The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Hunter Biden’s Laptop - Jordan Klepper Fingers the Conspiracy

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

It’s been a Fox News obsession for almost two years now: Hunter Biden’s laptop. But now that Republicans have retaken the House, Rep. James Comer and the House Oversight Committee are prepared to launch a full investigation into the laptop…except no one seems to know where the laptop is. In this episode, Jordan sits down with Deputy Director of Rapid Response from Media Matters For America, Andrew Lawrence, who breaks down the beginnings of this conspiracy theory. Jordan is later joined by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) from the House Oversight Committee who discusses his approach to the upcoming investigation. Later, journalist, author, and former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross offers her ideas on how the media should be fairly and accurately covering this case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, the weekly show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday?

I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. Here's a relatable question. Here's a relatable question. You ever get a job that you weren't totally qualified for? I know I have.

Turns out not everyone's cut out to be a thoracic surgeon. But maybe things would have turned out differently for me if I had a famous dad. Like if my dad was the president of the United States. This is the vocal point of the Republican conspiracy theory around Hunter Biden, that he used his connection to his dad, Joe Biden, to make money in overseas deals. And yes, obviously this is coming from the people who supported Donald Trump and his family as they milked every government connection they could for four years, like an Ocean's 11 movie if it took place during a Nickelodeon shopping spree. Now, if that reference is too far removed for you,

then apologies in advance, because the Hunter Biden story has so many references to things that seem fake, Cafe Milano, Sino Hawk, the Secret Willard Hotel Breakfast, that we probably should have made a Hunter Wickeye ahead of time, just to help you through it. This Jordan Clepper, CLEPT, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, today. We're gonna walk through the conspiracy theory known as Hunter Biden's laptop with a Fox News expert. Then Democratic congressman Jerry Connolly

will discuss the House's strategy responding to an investigation. And then Tiffany Cross will talk the media's responsibility. Before we even start, you should know that it's not even proven there is a laptop. There is a hard drive, copied from what a Trump supporter who owns a computer repair shop in Delaware says was a laptop that he handed over to the FBI, but nobody's seen a picture of it and... What the hell? Let's just take his word for it. The Hunter Biden laptop saga is a fantastical right-wing reverie concocted during the 2020 campaign by Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump and of course Fox News, which means it's inevitable that I heard the words Hunter Biden laptop constantly at Trump rallies, even if the people there didn't exactly know what it is. You can see on, you know, Fox and One American News about the laptop, the Hunter Biden's laptop and then all the corrupts and taking money from the laptop, the Hunter Biden's laptop, and then all the corruption taking money from the different countries, you know, from Russia and China. Then Joe Biden would do whatever these countries needed.

What did he do? Well, he, what, either what he did or did not do? What did it? What did he do? Well, it's yet to be determined exactly what he did. I saw pedophilia in China, something like that? Do you believe it? I don't know. We see about like the Hunter Biden scandal. What exactly happened with that? I think they found a laptop that had you know emails and who did it? Who did? Who did it? Who was the FBI? They found a laptop with like emails and pictures of you know Biden talking with like Ukraine and China about business thi did it something to happen? I mean conspiracy conspiracy, the conspiracy, the conspiracy, the conspiracy, the conspiracy, the conspiracy, the conspiracy, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii thiii thi thi thi thi that. Which Biden? Uh, Hunter Biden. Did it something to happen? I mean, conspiracy theorists would say that it's Joe Biden and Hunter Biden communicating

with, you know, outside countries on business deals and stuff like that. Are you calling him a conspiracy theor? That's just what he said. Right. Okay, let's help these private investigators out a little bit. Joining me today is Andrew Lawrence, the deputy director of rapid response at Media Matters for America. Basically that means he watches Fox News all day. Andrew, thanks for being here to talk about the laptop from hell. Yeah, of course, thank you for having me. I'm excited to finger this conspiracy with you. Oh, it sounds sexy when you say. It does. Hunter Biden is sexy. He is a sexy man. He's all over. If you're into to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. th. to. to. to. to. to. to. the the the the the thi. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. thi. thi. th. theaxxx. thi. th. thi. thoxxx. th. th. th. th. top. He is a sexy man. He's all over.

