The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Elon Musk "Butthurt" Over Trump Bill, Meet Tim Pool | Leah Litman on "Lawless" SCOTUS
Episode Date: June 5, 2025Michael Kosta dives into the fallout of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill: Elon slamming the “sprawling spending bill" and turning on Trump, Democrats backing Elon’s criticisms, and Marjori...e Taylor Greene revealing she never read it in the first place. Plus, the Big Beautiful Bill (Troy Iwata) claps back at all the new haters. The Trump administration has pushed out legacy media outlets from the White House press room in favor of more conspiratorial right-wing "new media" figures like Tim Pool: a conservative YouTuber and podcaster passionate about stroking Trump's ego and delivering truthful reporting sponsored by Russian interests. University of Michigan Law professor and “Strict Scrutiny” co-host Leah Litman joins Michael Kosta to discuss her New York Times bestseller, “Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.”By making the inner workings of SCOTUS more accessible and believing in the power of “talking sh*t,” she explains how the nation’s highest court has been operating under conservative guidance with little code of ethics in rolling back LGBTQ+ and minority discrimination protections and targeting reproductive rights after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This is The Daily Show with your host, Michael Kosta! -♪ Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, who So much to talk about tonight. Trump and Elon go from BFFs to enemies for life. Republicans get caught not doing their summer reading.
And Chuck Schumer finally learning how to be charismatic.
No, no, no, no, he's not.
But first, Congress is busy wheeling and dealing
over Donald Trump's legislative agenda.
So let's get into it with our ongoing coverage
of the big, beautiful bill.
["The Big, Beautiful Bill"]
Oh. I sleep with that.
I wrap it around, I kiss it at night.
Washington is a lot like high school, and not just because all the politicians are trying
to date high schoolers.
It's also because when a friendship ends, it explodes.
And right now, we are drenched in the fallout.
Breaking news, war of words between Elon Musk and the GOP lawmakers.
This comes after the tech mogul is speaking out again on the president's sprawling spending
bill.
He says, I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Jesus you can't just call this bill a pork filled abomination
that's reserved for the new TGI Friday's appetizer.
9.99 for a whole fried.
But this rift between Musk and Trump presents an incredible opportunity for Democrats
to go on the attack.
Hit him with everything you got. Let's go, Dems!
I hear something happened while we were at lunch,
which led me to make some news here today
and say something I didn't think was imaginable.
I agree with Elon Musk.
My God that is so lame.
And I feel so inspired when I hear Chuck Schumer I just want
to hit the streets and then keep walking in.
A little farther until eventually I come to a body of
water and then you know give up on democracy.
Nice try Chuck Schumer any other Democrat want to take a shot. until eventually I come to a body of water and then, you know, give up on democracy.
Nice try, Chuck Schumer.
Any other Democrat want to take a shot?
Breaking news, Elon Musk and I agree with each other.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Schumer already did that.
That's the first rule they teach you in comedy college.
A joke always gets funnier when you have to repeat it.
And that's the first rule they teach you in comedy college. A joke always gets funnier when you have to repeat it. And that's the first rule they teach you in comedy college.
A joke always gets funnier when you have to repeat it.
And even if Democrats can't take advantage of it,
it's still shocking for Elon to turn on Trump like this.
Why did he do it?
The source in Trump world claiming that Elon
was, quote,
butthurt, in part because the bill didn't include
giveaways to his companies.
Musk is upset that the spending bill cuts
the electric vehicle tax credit.
The White House denied his request
to have the Federal Aviation Administration
use his Starlink satellite system.
Are you kidding me?
He's upset about that.
Let's review all that Elon Musk has gained from his $288
million investment into this presidency, 100 million in NASA
contracts he got to freeze 40 federal investigations against
his companies fired anybody who could regulate or tax him and
he got the president of the United States to plug his car
company and Trump almost pronounced
its name correctly.
I love Tesla.
Oh!
But he's still pissed because he couldn't skim
every last dollar from the Treasury?
There's got to be a better reason.
Plus, we're learning Musk had hoped to stay on
with the White House as a special government employee
beyond 130 days,
but apparently the White House didn't accommodate that.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
The White House couldn't accommodate that?
That does sound like bullshit.
You know, Donald Trump is literally defying court orders
as we speak, but with this, he's like,
sorry, Elon, rules are rules, you know?
If I break regulation 46C of the federal employee handbook,
what separates us from animals?
