Lovett or Leave It - Rudy Giuliani, Esquire

Episode Date: May 5, 2018

Trump’s new legal eagle Rudy Giuliani collapsed under the withering questions of Sean Hannity. Kanye brought some free thinking to TMZ. Conservatives fled Michelle Wolf’s jokes in terror. And the teacher of the year takes on her toughest pupil: Donald Trump. Damon Young, Ziwe Fumudoh, and Wajahat Ali join Jon to break down the week’s news, recorded live in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Hi, Kidsburg! It is so great to be here. They said to me, do you want to go and do this show in the capital of France? And I said, no. I said, Pittsburgh, not Paris. Nobody wants to do this show in Paris. If there's two things Paris is famous for, it's the minutiae of American politics and comedy. We're here in Pittsburgh.

The Iron City, it says. Home of the Steelers. There's a rhetorical question on my card next. It says, you guys are really horny for metal. Your shirt says, fuck Paul Ryan on it. So somebody sent us a couple of fuck Paul Ryan, fuck Donald Trump T-shirts. And I applaud you, sir, for putting that shirt on in your home and then going out into the world because there are children in it I feel like you'd have to turn that inside out at a sporting event or a movie theater it goes

over very well here in Pittsburgh that's cool that's cool we have got a great show tonight's panel includes Dr. Harold Bornstein, Ty Cobb, and everyone who called Rudy Giuliani America's mayor. Now, I am very excited about our show tonight. We have an awesome panel. He's a New York Times contributing op-ed writer. He speaks on the multifaceted Muslim American experience. Please experience, please welcome Wajahat Ali. How are you? I think I'm now one of your six Muslim friends. You don't have any Muslim friends

I have. Four. Could be a lot, could be more, could be less. I'm not going to indulge this. I'm not going to be defensive. He's the founder of VerySmartBrothers.com, a columnist for GQ magazine, a senior editor at The Root,

and the author of What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker. Please welcome Damon Young. Pittsburgh zone. Some Damon heads. I guess so. They like me. Some... Wow. I guess so. They like me. Some... Wow. Damonites? We'll workshop it.

How are you tonight? I am drunk, maybe, because I did not realize that there would be a drink backstage in one right here, too, so... No, no, he knew. He requested it. Why are you trying to out me

right now in front of all these people? We can't lie. In the honor of Michael Cohen, we can't lie. Too soon? Too soon. I support you completely. Thank you. I appreciate that. In every single thing that you do. I appreciate you. Thank you. I appreciate that. In every single thing that you do. I appreciate you. Thank you.

She's the host of Baited with Z-Way and a writer on the Rundown with Robin Thede. Please welcome Z-Way Fumido. Hi. Hi. Z-Way, how are you? I'm great. Good, good, good. Can we just acknowledge the awkward thing in the room

that we are the darkest things right now in this room right now. Yes, black lives matter. Let me hear it. Oh, wow. All right. Yeah, this is like the manga nightmare right here. Yeah.

This is like a testament to the American dream or the American nightmare. A black woman, a black man, a moderate Muslim. And a gay Jew. Gay Jew. Yeah. Yeah, baby. This is the future that liberals want. Yeah.

I like it. It's red state nightmare bingo right now. I used to drive an electric bicycle with a Darwin t-shirt to the White House, and I did feel like that was cool. Because I was like, I'm a lot of things people want to stop in one package.

This is true. This is very true. This is very true. Thank you, John. You're the greatest threat to America. I also want to say about the electric bike that I took, two facts about it. One, it was for children. Wow.

Two facts about it. One, it was for children. Wow. And two, I locked it at 17th and M, and then thought I had locked it at 17th and L, and then believed it to have been stolen, and then found it like six months later. In the same spot?

In the same spot. That's a long time. Well, I gave up. I looked everywhere, and I was like, somebody cut the lock and took it. That's life in the bike. Nobody, you can't even sell that to a thief. You're like, bro, I will give you money for this electric bike.

And the thief would be like, I have standards. I thought it was life in the bike game and you take your losses. And then I switched actually to an electric scooter. Was it Tesla? It was not a Tesla. It was, again, a child scooter. And John and Tommy made fun of me relentlessly for riding around on a little electric scooter.

Yes. However, now they're all over the place. They're all over Venice. They're all over liberal cities because everybody recognized that the future is sharing electric scooters. I haven't seen one. I'm sorry. They haven't made it to Brooklyn yet. Or Northside or East Liberty.

You are literally on your own on this one. In Pittsburgh, we walk. Let's get into it. What a week. On Monday, the New York Times published a list of questions that special counsel robert muller supposedly wants to ask trump a lot of people were confused as to how this leaked out but it turned out that those questions were actually drawn up by one of trump's criminal lawyers jay sickalo

suckalo sucks a ton based on an overview he received from the muller team trump orchestrated the leak one to blame muller's team for being behind the leak, and then two, to create the impression that Mueller had exceeded his mandate, thereby building a public case for declining Mueller's interview request. However, things didn't go according to plan. On Wednesday, former Trump campaign aide, Michael Caputo, emerged from his interview with Mueller and said,

quote, it's clear they are still really focused on Russia collusion. They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there. They know what they are aiming at and they are still really focused on russia collusion they know more about the trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there they know what they are aiming at and they are deadly accurate yeah i love that i love that that guy emerged shaken yeah he emerged like bill paxton and aliens he's like he went in there cocky as hell and he walked out and he's like, game over, man. Game over. Yeah.

All of this helps explain Trump's legal shakeup this week. On Wednesday, Trump and his new legal eagle, Rudy Giuliani, pushed out Ty Cobb, the lawyer who convinced

Trump to cooperate with Mueller and brought on Emmett Flood, Bill Clinton's lawyer during his impeachment trial. Cool guy. This is apropos of nothing and actually not helpful but i will say that i think the name emmet flood is cool i think it's a cool

name for a tough lawyer to have totally because i think that like you can be in a meeting and be like looks like they don't have flood insurance you Oh. Or you could say that like they better get an arc. Totally. There's a flood coming. You know what I mean? John's been waiting eight years for that joke, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, that's true. To drop it right now.

