit. I'm not bragging about that. You know, it's not 'cause that world wasn't there or that world doesn't, you know, hasn't been trying to present itself. But I mean, I just wonder how many of these conversations would be improved if our media organizations made a concerted effort

whenever they talk about this topic, to ask, "Do we have anybody Palestinian that we've invited to be part of this?" -I wouldn't allow it on the Democratic Convention floor. -Yeah, I mean, I've seen it. -I think access to different stories has always been a difficulty for America in general because of that sort of narcissistic worldview. You know, we tend to be slightly narcissistic when it comes to the vision of it.

And it's such a necessary thing. I wonder if it really improves it. I mean, here's something that I grapple with. I've known about it forever. I have friends who have Palestinian families who've suffered through it. I have friends in Israel who suffered through it. And it sometimes feels as though the only people that benefit are the powers that be. And all these good people are so left behind by the

this weird power structure that we left in place there. - Yeah, yeah. - And I don't-- But you bring up an interesting point, which is a path forward of reconciling humiliation. And I don't know-- What is the mechanism of that? Is there one? And is it that sort of-- You know, you think about South Africa and truth and reconciliation, but is there a mechanism to heal that for people? Or is it purely self-determination and that's-- - You know, I don't know.

Well, that's all the time we have. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But it is, I wonder, because you bring up such an interesting, it is such a powerful river of emotion. Yeah. And when you say, I can almost not cry talking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's so deeply gets at the heart of our humanity. Like, people just want to be seen and just want to be. No, and it's powerful. I can feel it. Yeah. I can really feel it.

One thing I would suggest is, and we have actually had to struggle with this as African Americans, and I'll tell you this from the black perspective. There is great not always spoken shame in the black community over the kind of physical traumas we've endured. You have to understand, man, every single one of us, every single African American is a child of sexual violence, all of us.

All of us. There is not a single pure African-American who came through asleep. There is an amount of humiliation in that. There is an amount of humiliation in watching, and I've written about this, you know, films from the 60s and watching these kids and these children, you know, get beaten by the cops. There is humiliation in, you know, watching today, you know what I mean, George Floyd, you know, a knee on his neck. And I do think, you know, a significant part of it is understanding, particularly with the past,

These people didn't want to be enslaved. You know what I mean? These people didn't want to get beat. And it's not true that these people did nothing. It's not true that these people just willingly, you know, went to it. There was a slogan out for a while that a lot of us shouted down. We are not our ancestors. As if to say we somehow are more resilient and resistant. You know what I mean? We're not going to be punked and chumped.

Yes, we would have. If we had been them, the same thing would have happened. We're no better. We're no braver. There's such an analog with that with the Jewish community. And there is, you know, and you hear it a lot about, you know, the first thing Hitler did is he disarmed the Jews. And you're like, the Jews were not like gun-toting motherf***ers. They weren't like...

You know, if you were taking our violins, maybe that would have been something like, oh, they disarmed the Jews. And that's how Hitler was able to get the Jews to do that. And you're like, oh, you know who had guns and didn't do too well with Hitler? France. Right, right, right, right, right, right. But you're right. There's that sense of like, how could you let your people, how could you allow that to happen? Yeah.

And it does skew their perspectives. And I can already see your next book. Where you fix it all. It's really, it's an amazing piece. And the main thing is,

And listen, man, like, let's not kid ourselves. Once you delve into Israel-Palestine, you're going to take a ton of shit. I don't know where it's... It'll come from everywhere. And I hope you don't wear it personally, but you've done the most important thing. Can I just say one quick thing? Yes, please. It will not measure up to the burdens of what I saw Palestinians on the West Bank bearing. It's not even... That's an excellent point. The only point I was going to make is...

through your discomfort, albeit not the same discomfort, you've done the most important thing, which is try to advance and delve into an understanding of a complexity that we haven't figured out in 10,000 years. And so I applaud that. And your writing, as always, is so beautiful and moving. So thank you so much for being here. The message. I'm going to ask you, coach, we're going to take a quick break. I really am. Thank you.

Hey, everybody. Jon Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show. It's going to be coming out

Every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGIT. Thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.

And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance, it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart wherever you get your podcasts. Before we go, we're going to check in with your host for the rest of the week, Michael Kosta. Michael Kosta is here.

What do we got going this week, Michael? It's gonna be big. What do we... What do we got, Michael? You know, we got a big day tomorrow, John. The vice presidential debate is tomorrow night, and The Daily Show will be airing live right after it. Balls, butthole, dicks, titties. What? Well, so I...

I don't want to let a curse word slip out on live TV, so I'm getting all my bad words out now. Skull nutsack, jizz. You see, John, I want tomorrow night to be classy, ass, nipple. But isn't, I mean, just on a, like, strategic basis, isn't that going to make you more comfortable swearing on TV? Well, I think it'll be okay, face.

Migrants that came in illegally that was so vicious like you've never seen before. If you wanted to do a movie, there's no actor in Hollywood that could play the role. There's nobody that could. These actors, you know, they're a little bit shaky. They can't play the role. They'll bring in a big actor and you look, you say, oh, he's got no muscle content. Got no muscle. We need a little muscle.

Explore more shows from the Daily Show Podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount+. Paramount Podcasts.

Welcome to the Cooper residence. Cooper McAllister. I'm surprised you put my name first. Come on in. From the brains behind the Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, CBS is excited to welcome back some beloved, familiar folks. I am so glad that you and Cece are here. And Georgie. Atta girl. It's a whole new chapter. Georgie and Mandy's first marriage premieres CBS Thursday, 8, 7 central and streaming on Paramount+.

John Stewart here. Unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election, economics, ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. Listen to The Weekly Show with John Stewart wherever you get your podcasts.