No, Elon Musk got fired.
Now I get why he's mad.
It doesn't matter how rich you are.
Getting fired sucks.
You never totally get over being fired.
I got fired from Chuck E. Cheese in 1999,
and I still have dreams about going up to the manager
and saying, no, Bruce, you're the one that ate pizza scraps
instead of throwing them out.
Hope you're watching, Bruce.
But whatever the reason for Elon's butt pain,
it seems to have opened the floodgates.
And now it's giving life to a growing Republican backlash against the bill
What I'm concerned about is they didn't cut enough spending. We've got to have some fiscal sanity here. We're running
$2 trillion deficits. We need to try to reduce spending as much as we possibly can. It's hugely concerning to me
This is immoral what us old farts are doing to our young people this is grotesque what we're doing.
Yes, this bill is doing to young people is grotesque now
it's not as bad as what this bill is doing to young people
but it's still pretty gross.
You didn't see that one coming did you.
In fact the backlash to the bill is getting so big
that even Republicans who already voted for it
are backlashing.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Even though the Congresswoman voted for the bill
in the House, she now says in full transparency
that she wasn't aware of a section that would strip states
of their ability to regulate artificial intelligence
for the next decade. Here's a lesson for us all.
No matter what political party holds office and is in charge,
we should all watch carefully the bills that we pass.
Yep. Yep.
No shit.
I mean...
Smart. No shit. I mean...
Smart.
I mean, congrats on coming out against a crazy thing
in this bill, but you weren't aware of what was in it?
That's your job. This isn't book club.
You can't just read the first seven pages
and then be like, I love it, Linda, more rosé.
But here's what's really unbelievable about this story. We can shit on MTG, and we like, I love it, Linda, more rosé. But here's what's really unbelievable about this story.
We can shit on MTG, and we will because it's so fun to,
but she isn't even the only Republican
who's admitting she didn't read the whole bill
before voting for it.
Some voters in Nebraska confronted their congressman,
Republican Mike Flood, and he admitted
that he voted in favor of the bill
without reading a provision
that would make it harder for judges to hold parties in contempt for defying court orders.
I do not agree with that section that was added to that bill.
This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill.
Hey, hey, hey, why are you guys booing me?
I'm just telling you I didn't do the bare minimum of my job.
Feels like you should be applauding me for my honesty.
Come on.
I know reading a 1,000 page bill is boring.
I get it.
Reading sucks.
I can't even get through the birthday cards my kids give me.
I love you so much.
Blah, blah, blah.
Wrap it up already.
But you gotta read these bills.
It's not like a 23andMe Terms of Service Agreement where you can just blindly sign it and now
there's a clone of you who's a sex slave for an Uzbek oligarch.
Unlike that, these bills are important. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, at this point, there's basically an open revolt against the bill.
And this must really piss off House Speaker Mike Johnson.
He's busted his balls for months putting this thing together.
And after one tweet from Elon Musk, everybody's turning on it?
Don't take that shit, Mike.
All right?
Tell that pasty South African,
belly-flashing sperm fountain absent baby daddy,
friendless Ziploc bag full of jizz, ketamine,
ketamine,
ketamine,
ketamine,
ketamine,
Rasputin,
Rasputin,
dead-eye,
dead-eye,
dead-eye,
dead-eye,
dead-eye,
dead-eye, dead-eye, dead-eye, dead-in, dead-eye, deadbeat, doze donkey, Hitler-waving, seething distributor.
Where he can shove his tweets.
Come on!
With all due respect, my friend Elon
is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill.
Oh, my god.
None of them are good at this.
For more on the Republicans backing away
from their own big, beautiful bill,
we go live to Washington with the actual big, beautiful bill.
Bill.
Bill.
Bill, wow.
These Republicans have some pretty harsh words for you.
Well, I have some harsh words for them, Michael.
How rude.
First of all, they were gassing me up, calling me beautiful.
They spent all night passing me.
But after they ran me through the house, now they act like they weren't into it?
Please.
Well, to be fair, they're finding out a lot about you.
You ban regulations on AI.
You allow the president to ignore court orders.
You kick millions of people off their healthcare.
They passed me.
Okay? They're the ones who voted for me without getting to know me. You kick millions of people off their healthcare. They passed me, okay?
They're the ones who voted for me without getting to know me.
They say they regret it now, but you should have seen them
on the House floor. It was wild, okay?