Only the Trump campaign, or only Donald Trump would have a lawyer named Ty Cobb. Exactly. It's like- Dowd, Cobb, Flood, Sekulow. Sucks. Sekulow. Sekulow. exactly it's like dowd cob flood sick he sucks seculo like only the most racist baseball player ever and no one i've never met a ty cobb before in my life and he found one well be his lawyer it's not like a situation where you were born in the years between like Britney Spears was born and became famous and so like your name Britney Spearson and you're fucked like Ty Cobb was known even when this Ty Cobb was born and it

is so intense to give a baby that name is that a celebrity's name Ty Cobb baseball player Ty Cobb is a is a racist baseball player and will tell you, I knew the name only because I knew a dirty move was named after it where you jump up and kick the home plate, the catcher. That's one.

And two, there was a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, which is everything I know about Ty Cobb. Oh. I was born in 1999, so I don't get that reference.

Goo Goo Gaga. That's cool. That's not true. Dude, no. But black don't crack. They bought it. They were like, this is a person born in 1999. She was born during Y2K. They were in.

Yes, I use hit clips. You know, my take on Thai cop is, in all seriousness, is that he got, he left, right? He was the lawyer, and Donald Trump said, I love my law team, I'm never going to get rid of them, and he just got rid of Dow, and he got rid of Cobb. And my take on this is, and thinking how Trump thinks, is you can only have one crazy mustache in the White House.

So you got John Bolton, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran now as a national security advisor, and we know Donald Trump didn't want him originally because he didn't like his facial hair, and he's like, then he gets in Bolton,

and you've seen Cobb's facial hair, it's, muah, magnifique, and so I'm sure Trump was like, forget the whole lies and stuff, the two mustaches is one too many. Yeah. Go out, Cobb.

Well, Ty Cobb looks like the Pringles man. Wow. Holy shit. How depressed are you? Bejikhan obstruct just one, you know? Well played. That was good.

Meanwhile, even Trump's treatment of the Mueller investigation is helping to obstruct justice in other countries. The New York Times has reported that the Ukrainian government ceased cooperating with Mueller and quashed its own corruption investigation of Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, shortly after the Trump administration agreed to sell the country missiles. And finally, President Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, a phrase which feels like a sketch for Saturday Night Live that got cut for time in 2005, admitted in an interview with Sean Hannity, you know, Sean Hannity really raking him over the coals. Yeah, real Frost Nixon situation.

Sean Hannity's like, so he's innocent, right? And Rudy's like, wait. Went on television. So Rudy said that Trump did reimburse Michael Cohen for the $130K in hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels, who is performing down the street tonight in Pittsburgh. Really? She's here.

She's here. Some of these people are confused and are waiting for her to come out. Are you touring together, you and Stormy? Is this like a thing? This is literally the nightmare of the Rust Belt. Almost like a Groupon, like a deal. John Lovett and Stormy Daniels. It's a double feature.

Yeah! Excellent questions, sir, in the front row. So Rudy said all this to Sean Hannity despite repeated public declarations that Trump had no idea this even took place. I believe we have a clip. It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.

So they funneled it through the law firm. Funneled through the law firm, and the president repaid it. Oh, I didn't know he did. We were talking about two different things there. I want to make sure. I was talking about the $130,000 payment, the settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do. That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, doesn't matter.

The president reimbursed that over a period of several months. He had said, I distinctly remember, that he did it on his own. He did? Without asking. Look, I don't know. I haven't investigated that. Oh. So.'t investigated that. Oh. Damn.

Damn. So I love that clip. I love Sean Hannity trying to help Rudy, and Rudy's like, it's like Rudy was drowning, and Sean reached down into the water, and Rudy's like, I can swim. Exactly. I can swim. Don't embarrass me. I know how to swim.

Oh, I'm drowning. I'm swallowing water. For the sake of America, I want Rudy Giuliani to be on television every night. Speaking, unedited. Anything that comes to his mind. And I want him on Fox and Friends. I want him on Hannity. Anywhere.

Anywhere in America, please give Rudy Giuliani a platform. Put him on First Take. Put him on First Take. Yeah. MTV Awards. Let's not talk about LeBron. Yeah, Caillou. Why stop there?

Yeah, why stop there? Come on. Let's make it a party. Rudy Giuliani's glasses are like the cape that Doctor Strange wears. They are sentient. Just come to him. And they go, the more damage Rudy is doing and the more lost he is in the plot of the story he's trying to tell, the further askew the glasses become because they're trying to drag him off the set.

But he's like, stop it, glasses. Rescue me if I'm really in trouble, you know? And this is the guy in charge of cyber security? Oh, yes. He's working on that, too. He's very busy. Very proud. Very busy.

Never forget. Sure. Oh, is it? You're mad at me? It's too soon. You know what he also said there, which is actually serious, which is going to screw Trump even more, is he said, I love Rudy Giuliani. This week is the one week I love him so much.

He goes, Trump fired Comey because Comey wouldn't give him assurances that he was not the target of the investigation. I'm like, more. Give me more. Yes. Yes, Giuliani. It just does not help the whole obstruction of justice case that Donald Trump is trying to avoid when Rudy Giuliani gets on Hannity and keeps killing him as a legal strategy. Well, they, he keeps um, they're basically

trying to come up with new explanations for why he fired Comey all the time and they're doing it via improv. Exactly. He's like he's like a first season Real Housewife who's desperate to stay on the show and is putting out all the stunts. I think the only thing you could say is,

sorry, this old man is not supposed to be here. Yeah. He wandered out days ago. Exactly. Your family misses you, Rudy. Yeah. Come with me. You're okay.

He's okay. He's okay. He's okay. He's okay. I don't know. He's okay. Rudy gives okay. He's okay. I don't know. Rudy gives me the vibe that if he was alone in a house by himself, he couldn't turn on the oven without falling asleep and burning the place down. That is ageist, that joke you just told?

Well, as a 19-year-old, I'm fine with that. Okay. The first video game Ziwe ever played was Pokemon Go. It's true. It's true. It's true. Pokemon went to the polls. Your first cell phone was an iPhone 10. That's also true.