If you're into pin-up dudes and Fox News, he's your guy. I want to jump into it because House Republicans are about to become the majority and they've announced that they're going to investigate Hunter Biden. So let's start with just establishing who Hunter Biden is because some of the things Hunter Biden has done are probably not very becoming of a son of a public official, like using the Biden family name to make foreign business deals. Is that a good place to start?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to say that Hunter Biden is, you know, he's essentially a fail son, I think. He's had a lot of tough things happen to him in his life. I think that it's fairly well known Joe Biden's history of tragedy with, I believe it was his wife dying in a car accident. I know Hunter was involved in that and, you know, that's something that's going to affect you. And then his brother Bo Biden as well, passing from cancer, not all that long ago. And that's sort when, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, that, it, it, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's, it's, it's, it's, it's that's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the. thi. that's the. that's that's thi. that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's thi passing from cancer not all that long ago.

And that's sort of when, according to what I've seen, his tailspin really began. But you know, I think you're right. Like, it is fair to say that there is some questionable things there. That Republicans and right-wing media are trying to glom onto this as some sort of giant scandal that's going to bring down Joe Biden and the Democratic Party is a little bit ridiculous. And I mean, there's so much to get into the weeds here. You know, you got into it a little bit with that nobody's really even seen this laptop yet. And here we are with months and months. What's it been like two years now since this first came up? I mean, I think it is fascinating.

Part of the reasons we wanted to cover it, one, I'm running into people on the road and it's always a go-to Hunter Biden. And more than not, the stuff that I run into with people on the road, what is the dodge, what is the quickest thing you can grab a hold on to. say what Hunter Biden's laptop contains. But I think it is fascinating because I also think on the left, the left is trying as hard as they can not to address what is potentially on this laptop and some of the allegations which are some some dire allegations. Now I need a download on what I need to know about this, where the reality is, where we should be suspicious and what is the

bullshit people are slinging at the board to try to distract you from something else. So you're helping me out here with Hunter Biden. I do think it is important to point out, it is true. He's gone through a lot of tragedy in his life. We've seen images, he's been a foreign lobbyist, is that correct? Yes. And that's where some of this this drama starts to too... And he's currently under investigation. And I believe it's tax fraud. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but it's something like that. And I think that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's a that's a that's a their thrownhea thihe's thrownhe's thrownhom, the throwneou-a'a'er. throwneoumireneneneneneuoomomoomoomoomoomoomoomoomoomoomoomoomomomoomomoomomomomoomomomomomomomomomomomom. th. thiheunenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenenene. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. the. the. the. that's that's the. the. that's that's the. the. When they talk about Hunter Biden being under investigation, it's, I want to belittle

tax fraud, God bless, investigate that tax fraud. Not for me, though. And all of my tax fraud comes from imbecility. I really don't know the stuff that Republicans are arguing. So we got nepotism, we got corruption, we got hardware repair, we got Ukrainian gas companies. What does that say about the nature of this conspiracy theory? Well I think, you know, we can take this.

The Hunter Biden laptop is like the latest thing, right? And so you had in this, every election, it seems the Republican Party and conservative media are looking for something to grab hold of. And you said it yourself earlier that people are fired up about this, but they don't really know why, right? They know Hunter Biden's laptop is something that they should be upset about and that there's something nefarious there. But you can take a look back at, you know, the, her emails, same thing. You know, nobody really knew what was wrong with that, but they knew that there was something wrong with it. It proved her untrustworthiness.

Same thing with, you can go back to- It also proves how little people know about technology. The fact that you could say emails and laptop, it's as if America is just a bunch of 74-year-old grandparents who lost a remote and are like, I don't know, it's crazy. It's the witches and devils, right? That's who controls the magnets. It's the magnets. Who could ever figure these things out? But you just describe the Republican base right right there, right? And so they hear Hunter Biden. They hear laptop. And it just just just just just just just just just just just just just. the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. th. th. the the the th. the the their, their, their, their, th. their, their, their, their their their their their their their their their their their their. their. their. their. their. their. 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. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the th. the the the the the th hear Hunter Biden, they hear a laptop, and it just sounds nefarious. And then, all right, and then you throw into, this was uncovered by a laptop repairman

who contacted the FBI and talked to the FBI. And you know, it all, the deep states involved in this now. And it's although these little buzzwords, they've spent years making these into things that Republican voters just have a reaction to, a visceral reaction just hearing these words. You know, at this point, and I know we're going to get into the investigations and stuff like that, but if you remember back with Benghazi, I believe it was Kevin McCarthy, he was bragging about how there would not have been her emails without the Benghazi investigations. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable.