They're trying to stuff their amendments into me,
all 220 of them.
They're screaming, screaming,
I, I, I thought I had a little thing to say,
but I say, I want a bunch of pervs.
Okay, okay, but... But a lot, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Marjorie, you sweet, sweet girl.
You think you lowered yourself for me?
I am so far above you, I can see the Jewish space lasers you love so much.
Okay?
Sorry if I'm being too honest, but you know me, the BBB, I tell it like it is.
I can't really snap, but you get it.
Okay, okay.
Well, what now?
All right, you're going to have to face these people again if you want to become law.
I know, I know.
I have to be the bigger Bill.
I'm just done with these boys in the house.
I think I'm gonna take some time to do some self care,
do some light reading, light reading of myself,
and then I'll be ready.
I'll be ready to go to the Senate where the mature politicians are.
I don't think senators will be any more mature.
Yeah, they will.
They're all like 95.
No, I mean, I don't know if senators are going to read all of you either.
Politicians just don't take their job seriously.
I know.
Michael, they're not responsible like you journalists are.
I'm sure you've read all of me, right?
Of course.
I mean, I'm a professional, aren't I?
I wouldn't have talked about the bill for the whole headline without reading it.
Of course.
Okay, yeah.
Okay, then what's your favorite provision?
Yeah, without looking at me.
Hey, you know what?
The big, beautiful bill, everyone.
When we come back, we find out the next generation of sell-outs, so don't go away.
I mean, so don't go away.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, I don't. I mean, I don't. I mean, I don't. I mean, I don't. I mean, I don't. Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Every year there's more and more reporters in the news media.
So to find out who some of them are, we go to Jordan Klepper in our segment, News to
Meet Ya.
Ever since President Trump took office, he's been attacking the establishment press harder
than Elon's face by his own kids.
And now the Trump administration is welcoming a crop of new media reporters to the White
House.
In fact, they're not just replacing old media.
They're great replacing them.
Starting today, this seat in the front of the room,
which is usually occupied by the press secretary's staff,
will be called the new media seat.
We have an individual in our new media seat today.
His name is Tim Pool.
Okay! All right.
Lovely to meet you, Tim Pool,
a YouTuber and, I'm assuming,
former GameStop employee.
Now, his head might be cold, but he's in the hot seat.
Let's hear him hold this administration's feet to the fire.
Many of these organizations that are represented in this room
have marked in lockstep on false narratives,
such as the Very Fine People hoax, the Covington smear,
and now what's being called
the Maryland man hoax.
I'm wondering if you can comment
on the unprofessional behavior.
Wow.
Wow.
Now that's a great question.
Everyone in this room sucks.
Do you care to comment?
Okay.
Okay, so the Trump administration
has brought in the perfect weapon,
someone who can attack the media from within the media.
He's like a wolf in sheep's clothing
if that clothing came from Hot Topic.
You know what? You know what?
Looks can be deceiving.
If he has White House credentials,
I'm sure he brings the dignified, well-sourced positions
that we expect from qualified journalists.
You've got stories of migrants drilling cats
and slaughtering mammals in the street.
The left are like, women only get paid 73 cents on the dollar
for what a man makes.
But at the same time, you have this trend of ladies' nights
where at bars women get discounts when they buy drinks.
So spare me, dude.
Because of trans issues, we must refer to the vagina
as the front hole.
Whoa!
What?
I can't believe what my upper side holes are hearing!
My middle face hole is a cape!
My back hole is clenched.
Are we all caught up here on how we're doing?
You know what? This is just how new media talks.
If you're offended by that, you're stuck in the old legacy media world
and don't understand what an alpha this guy is.
He's cool, tough, and you know what? The ladies love him.
We're gonna end up with a generation of women
who view almost all men as inadequate.
I think it's crazy that I'm about to be 34
and I have no family.
You know what the problem is, though?
It's definitely not me.
I think it's everybody else.
You know, I'm going to play this hand blind
and say it's definitely you, Tim.
Hello. I'm gonna play this hand blind and say it's definitely you Tim In fairness, I'm sure it's hard out there for guys who look like Joe Pesci's home alone stunt double fair if I
Fine, he's not great at analyzing his love life
But that doesn't mean he isn't great at analyzing the political landscape and telling us not just what's happening, but what's going to happen
next.
Like the predictions he made about January 6th, two days prior.
Newsweek says exclusive threat of pro-Trump violence in Washington overshadows inauguration
security plans.