That's also true. I like to play Candy Crush. You like classic movies like the original X-Men. Yes. With Jennifer Lawrence. Well played. Later on in an interview with Rudy, Rudy also said, was it a campaign violation, which usually results in a fine, by the way,

not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office. That's a Star Wars reference. It's a Hitler reference. And a Hitler reference. That's a Star Wars reference. It's a Hitler reference. And a Hitler reference.

You are not on the same page. Both? I just... Like, we're so used to this now, but a Republican former federal prosecutor referring to FBI agents as stormtroopers is wild. It's crazy. And that's all I wanted to say about that. So, Damon, we've seen reports that Trump was actually happy with Rudy's performance. How did we get beat by people this stupid? I mean, the easy answer is, you know, racism,

which is like the answer for everything that's's happening right now but i i feel like they're just throwing so much shit at the wall that you just can't help but ignore it i liken this to the walking dead where my wife and i were trying to catch up with the walking dead and we we went back and we binge watched and now i don't give a fuck what happens to Rick I don't care what happens to Negan I don't give a fuck about Carl anymore like I did I cared about Carl for like 18 months and now I don't give a shit about Carl and right now it's all about survival there's just so much shit happening that you can't keep up with it all and I just want to I just want to binge watch this now. I want to get to the last episode and watch that because keeping up with it every week is just too much.

I can't. I can't. It's like watching the Warriors play, and they do all these misdirection plays, and then Steph ends up shooting a three, and it's like, how the fuck did that just happen? You know Steph shoots threes. I'd also like to add a foreign power meddling in an election oh yeah foreign power meddling election that is part of it no you should add it to the list for sure no lot and

lot of reasons yeah like there was this there was this big push you know before the election and after the election is like don't let this be normalized that was like the word normalized don't let this be normalized and with all this shit happening every day it's like yo i want to go to brunch like i want to brush my teeth i can't keep up with everything that is happening and they're using that to their advantage because we just can't stay vigilant with all of this fucking shit all the time it's um it's uh the fire alarm has been going off for a year and a half and we're so used to it now and we're just all of us are just like hey maybe we go to uh that bread place panera no i don't want that how's your family and then all of a sudden they'll stop and we'll be like, oh my God, it's so quiet.

I didn't know it could be this quiet. I forgot that there was a time that it was quiet. That's a cool time to think about. Normalcy. But I think going all in with your nerd walking dead analogy. Nerd? Geekery. It's good.

I give it a prop. It's blurred. Black nerd. It's good. I give it a prop. It's blurred. If the Trump administration is this unyielding, undead mob that is eating away at our core values, our democracy, at our institutions, at judges, at those people who come from

shithole countries. Oh, sorry, shithouse. Because, you know, there's a difference between shithole and shithouse. Shithouse has a roof. Shithouse has Wi-Fi, apparently, right? Go against black people, transgenders. Nigeria does not. Going against the rule of law, right?

They want you to be exhausted. And Carl represents that innocence, that decency of America, those values. And they're being sacrificed right now. So like, all right, Rick can easily go postal, become an extremist and say, I lost Carl, F it all. I'm just going to go into the wild right now so like all right rick can easily go postal become an extremist and say i lost carl f it all i'm just gonna go into the wild and like remove all my decency and that's the test for the

rest of us to keep resisting the swarm of the undead that wants to eat away at what remains still vital in court to america that's great so the walking dead i that, by the way. I really do. So The Walking Dead is a parable. It's almost like there's like a metaphor. It's almost as if the experience of rebuilding and dealing with both a desire for society as well as human flaws in the fight against a merciless wild, there's a metaphor for the human condition itself. Wow. And then if you think about it... This is deep, yeah.

And then that chick, Michere, is she a black person on that show? Michonne. Michelle? Wow. Michonne. Okay, so she's the 92% of black woman who voted for Hillary.

93. 93. You see, I don't have my stats right, but the metaphor still works. It still works, yes. Give it up for black women! And 52% of white women voted for Donald Trump

even after he bragged about grabbing him by the pee. Just keeping it real. Just keeping it real. Oh, wow. But not the white ladies here. That's a perfect place to leave it. When we come back, OK Stop!

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back! Now for a game we call OK Stop. Here's how it works. We'll roll a clip, and then panel can say OK Stop, and we can talk about it. Kanye West.

I used to love Kanye. I used to other Kanye. What a mess. I still love Kanye. We all know what he said. We all to other Kanye. What a mess. I still love Kanye. We all know what he said. We all know what happened. We all saw the guy from TMZ win the debate with Kanye,

which was cool, except what kind of doomsday scenario is people going around saying, I'm really glad TMZ hosted that debate with Kanye. But Planet Orion is not the right one. TMZ is the voice of reason in America in 2018. That's awesome.

So we all know what Kanye said. He said, during that interview, if people were slaves for 400 years, it must have been a choice. He then lost the debate to Van Lathan. A lot of people were upset by these comments. But do you know who wasn't? The panel at Fox and Friends. Nice.

So let's see what they had to say. Uh-huh. Unfortunately. I mean, I felt like this was the best way at it. We'll see if that was right. Over the weekend, Kanye West sat down with Candace Owens and also some members of the political right in the country, and they talked about all sorts of things.

He also went on TMZ. And he told people why he likes Donald Trump. Yeah, he said, I'm not political, but I do love this guy. He was wearing the Make America Great Again hat over the weekend. Now, this is what he said on TMZ. Okay, stop. Why is he wearing the chains that you'd get when you were, like, two years old in, like, the bodega around his neck?

Like his little name necklace. That is, this is a Pittsburgh reference, but that's a Kennywood chain that he's wearing right now. Kanye. Okay, so Kennywood. I don't understand. Okay, Kennywood is an amusement park. And if you are from the Pittsburgh area and you

went to school in Pittsburgh, then you remember the Kennywood picnic? Which was the day that your school district, your entire district, went to Kennywood and just spent the whole day there riding the rides and eating the potato patch fries and everything.

Wow. And this is a chain that an 8 eighth grader going to Kennywood with his name on it would wear. With like a silk shirt and some curve. Sounds like a... Like drenched in curve. Sounds like a pretty free-thinking eighth grader. I was drenched in curve in eighth grade.