But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not thought. And that's really the point of this. They want to investigate this laptop just so they can find something to go after Joe Biden and by extension the Democratic Party with. Fun, exciting. So let's figure out what they're going to find. So let's break this down. 2019, there's three water damage laptops that allegedly Hunter Biden brings to a Delaware computer repair shop. And the shop owner who is a Trump supporter sees the receipt.

It's from Hunter Biden. Allegedly he starts going through some of these files, notices some pictures. He's also legally blind too. The shopkeeper is. Right. And he can't, he can't confirm that it was actually Hunter that dropped it off. But there is a receipt with what looks to be Hunter's signature, so give them the benefit of the doubt. So, okay, yes, there's a receipt. And supposedly, Hunter doesn't pay for the repair tooer, and therefore, this is where things

get legal. Now there's a moral question here too, but the laptop, multiple laptops are left there for past 90 days, so they become the owner of the repair shop, it's now his laptop. Yes, it's his property bylaw. So he starts going through this stuff and he starts finding pictures, he starts finding emails, like what happens next after he sort of connects the dots of whose laptop this supposedly is and what he might have on it. Okay, so this guy's name is John Mack Isaac, and like you said, he's a conservative Trump supporter. This is all, like you said, you know, 2019, it's important to sort of set the time frame as well.

This is a month, I think, maybe three weeks before the election, something like that. So he's deep into this world of right-wing politics, conservative media. He's very worried about the deep state, but he talks to his dad about it, who I believe was formally in the Army, I believe. I might be wrong about that. But his dad recommends that he contacts a local FBI field office. So he does that. The FBI comes by and apparently they seized the laptop. And that's it. That's the last time that's that that that that that that that that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's th that's th th thi thi the thi the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the laptop the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the the. the the the. the the. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi. thi. thee. thee. the. thee. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. the. the. the laptop. And that's it.

That's the last time that the laptop was ever actually seen. Mr. Isaac made copies of the laptop and put it onto a hard drive. And then at that point, you know, it's just him handing it off, trying to contact Giuliani. I know Steve Bannon ended up with a copy of it. And then you end up with Bannon contacting the New York Post and that's sort of how this became a thing. What does he think he has to begin with? He's got a laptop, it's Hunter Biden, but what does he thinks on the laptop that's worthy of getting it to Steve Bannon?

Now, according to him, he pretty much ignored the salacious pictures, the salacious details, things like that. They say that this thing's got a ton of that, right? That all years and years of pictures of Hunter with in sexually compromising positions, using drugs, things of that nature like that. That's on there. So he claims he's not interested in that. He's not interested in that. He's not interested in that. He's. He's. He's th. They's. He's. He's. T th. They's. T. They's. T. T. They's. T. They's. T. They's. They's. T. They's. T. They's. T. T. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's thi. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's they's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. They's th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. theeeeea. thi. the thea. the the thea. the the the thea. the the. the. the of that nature like that. That's on there. So he claims he's not interested in that. He's not interested in that. He says what he's interested in more is the emails particularly about foreign policy type stuff, hunters dealings with agents of, say China.

And there was Burisma was the one thing that he was really focused on according to Isaac, according to the repairman. And Berismo was an energy company where Hunter received, I mean it's basically a no-show job, a million dollars a year, you know, a no-show job, which again, which is, you know, look, that sucks. And, and, I mean, not for him, not for him. For him, it's great. But that's like, I mean, welcome to America, right?

Like, I mean, yeah, like, the sons of politicians get a million dollar a year no-show jobs. So it's not really that big of a scandal, but that's what they're trying to turn it into, you know. And I'm not too much into, like, what about but I mean we're talking about a few months after Ivaka gets those those trademarks in China for whatever it was 20 million dollars you know things like that so at that point it's it's it becomes Burisma and honestly before this interview before before I started researching this stuff again I totally forgot about Barisma that that was that was the big talking point that they're try to to to to to to to the the the th I I I I I I th I th I thI I thi I thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi tho. thi thi thi. thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I was the. I was the. I was the. the. I was the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea. theea. theea. theee. talking point that they were trying to get stick before that. And I think it is a good point.