Oh, I just love the depravity of these news outlets.
When did Trump tweet,
go get violent and instigate violence?
Trump said, be there, it'll be wild.
What does that even, I'm having a party,
everybody better be there, it's gonna be wild.
What does that mean?
Does that mean we're gonna bring guns
and it's gonna be violent?
No, it means we're gonna have a party.
Yeah!
That's right, bro!
And you know what they say, it ain't a party
until somebody drops a deuce at Nancy Pelosi's desk.
Yeah, fine, fine.
So new media's Tim Pool was wrong about January 6th.
He's not a mind reader,
even though he dresses like a street magician.
Still, still, Tim can promise you this.
He brings you the unbiased and unfiltered truth.
The news you're getting comes straight from me
and straight from the source.
I don't have a political agenda.
Bringing real news and not narrative to all of you.
Exactly.
It's truth to table journalism.
Immune to propaganda and outside influence,
Tim Poole is an honest man who cannot be bought.
Popular far-right American influencer Tim Poole is an honest man who cannot be bought. Popular, far-right American influencer Tim Poole,
unwittingly paid by Russian state media company RT
as part of an operation to influence American politics.
Poole promoting pro-Russian narratives on a host of issues. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Are you saying I shouldn't trust a man who dresses like a divorced ghost hunter? What?
Whoa.
Whoa.
No.
You know what?
These, these, these news reports can say whatever they want to say, but I'm sure he's not blatantly
shilling for Russia.
Ukraine is the enemy of this country.
Ukraine is our enemy.
Being funded by the Democrats, I will stress again,
one of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine.
We should rescind all funding and financing,
pull out all military support,
and we should apologize to Russia.
Wow.
Now that is customer service.
Come on, Tim, you're better than this.
These allegations are true. I'm outraged!
You can't be pushing Russian propaganda.
It doesn't matter how much they're paying you.
A new report claims that during the 2024 campaign,
Russian state media funneled $100,000 per episode to Tim Pool.
$100,000?!
F*** me in my front hole!
Whoa!
Whoa!
Whoa!
All right, all right.
So what have we learned here today?
We learned that Tim Pool has been compromised
by Russian interests.
However, the good news is I have not.
Give me a call, Vlad, for the right price. This face hole can be all yours.
Dasvidanya, comrades. I'm Jordan Klepper. Good night and seriously, good f***ing luck.
-♪
-♪
Thank you, Jordan. When we come back,
Leah Littman will be joining me on the show.
Don't go away.
Dasvidanya.
-♪
-♪
the
and author of the New York Times bestseller lawless please
welcome Leah L Lipman. -♪ -♪
-♪
-♪
-♪
You know how excited...
-♪
These people are so f***ing excited about constitutional law.
Yeah!
Incredible.
Thank you for coming on the show.
Your book, How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.
Explain vibes to me.
Okay, so by vibes, I kind of mean feelings and the political
talking points of the Republican Party that the
justices are laundering into the law or sometimes just
declaring to be the law. Yeah, so when they invalidated Joe
Biden student debt relief plan they announced.
They announced they didn't exactly have to follow the
law like what Congress enacted,
because student debt relief raised questions
that were personal and emotionally charged,
i.e. it triggered them.
And so that just became the law.
Are you saying the Supreme Court is...
can have feelings and is acting on those feelings?
I'm saying they are a bunch of snowflakes.
Oh, by notice.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
There's a lot of that in this.
And it is very refreshing to read and hear
on your podcast, Strict Scrutiny, hear people just talk
shit about the Supreme Court.
And is that OK to do that?
I think it's more than OK.
So one is I wanted to put this in a language
that even Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch could understand.
So we needed to make it accessible and whatnot.
But second is I think the Supreme Court is
this incredibly powerful and not well-understood institution.
And I wanted to make information about the Supreme Court
accessible.
I wanted to energize people to get
involved in learning more about the Supreme Court
and wanting to do something about it.
Um.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. This audience seems to know a lot about the Supreme Court,
but let's assume, let's assume that our viewing audience
and maybe even the host...
Laughter
...needs a refresher on what's actually happening
right now in the Supreme Court.
And talk to me not like a child.
Talk to me like a blob.
Okay.
Laughter
Okay, so here's the basic rule of Supreme Court Fight Club right now.
Great.
That's a movie.
I understand that reference.
There you go.
Okay.