What was it? Yeah. Curve. Cologne. Oh, I don't know it. Yeah. I've learned so much about Pittsburgh

in the last half hour. No, Curve, I'm 100% sure or 97% sure that they sell Curve nationwide. Damn. That Curve is not like a Pittsburgh

specific cologne. Is it Curve or Purve? It's Curve. Purve? P or C? It's C. Oh, curve. The whole time I thought it was perv.

I'm like, okay, no judgment, no judgment. It is curve. Keep your face solid. Curve. Curve. Curve, I would say the odds of there being a Pittsburgh-only cologne seems not zero, but not high. And that cologne would be called Permanis.

That's what you named the cologne. What would it be called? Permanis. Oh, the sandwich place, which I demanded. I want you to know that there was a salad option, and I said, how about this menu? And it was the menu to Primanti's?

I thought it was Primanti's because I'm a... It could... I've been pronouncing it Primanti's since I've been... Okay, hold on. Let's let the people decide. Primanti's?

I might be... Yeah. Primanti's. Wow. The people have spoken. The popular vote. Yeah. Yeah.

Can I also mention how awkward it is for three white people to be discussing Kanye's comments on slavery Yeah Yeah

Don't you think they would have brought Remember they brought they dressed up a black kid and had him eat watermelon on Fox and Friends You guys remember that? I don't remember that

You don't remember that? I block it out Fox and Friends has a history of racially charged, not racist. No, no, racially charged, keeping it real. Not racist. Shithole countries, racially charged.

Yes, Black Santa. Not racist. Not racist, though. Yeah, and so, I mean, just the fact that a producer wouldn't be like, you know, for this one, bring out Ben Carson. Nah. For this one, bring out Stacey Dash.

Well, Stacey got fired, let's not forget. Candace Owens, too, don't forget about her. For this one, bring out Omarosa. But Well, Stacey got fired. Let's not forget. Candace Owens, too. Don't forget about her. For this one, bring out Omarosa. But no, they went full white. They went full white. This is one people that observed that for a second. You know what?

Paris Denard. He's another one. No, he's on CNN, though. His contract on CNN. Oh, CNN. I'm getting my Uncle Tom's next album. I'm sorry. It was a feeling I had.

People, we're taught how to think. We're taught how to feel. We don't know how to think for ourselves. We don't know how to feel for ourselves. People say feel free, but they don't really want us to feel free. I felt a freedom. And first of all, just doing something that everybody tells you not to do. I just love Trump. That's my boy. So he says, OK, stop. Free andzy? For those listening at home, the name of this segment on Fox News is Free and Yeezy, which I guess is short for Free and Breezy or Free and Easy?

Freezy. What? Free and Easy. Free and Yeezy. I know it says Yeezy, but I'm saying, what's the pun? Is it Free and Easy? Free and Easy. I think it's Free and Easy.

Free and Easy. Yeah, Free and Easy, I think. Free and Cheesy. I think it's free and easy. Free and easy. Yeah, free and easy, I think. Free and cheesy. I think that's it, yeah. Because I like that guy. But then he tweeted out about freedom, about slavery. You know, he said... Okay, stop.

That's my boy. It says, that's my boy. Now, boy is used to refer to a slave. For example, boy. So it's weird that Kanye West is calling Trump boy, but then he says slavery doesn't exist.

Contradictions. He says slavery was a choice, and then he went ahead and clarified on Twitter because it caused outrage, obviously, with that statement. Okay, stop. Alright. This is such a tough subject for me because Kanye is, I love his music.

Of course. And I have. Like a popo with wax. This is hard. The crazy thing about his whole love affair with Trump is that it's about the idea that Trump is like a free thinker and is it he's an iconoclast I I think I I think that it is and I think that Kanye's thing is you know what he can he looks at a person like Donald Trump as being like this iconoclast who doesn't care about political correctness and is in his you is obsessed with free thought and not being beholden to anyone else's ideas of how to think and how to be.

But aligning with the president is not a free thought. It's like, that's the old, aligning with a white supremacist president is literally the oldest trick in the American book. It's like the first thought in America. Yeah. It's like, if you had the book of American tricks, white supremacy would be page one, chapter one.

Oh, totally. And this is what Kanye is trying to align himself with right now. And it's like, if you would just pick up a fucking book, a textbook. Early registration this time. pick up a fucking book, a textbook. Early registration this time. You know, and not even a textbook. If he would just read the back of a fucking red hot chili pepper bottle or something, just read something, read a tweet,

and he would know what he is doing. And I just, I am so. Kanye West reads books. His mother was a professor. No, no, no, no. He said, I don't have respect for books. He literally said that. I'm so. Kanye West reads books. His mother was a professor. No, no, no, no. He said, I don't have respect for books. He literally said that. I hear that.

Out of his own gold plate toothed mouth. I hear that. Said that. I don't receive it because we saw him have his little civil rights movement with the Hurricane Katrina, George Bush fiasco. I think he is starved for attention. And I think that he's. Ray J, you mean.

Ray J. Not R.J. Ray J. Damn, I'm getting heckled. R.J. is Richard Jefferson. Racism. Yeah. What I was thinking about when I saw the clip, I actually was thinking about this conversation we've had about how could race be driving the election when there are people out there who voted for Obama twice and then voted for Trump? And what I was thinking, and we talked about this actually with Tapper, Jake Tapper,

when he came on Pod Save America, and I thought, and I don't think he, he wasn't making the opposite of his claim, but to me, what I think is people are complicated, and people who can take racial thought and racial grievance and kind of put it aside can find it animated by a new force right that trump can come in and make a certain kind of racial grievance motivating for people in a way that it maybe didn't when they tried to vote for change twice with brock obama and felt let down in some way and when i see kanye make a statement like that first of all yeah playing slavery, he called it a new idea it's an old idea

playing down slavery has been around a while it is literally the oldest idea in America it's not new at all but what I was also seeing and I thought this is what was so deft about the response from the guy TMZ was pointing out that Kanye is a bit

insulated from the consequences of his words and what kanye is doing is allowing race to be less salient for himself in that moment and that to me it's it's and that that to me is what i find so dispiriting about it because he obviously means a lot to a lot of people especially especially to black people in America who love his music and white people who love his music, that for him to say, I'm a free thinker, I like Trump, is pretending that racial grievance and racism didn't play such a large role in Trump's rise

because it feels better to imagine that that's not true. But you don't get to do that. And that's why the point that guy made was so good, because he didn't, he's not thinking freely, he's not thinking at all. Sorry, go ahead. Well, I will say that this isn't a new ethos for Kanye. He said that racism was dead when

Yeezus' album came out. He said classism is the new racism. Just throw back Kanye. He's been talking about this for three or four years. But, you know, you said something which is on point, that racism wasn't as salient to him. He's insulated. And I think that explains why so many people in America, especially white Americans who don't consider themselves racist,

had no problem voting for a racist president. And when you look at the two groups, when you look at Obama voters, when you look at the studies of the white voters who went for Obama, the reason why they switched over to Trump was over two issues. National security, the Muslim threat, and anyone take a guess? Immigrants. Those Mexican rapists and criminals. Are there any Hispanics here? Any? Yeah? All right. And so the fact that Kanye doesn't feel it, right? He goes, I don't feel it. I'm beyond this. Well, the rest of us are not beyond it. That's why those of us who are in the media who are following the Trump election, like me, I said, take him literally and seriously. And people of color, maybe America should listen to people of color. We said, this is how Trump's

going to be. Take him literally and seriously. And when I was at the DNC, was out with the DNC, was right here in Philadelphia, right? I wanted to talk to Bernie brothers, sorry to call out the white Bernie brothers and Trump supporters. And the joke was, will you go visit me? I did a whole segment. Will you go visit me in the Muslim camps? And they're like, ha ha ha, Trump doesn't mean it. And I'm like, I think he does. And I'm like, well, you bring me halal Philly cheesesteaks. And they're like, we have it, we have it on video one guys. What's it called? Harlal? I'll bring you Harlal. It's because it didn't affect them. And that's why when people kind of intellectually masturbate about this stuff

at White House Correspondents' Dinners and their weird orgy of, like, trolls doing Caligula with the butt kissing and other times in the think tanks, for the rest of us, we cover this stuff, but it affects our families, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers. It affects us. And we can't move beyond like Kanye. But here's the question.

I had to say that. affects us and we can't move beyond like Kanye. But here's the question. I had to say that. Yeah. You'd argue that Trump supporters hope that he meant that, that they weren't just not taking him at his word. They hope that he was speaking at his word. Many of them who I talked to said, listen, listen, listen, he's politically incorrect. I was the only person of color and only journalist at a Trump main rally two weeks before the election after grab him by the pussy comment came out and across the board I talked to them and this one guy told me he goes son put his hand on my shoulder white man he goes there was a time that this country was great and I hope you experience it and I'm like 1954 before Brown versus Board of Education

he's like what I'm like nothing um but but. But all of them, none of them said I'm a racist. And they said, oh, he attacks all of them. That's just Trump, he keeps it real, he's politically incorrect, and they had no problem voting for a racist president. And supporting his racist policies, which is racist. Yeah, and you know, yeah. Yeah.

Talking about making America great again. And that's something that was a very obvious dog whistle to people of color, to women, to people from the LGBTQ community, you know, about making turning America back into a time when we didn't have as many rights. And that was the actual platform. Like, that wasn't like a throwaway line from a speech or from a rally. There are hats. There are actual bumper stickers. MANGA is an actual acronym that has entered our just general zeitgeist because of that. And, you know, it it frustrates me on one hand but at the other hand i'm like well you know the empathy void that exists and that allowed someone like trump to be president is something that has always existed it's just something that with his election and with the last i guess 18 months since he's been in office,

we've just been more exposed to. But that, you know, we talk about the Obama voters who, you know, who flipped and voted for Trump. I feel like a lot of those people maybe felt like voting for Obama maybe absolved them of any sort of white guilt or any sort of, like, you know what, racism is over because i voted for obama so it's done now it's over and i can't talk about it anymore we can't yeah i listened to beyonce and i voted for obama so this is it's over i'm clenched racism is over and racism

has ended racism is like the sopranos last episode it's done. And so once they saw that in the eight years that he was president, that, oh, shit, racism is still here. They're still talking about this? People are still mad about this? There are still beer summits, whatever the fuck that was, that happened? And so the Trump election was, I guess, was a referendum. It was definitely. You know, it was an indictment.

It was America's indictment on the eight years before it. Definitely. He's trying to erase everything that Obama has worked so hard to gain. And that's intentional. And these are the last thing I'll say. These are the Trump whites who say, and this is why this is so damaging. See, Kanye is one of the good minorities. He's one of the good blacks.

He's one of the good Mexicans, the good Muslims. He's for Trump. And Trump, during that White House correspondent, when he was in Michigan doing a rally, making fun of the press, what did he say? Are there any Hispanics here? Not too many. And then he went on to praise Kanye. Cool.

To think about 400 years ago and be in that mindset today is a choice. Get out of that mindset and think about now. So that was a lot of the controversy. He also, Kanye did, said that Donald Trump is one of rap people's favorite guys. Okay, stop. Stop. Stop. You need to stop. Okay. No, you got it. You got it. Brother, okay no you got it you got it brother no you got it okay okay this i'm just gonna drop this and walk away rap people rap people rap

people rap people someone made this comment on the internet in the internet somewhere so i'm repeating it i think that one of the one of the the the driving forces behind like this embrace of Kanye is that they are searching for some cultural relevancy. cultural figures that embraced Trump was like Scott Baio. Anthony Sabato Jr. And Ted Nugent. And, you know, I don't know, Bill Belichick. Like, I don't know. Yeah, boo. But you'll notice the double speak because in the same way they'll lift up Kanye,

they'll dismiss Jay-Z as a guy from Brooklyn who doesn't know anything because he's from the projects. So you can't have it both ways. It's super critical. Oh, it's the number of people. I mean, we've done OK Stops over and over again with Laura Ingraham telling any black person of any stature who's had an opinion about politics,

shut up and dribble, stay in your lane, just shut up. Why won't these people just shut up? And then Kanye, who is barely making sense at this point is of no but he isn't he just is you know he's being exploited by this propaganda machine because he is cool and because he's black he is being used he has allowed himself to be used by the one of the most nefarious propaganda operations in the history of this country. Totally. And it is heartbreaking. Totally. It's heartbreaking. Yeah. Yeah, and he's

also existing as this absolution machine where it's like, you know, no, we can't be racist if we are embracing Kanye. We're embracing Kanye West who has said the President of the United States doesn't care about black people before and we are actually embracing this person.