So the basic rule is there is no discrimination against women, racial minorities, gays and
lesbians and trans people, but there is discrimination against white wingers or white right wingers,
and that kind of discrimination is everywhere,
and it's so prevalent that gives them the right
to discriminate against everyone else,
but you're not allowed to call it discrimination
because that's too mean to them.
Right. So that's what's happening right now.
That's the basic vibe, yes.
Well, look, Roe v. Wade was overturned,
and we're all reacting to that.
But I wonder, besides just reacting to that,
should we be looking forward?
And what else could they do?
They could do so much.
I mean, I worry that the next several decades
might look like a Hunger Games for liberal constitutional democracy.
So, after abortion, I think they are likely
to come after contraception.
I think they're likely to come after what remains
of the Voting Rights Act.
I think they are likely to come after what remains
of campaign finance regulation.
And so, I think that they are in a position
to really undo a lot of what is foundational
and important about our current democracy.
We're going to talk about what we can do eventually, but I want to keep digging into this and some
of the bleakness that exists.
And you talk about that in the book.
I feel like that's maybe a struggle you've had as an author is like, I have to share
with you the bleak shit.
And we'll talk about later maybe what we can do.
Let's talk a little about the 303 creative case.
And that was something that you illuminate really well.
And I think all of us could use a resummary
of what exactly happened there
and how that case was almost manufactured
to get a result that they wanted.
Yes, so this is a super wild case where the justices
basically feel entitled to create a bunch of rules and
indeed to make up cases so the case really went back to a
Berg fell versus Hodges which was the marriage equality
decision that invalidated laws that prohibited marriage
licenses for same-sex couples and in that that case, Justices Alito and Thomas
and the other Republican appointees threw a hissy fit
about how marriage equality was so unfair to people
who didn't think that gays and lesbians
should be able to get married.
You know, Justice Alito said it would facilitate
the marginalization of people with traditional views
about marriage and even said it called to mind the harsh treatment
of gays and lesbians in the past,
as if marriage equality was, like, the same thing
as not allowing gays and lesbians to get married.
But anyways, so, in that case, they said,
marriage equality is going to facilitate
First Amendment violations of those with traditional views
about marriage, and so when the justices announced that,
they are basically inviting people
to file First Amendment challenges
to civil rights protections for the LGBT community.
And that's what happened in 303 Creative.
There you had this organization,
the Alliance Defending Freedom,
get involved in this case where they found
a website designer that became a wedding website designer
that then became a religious wedding website designer
who then all of a sudden was very afraid
she was going to have to make a wedding website
celebrating same-sex weddings.
And so that was the case that kind of was sort of
before the Supreme Court,
even though she hadn't actually been asked
to design a website for a same-sex couple.
But why decide the case in front of you
when you can just play a little fantasy football?
And so in that case, the justices just declared that,
well, obviously refusing to make a wedding website
for a same-sex couple, that's not discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation.
Right, okay.
I can explain that if you want explain.
But...
I stopped listening, like, six minutes ago.
No, no, no. That's not true. That's not true.
Well, no, but, I mean, this is the challenge
of the subject you're in.
Yes.
This... We, as Americans, can't tune out.
Right. We have to be paying attention.
And you said fantasy football,
and I thought, did I make my trades this week?
Well, if we could trade some Supreme Court justices,
that would be great.
That would be great.
So, yeah, let's do that.
Supreme Court.
Let's do that.
Um, what level of justice do we lose
if we're artificially manufacturing cases?
Um, I think we lose all justice whatsoever,
because in that case, the justices just
declared that some set of people have
a right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
But we don't know what set of people
that is because the case involved an imaginary wedding
website designer.
And so we don't know exactly what group of people now has you know all of their
prejudices protected by the Constitution and so that case
has created this spillover or now a bunch of people are
asserting the right to discriminate right.
Let's switch gears for a second talk about
the code of ethics that either does or does not exist within
the Supreme Court, I mean some crazy stuff coming out with Clarence Thomas flying on private jets
and yachts and having an RV, a $19,000 Bible owned by Frederick Douglass, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh
were paid $30,000 to teach a two-week course.
Over and over there's all of these things.
What exactly is the code of ethics for the Supreme Court?
Do they have one?
It's a code of, like, non-ethics.
So they don't really have an actual code of ethics.
They wrote something about themselves.
They wrote a non-binding guidance document
and then wanted a big party to be thrown for them
because they fixed the entire problem.