So we can't be racist. So you're wrong. That's why he's dangerous. Because he legitimizes this thought. Yeah. But I feel bad for him. I mean, you mentioned that. I think we're all, I'm going to make an assumption, we're all Kanye fans here.

Not anymore. This is painful based on the comment and also the messenger that Kanye is the one saying this. And I looked at this and I said I'm concerned for his health I don't think that's fair I don't think it's fair because whenever I have mental breaks I don't go on Fox and Friends

and talk about how slavery is fake so that's a great point I mean you know mental health he has dealt with mental health issues. That's been, you know, pretty public. But, again, you know, we can't just because he's saying things that we don't agree with all of a sudden say, oh, you know, he must be sick. It's dismissive.

True. Yeah. True. Yeah. True. It's dismissive. It's people who are actually, you know, dealing with their own issues. People who are actually, you know, dealing with their own issues.

And, you know, we had and even saying things like, you know, it is the Kardashian curse or or it's his mother's death. It's like, no, Kanye is 40 years old. Like, no, he yeah, this isn't his medication. This isn't his wife. This is him. I just think this is who he is. I just think we don't we don't know. And it doesn't matter because all we can do is deal with the Kanye in front of us and I don't

know if he's having some kind of a break or episode or if he's just seeking promotion, seeking attention or if he is literally motivated by this ideology or just has been enamored of some dumb fucking ideas. I don't really know and I don't care because the damage he's doing

doesn't care. It just doesn't matter. Rap's favorite people, he said there's a class war happening right now. You know what? And that's okay. Stop. Fuck these people. We got to the bottom of it. When we come back, a new game.

Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It and there's more on the way. And we're back! Last weekend, politicians and journalists from around the District of Columbia gathered together to wear tuxedos and ball gowns and celebrate what it means to be very important members of society. And like all important serious individuals,

they don't have time for fun or games, and they certainly don't like to be made fun of. So when a comedian named Michelle Wolfe showed up uninvited and started mocking them, they just went to Stanford. They were offended. Cancel the dinner, they said. But we noticed something.

A lot of the same people offended at Michelle Wolfe's jokes are the same people tweeting about triggered snowflake libs and promoting how PC culture has gone too far. So we wanted to highlight some of that hypocrisy in a game called Snowflake versus Snowflake. Is there someone named Maddie in the house? Maddie, would you like to play the game?

Maddie is in merch and somebody tweeted that Maddie will be at the Pittsburgh show in front row. She's been studying like crazy for MCAT to get into medical school. And she wanted to be surprised with a game. And so we're playing a game. It was a message from someone named RainDancers12. Is that you? That's RainDancers12.

I got to tell you, not the package I thought a Rain Dancer would come in. But you know what? That's cool. Hi, Maddie. Hi, how are you? Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. When are the MCATs?

June 1. June 1. All right, you got a month. Studying in advance. Lunchtime, I know. Very cool. So you guys each have cards in your hands. You have a card next to you somewhere or in your hand.

Here's how it works. We're going to read you comments in rebuking Michelle Wolfe, and you'll figure out what they said previously. Okay? Are you ready? Okay. It'll all make sense, Maddie. You seem a little unsure, but that's fine.

All right. Here we go. You guys ready? Question number one. Failed presidential candidate and open mic comedian Mike Huckabee tweeted after the Correspondents' Dinner, quote, the WHCD was supposed to celebrate the First Amendment. Instead, they celebrated bullying, vulgarity, and hate. They got all dressed up so they would look nicer when they had a hired gun savagely attack

their guests. Do they really wonder why America has no respect for them? Sad. What did Mike Huckabee tweet earlier that very same day? Was it A? If you lack a sense of humor, get offended by slights you create, or just can't bring yourself to tolerate those who disagree with the do not watch my show tonight.

You will be triggered, and we will need a pony, popsicle, and Play-Doh to cope. Or was it B? Personally, my favorite stand-up bit is George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. I know it by heart. My only complaint is that I think you should be able to say those words on television and on Twitter. So I'll say them all in this upcoming Twitter thread.

Or was it C? When telling a joke, it's okay to cross a line as long as it offends poor people, people of color, women, or the Jewish folk. Attacking rich white people, though? Too far. What's the answer, Maddie? I'm going to have to go with A.

You got it. That's right. But I am going to offer a one-time dispensation. Because he's Sarah Huckabee Sanders' dad, I think we're going to give Mike Huckabee a pass. Boo me. I knew you would boo me. I put this on a card so that you animals could boo me.

We're giving him a one-time pass. Boo me all you want. I don't care. It's his daughter. His son killed a dog. Question number two. I did not know that. I didn't either. I honestly should caveat that that was a

sentence shouted by an audience member and it's not journalism to repeat it. Question two. Matt Schlapp, friend of the president and leader of a billionaire-funded right-wing think tank bullshit thing I didn't look up, tweeted this. My wife and I walked out early from the White House Correspondents Center. Enough of elites mocking us.

His wife, Mercedes, the White House Director of Strategic Communications, tweeted, It's why America hates the out-of-touch leftist media elite. Where did that lovely couple send those tweets from? Was it A? A redline metro train stuck underground as they rushed to get to the soup kitchen before volunteering hours closed. Was it A? A redline metro train stuck underground as they rushed to get to the soup kitchen before volunteering hours closed. Was it B? The public library where they stopped being used for free internet access because neither of these working class common folk can afford high speed internet in their duplex. Was it C?

In the back of a limousine en route to an exclusive after party organized by NBC slash MSNBC. It's a tough one, but C. It was. It was C. C. Good job. Two for two. And I'll just offer you a little DC insider nonsense.

There used to be two after parties. There was the NBC MSNBC one, but then there was the Vanity Fair Bloomberg one. That one was cooler. It just was. I have to say, I don't care. I don't care. That was a cool fucking party. And I got

to go because I worked at the White House. And then we gave it to our worst person. Did you bring your electric excluder? No, I didn't. Now I feel small. That's how you do a good callback. Well done.

Question number three. After the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Sean Spicer tweeted, tonight's hashtag WHCD, get those retweets, Sean. Tonight's hashtag WH, was a disgrace. Similarly outraged, she wrote a letter to the editor of his college newspaper calling them unprofessional after they refused to apologize for what?

Was it A, an article that referred to him as Sean Sphincter? Was it B, an article that complimented his smoky eye? Was it C, an article that pointeded his smoky eye. Was it C? An article that pointed out that nothing he can do or say in any book or Fox and Friends appearance will change what he did and what he defended. I really like B, but final answer C. Wrong. It was A. They called him Sean Sphincter. Sphincter. But Maddie, that was a tough one because the joke answer was the right answer.

He literally wrote a letter to the fucking editor. Maddie, you've won the game. Give it up for Maddie. She gets a parachute gift card. Everybody wish Maddie luck on the MCAT. Give it up for Rain Dancer, who probably has a real name, but we'll never know. When we come back, a lightning round game about immigration.

And we're back! And we're back! Earlier this week, after months of racist fear-mongering from the right-wing press, a caravan of 150 Central American migrants arrived at the California border seeking asylum. These migrants have done everything possible to enter the country legally and properly, yet still, Trump is threatening to stop them at the border. This story got us thinking. We focus so much on the day-to-day of Washington's scandals that sometimes we don't focus enough on how many lives are being hurt or destroyed

by Trump and the people he empowered. So we thought we'd like to do a deep dive on the only government agency Trump likes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a.k.a. ICE, as we play a game called Cold as Ice. Would anybody out there like to play Cold as Ice? Travis in the house.

I'm going to come down for this one. This person seems very enthusiastic. Hi. Hi, what's your name? Tony. Tony. Yes. Very positive.

I'm here. I'm number seven. You guys have your cards? Yes. All right. After serving his time on a drug-related sentence, an American citizen named Davino Watson was transferred from prison to ICE custody

despite being an American citizen. What happened next? Was it A? ICE checked into the man's immigration status and formally apologized for the mistake, reading in full the Emily Lazarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Was it B?

Davino told the investigator from ICE a winding and fascinating story of a gang of criminals and a heist gone wrong and a terrifying legendary mastermind secretly pulling all the strings. Then, right after DeVino left, the investigator realized the whole story was made up using words from objects in the room

and everyone has pretended it was a cool twist ever since. Ooh. Kaiser, so everyone has pretended it was a cool twist ever since. Ooh. Kaiser Sose. Was it C? Davino was held in custody for 1,273 days, over three years, which included time after ICE discovered their mistake and still

tried to deport this American citizen anyways. What do you think, Tony? This is a tough one. We need your answer. C? You got it. Question two. In the last seven years, ICE has reviewed the citizenship cases of over 8,000 people in custody. How many of those detained people showed evidence

of being an American citizen? Was it A? Zero. Why would they be allowed to detain American citizens without checking their status? That would be all caps, CRAZY! Was it B? 1,488. Nearly one-fifth of all review cases. Or was it C? 69. Nice. I'm thinking B. It is B. One-fifth of all reviewed custody cases involve the detention of American citizens. This could happen to literally any one of us citizens detained for no reason. Question number three.

The immigration court system is wildly different from our normal court system. What's so different? Is it A? There are over nine times more trampoline parks in this country than there are immigration courts. There are only 58 immigration courts in the entire United States of America, Fascinating. Was it B? B. All right.

All right. Public defenders are not provided in immigration courts, even in the case of unaccompanied minors, which is also the name of a Christmas movie where a bunch of kids got stuck in the airport. But while that movie was a wild, new card, romp, filled with much humor, this whole thing is kind of depressing. Or was it C?

Our immigration court system is so underfunded that we can't afford to hire enough judges. Because of that, there's a backlog of over 400,000 cases waiting to be heard. That means each judge has to hear as many as 1,500 cases a year, and some cases are heard in under seven minutes. Because unlike regular judges, immigration judges can be fired for not working fast enough.

If employees of Crooked Media got fired for not working fast enough, Lovett would have been canned years ago. That one sucks, because... John and Tommy wouldn't do that. I don't think. That one. It's all of the above, Tony. Oh, okay, yes. Final question.

Question number four. Who is Mark Little? Is it A? The guy who hosted Double Dare. Was it B? Question number four. Who is Mark Little? Is it A. The guy who hosted Double Dare. Was it B. Stuart Little's older, meaner brother who never got over just how fucked up it was that Stuart got to drive that cool-ass car and he didn't.

Or was it C. An American citizen. A? No. Come on, Tony. It's C. Mark Little was an American citizen. A? No. Come on, Tony. It's C. Mark Little was an American citizen that was inexplicably referred to ICE in 2008

as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Despite having had never been to Mexico, having no Mexican heritage, and not speaking any Spanish, he was detained for 51 days. There was a lot of evidence pointing to his American citizenship, but Mark had some mental health issues,

and he was coerced into signing a document that said he was from Mexico. He was then deported to Mexico on foot with only $3 in his pocket. He knew no one and didn't speak the language. He was then forced to live on the street. Mark spent the next 125 days wandering through Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala before someone at an American consulate

finally realized what was going on. But even then, after being flown back to Atlanta, ICE tried to prevent Mark from re-entering the country, and he was held in their custody for another six days. That story is via The New Yorker. Wow. Nuts. So ICE is a poorly regulated, vastly overpowered entity

that scoops up and detains people, including American citizens, for absolutely no reason. No matter what you think of illegal immigration, you have to admit that this system is broken and needs to change, and one way might be to abolish ICE. Guys, give it up for Tony for playing the game in our panel. When we come back, the rant wheel. And we're back. Now, for a segment we call the rant wheel, here's how it

works. We spin the wheel where it lands. We talk about the topic. This week on the rant wheel, we have the city of Philadelphia. The scandal involving Redskins cheerleaders, John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, and his emotional journey. The Marvel film Infinity War, and this will be a no-spoiler zone, okay?