But then not all of them even abide by that non-binding set of principles.
So basically they just kind of do whatever they want and they feel pretty
entitled to be kept men. And so... This is like what I said in high school that mom and dad I
think I should be in charge of my curfew. Right. They just get to make up the rules that apply to themselves
as they go along.
Are the courts underneath the Supreme Court,
is it the same for those courts?
No.
Those courts actually have some rules
that can be enforced against them.
But when you're a Supreme Court justice,
they just apparently let you do it, as someone once said, kind of.
You were a clerk at the Supreme Court.
I was.
I always assumed, as an American,
that this was kind of... they were the adults in the room,
that this is where things finally ended
and justice was served.
Right or wrong?
What's it like in there?
I think I know how you're going to answer.
Part of the goal of the book is to socialize people
in a different picture of the Supreme Court.
And we have a guy taking a literal chainsaw
to the federal government in electoral politics.
But he's not in the Supreme Court, correct?
Well, but here's the thing.
He's allegedly doing so on like bladder-damaging levels
of ketamine.
They're doing it stone cold sober.
They are just saying you can't have the Clean Power Plan
because there's a debate about climate regulation.
You can't have student debt relief
because that would be like the French Revolution.
And it triggers me.
You can't have the Voting Rights Act
because that's too popular.
And so they're doing the same thing.
It's just not getting the same kind of attention.
I mean, it almost sounds like we as a society have gotten soft,
but also so has our Supreme Court.
I think they have gotten soft.
They've also just gotten kind of lazy.
Like, they're not even trying.
We're in robes all day. I mean, it's kind of like...
I mean, it's kind of like... They're not even trying. We're in robes all day. I mean, it's kind of like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're not even trying anymore.
You know, they just declare things to be the law.
They make up new made-up theories with new made-up
exceptions, because why not?
You know, with six Republican justices on the court,
I think they feel like they have to try a little bit less,
especially with Donald Trump taking so much
of the attention away from them.
I respond really well to your passion
and your enthusiasm and your drive.
And I wonder where that comes from.
Inner rage and inner pettiness is some of it.
Yeah!
But there's something behind that.
Yes, okay.
I had a Candace Parker WNBA basketball champion on yesterday,
and I feel the same energy, and I ask her the same question,
but I'm curious where it comes from you.
Yes, so I grew up in a family where the women in my family
spoke very openly about what it was like to grow up in a world where women didn't have control over their own bodies,
experienced sexual violence, had to drop out of school.
And so seeing that world come back is very, makes me filled with incandescent rage, you
know, to hear that I don't get to have rights because apparently it's really hard for some men
to live in a world with feminism and women's rights,
which is basically what Justice Alito said
when he overruled Roe versus Wade.
He said, well, that case declared a losing side
and a winning side.
And it's like, my guy, you literally just described
how cases are decided.
There is a winning side and a losing side.
But I guess it's illegal when women win!
Well, one of... It's illegal when women win!
Well, one of...
It's really fun watching you talk shit to Justice Alito.
Listen to it and read about it.
Um... All right. All right.
Hey, Sam.
Uh...
I want to try to steer this
in a positive and somewhat solution-based conclusion. What can we do?
I mean one of the things you talk about in the conclusion is just start talking about this. When
you go to the dog park don't be afraid to share with people that you think the Supreme Court isn't
working right now. What else can we do? Yeah so I do think public information and education is a
big part of this. I don't think that the Democratic Party is going to lead on this.
So I think we need to build a movement of people
who understand what the Supreme Court is
and how it has changed and how it is changing the country.
More concretely, you know, I actually believe
in the power of talking shit and memes.
That's part of why I'm here.
But no, like seriously, these guys are so triggered
when they're criticized, and Elon Musk was basically shamed
and name-called out of the federal government.
So sometimes that stuff works,
and I feel like we should try it here too.
Great.
Wallace is available now. Leah Lippman, we'll be right back after this. That's our show for tonight.
Now here it is, your moment of zen.
Let's go back to this Musk Trump thing.
This is a bromance that appears to Brad Pitt. Let's go back to this Musk Trump thing.
This is a bromance that appears to perhaps be buckling a bit.
This bromance seems to be coming to a bit of an end.
Could it be?
Could the bromance be over?
A bromance turned a bro off?
Is the bromance over now, politically speaking?
I think the, probably the fun candlelight dinner part of the bromance is over, but they're
still friends.
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