Ooh, that's tough. Trump's Michigan rally, Muslim ban oral arguments, the topic of racism, which is, I have to say, pretty big, and hating something popular. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on Trump's Michigan rally, which is something you suggested to us, didn't you? Did I? All right. You did. Great.

Take it away. Well, first of all, callback. Are there any Hispanics here? No, not too many. All right. You did. Great. Take it away. Well, first of all, callback. Are there any Hispanics here? No, not too many. All right. My rant on this is, look, it was the same night of the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Everyone's talking about Michelle Wolf's Is It Too Soon, the joke about, you know, the smoky ash makeup. No, no, right?

Yeah, because there was a press briefing today where Sarah Sanders lied yet again, just saying. briefing today where Sarah Sanders lied yet again, just saying. But Trump, during that White House correspondent, was in Michigan for a rally that he didn't need with his base to placate his venal, pathetic ego. And at that rally, where some people were kissing up to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, he was destroying the press, attacking everyone. And he sent out Kellyanne Conway, and he sent out Sarah Huckabee Sanders to get the brunt of the arrows. And I got to give one compliment to George W. Bush. I have to, I know. I'm old enough to remember when Stephen Colbert in 2005 to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, he eviscerated George W. Bush. At least George W. Bush, like a man, sat there and took it. Imus destroyed Clinton. He sat there and took it. But Trump,

this orange, thin-skinned, tiny-fingered Bulgarian, couldn't even come to his White House correspondent's area because he's so weak. He sent other people out, women, to get attacked. And he sat there for his very white base that applauded the one person of color that they love,

Kanye. That's my rant. Damn. Let's spin it again. love, Kanye. That's my rant. Damn. Let's spin it again. That was a great rant. Solid rant. It was a top-notch rant. It has landed on racism, which Ziwe suggested, and I thought, okay.

Okay, so racism sucks. So far, so good. Yeah, rant over. And there are obvious reasons, like inequality, but then there are not so obvious reasons, like nude band-aids. They look ridiculous on my cocoa butter skin. And you know whose fault that is?

Racism. And you putting words into my mouth, you know whose fault that is? Racism. Do you guys see a pattern here? Racism is all around us. Every day I had to fight. Let's spin it again.

It has landed on Infinity War. This will be a no-spoiler zone. I'm not even going to talk about the movie. I'm only going to say this. You've got to hand it to them. Fifteen years ago, they were like, guess what? We're going to make a trillion dollars, and you're going to be seeing movies with a guy from the 80s who was most famous for drug abuse

and not being famous anymore playing a character that we only got the rights to because nobody else wanted it because it seemed real dumb. Then we're going to get the chubby guy from Parks and Rec, and we're going to make him the biggest movie star in the world. We're going to get a British guy to do a garbage American accent where he plays a wizard with broken fingers, and you're going to see that too.

We're going to go into the bargain Marvel barrel at the front of the comic book store, and we're going to reach down into it, and we're going to pull out a robot raccoon, a talking tree, a green woman, and a literal wrestler, and we're going to make that the biggest movie in history. There is nothing you can do to stop us.

We're going to have 75% of famous white Chrises in one movie. And if you think we're not trying to figure out how to get Chris Pine off that floating ice called DC, where he's floating away alone, we're thinking about it. Because I got to tell you, there's only one thing that Infinity Moore was missing, and it was the fourth Chris.

You give me a Chris Evans, you give me a Chris Pratt, you give me a Chris Hemsworth, cool. Let's spin it one more time. Last spin. It has landed on John Kelly's emotional journey. There was yet another story, I believe yesterday in the New York Times,

about John Kelly and the, did he call the president an idiot and is he staying or is he going? The John Kelly Hamlet routine and I am totally fucking sick of it. This is sort of the typical way it works and this is from the Times. Mr. Kelly now finds himself in the position where several others who have worked for Trump have landed. Aware that their jobs have become close to untenable,

looking for ways to cauterize the wounds to their reputations and knowing that it is only a matter of when, not if, they will have to leave. And then, of course, the spokesman comes out and says, they're on great footing. Their relationship is as strong as ever on the record. And then there's the but paragraph, which the story also had, which said, but the White House communications staff, which normally rushes to deny or sidestep rumors, et cetera, et cetera,., etc. I am so bored of this. John Kelly's there because he wants to be. John Kelly's there because he supports the agenda of Donald Trump.

I think he's there for conflicted reasons. I think he's there because he believes if he's not, someone worse will be, but he also knows exactly who Trump is. He knows what he signed up for. Stop denying the agency of these people. Sarah Huckabee Sanders knows what she's doing and she's an adult.

Totally. So is John Kelly. So is... Preach! So is Sean Spicer. So is John Bolton. So is Kellyanne. All of them.

And I am sick of it. Amen. I want to end with one final segment. A new segment we call End on a High Note. Oh! End on a High Note. Leave you driving home with a little less rage.

Every year, the president awards one teacher the National Teacher of the Year Award, and the winner gets to meet the president. This year, the winner was Mandy Manning from Ferris High School in Spokane. Manning used her brief one-on-one time meet the president. This year, the winner was Mandy Manning from Ferris High School in Spokane. Manning used her brief one-on-one time with the president to hand him letters from her refugee, immigrant, and LGBTQ students

to show the president that, quote, they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough, and they matter. She said Trump is excited to read them, which is yet another lie, he told. But let's hope he actually does. And regardless, I just saw this and I was just reminded that we just saw teachers in Arizona strike and get a 20 percent raise. Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky and West Virginia and elsewhere walking out. I was at Point Park right before the show,

and they were telling me about their mom, who's a teacher, is running for office for the first time. She's in the house. And I just thought, as a society, we will do a lot better if we listen to teachers, nurses, and librarians who are fighting for something compassionate as a society we will do a lot better if we listen to teachers nurses and librarians who are fighting for something compassionate because they do compassionate work and we'd all be better off for it so i just wanted to end by giving a hand to mandy manning for uh for for handing that letter to the president and all the teachers who have been standing up for a better kind of government

because it's pretty inspiring at a time when things are dark. So let's end on that high note. And thank you to everybody from Pittsburgh who came out tonight. And thank you to our panel, Wajahat Ali, Damon Young, Ziwe Bumadoh, and Pittsburgh.

Have a great night