It shows just how broken this system is. I think it is true. I think folks on the left need to look at this and there's some shady stuff that happened. But it didn't look like there was a connection between Joe Biden having influence and the money that was paid to his son. Correct? Is that sort of where it stood? Yes, yeah, and it doesn't show that, but so now what they're doing is they need a thing, right? Conservatives just need a thing that they can repeat and what they can say. And you know, I don't know if you remember, I think there was only one presidential debate, but in that debate, Donald Trump kept yelling, the thak, thak, thiiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thui, thui, thu, thu, thu, thu, thr-is, thr-a, thu-a, thu-a, thu-a, thu-a, thu-a, thu-a, thu-is thu, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, throooooooooan, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, thi, thi, thi, big guy? And that's because there was an email where Hunter said, I'm gonna set up a meeting with the big guy. And conservatives are just like, all right, that proves,

that's Joe Biden. Joe Biden is meeting with his business partners. Joe Biden is taking money. You know, they say that's a scandal there but it's not like we're impeaching Joe Biden over this stuff, you know. And yet, yeah, we're probably going to be impeaching Joe Biden over all of this stuff. Eventually, yeah. Yeah, so at that point, is that the smoking gun when people are talking about what is the,

are they pointing to this, this email that says, and maybe, am I correct that there's maybe a couple emails that reference, one, the big guy, a meeting with the big guy that perhaps Hunter could have. Was that with, because there's there's Berisma, which is Ukraine, Ukrainian gas company, yes. But then we also had, there's a Chinese, there's Chinese money in there. There was a Chinese company as well. Yeah, that was in there as well. Chinese company, they're paying money to Hunter and also Joe's brother? Is that correct? And yeah, I mean the whole family is kind of mixed up. I mean, this is shitty. This is, what are we doing? Where, we're a good, clean politician? So, Joe's brothers maybe getting money from China, hunters may be getting money from China.

I think the timeline is important here too because they're maybe getting money after Joe's out of power. When he wasn't in office, right. So technically, even if Joe's getting money at that point, not illegal, but not ideal. No, not illegal, and certainly not ideal. I mean, I think that's definitely fair. But, you know, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, that's, that's, that's, that's that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, th. th. that's, th. throw. tho. tho. that's, tho. tho. tho. that's, that's, that's, that's, know, I mean, we're talking about this. It's like, all right, if you want to make, make that type of stuff illegal,

like make it illegal, but it's just, it's not right now. And so, that's the world we live in, you know, and it sucks. Like it sucks, but that's where we're that's where that's Medio echo chambers started to elevate the story. Yeah, so, you know, there was, when this story first broke, this had been shopped around a lot. By, I'm pretty sure it was Giuliani, I guess, at that point, shopping this around, Wall Street Journal turned it down, so they turned it, they went with the New York Post, who ended up running the school. And so why are they turning it down? This is even...

Because you can't even... I mean at that point you can't verify that it's even actually the laptop, right? And again, like we got to remember like what we're coming off from in 2016 with just the flood of misinformation and nonsense. And you know I've worked on some pretty big political campaigns. And in the last few weeks of the election, the press isn't going to just take something like out of the blue that hasn't been vetted or verified,

or at least most of the presses, you know? Well, the press at this point was spook because of what happened with Hillary and And this type of thing, there's just no way to vet it. I mean, you need time to verify that this is true, that there's actually a scandal here, and we're three weeks in. So I'm pretty sure that's why Wall Street Journal didn't run it. So the major media outlets are not running with this. They're scared to run with it.

But now, here we are, a couple years later looking back at this. Even this week, CBS News has verified parts of information that's on the hard drive. They still don't have a laptop, correct? Right, yes, correct. It seems as if there is some verification of what was potentially there. And there's already criticism of at the time, Facebook was limiting the amounts of stories that were showing up around Hunterbinds. Nobody could share it, I think. I don't think anybody could share it. You couldn't share, right? I think, and that was Zuckerberg at the at that point had been told

by the FBI careful because Russian misinformation is all over the campaign or there's a potential for it. So be on the lookout for it. Like in hindsight, was there more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the campaign or there's a potential for it so to be on the lookout for it. Like in hindsight, was there more there than the media gave credit to? All right, maybe there was more there there there, but the, what, like, just looking back at 2016, the firestorm that would have come out, there was no controversy known at that time other than like just Hunter Biden has a laptop, right? And the way that conservative media the there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was the there was no there was no the there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was no there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there there was there there there was there was there was th. there was th. there was thi tho thi. tho. tho. I tho. I tho. I to to to tho. tho. tho. tho. the. the. tho. the. the. Hunter Biden has a laptop right and the way that the conservative media and right-wing media works in unison it would have drowned out everything else you know but it's about that that Steve Bannon flood the zone with shit strategy you know you just keep throwing stuff out there and I mean you've got to give conservative media credit for the way that they all reply in unison and they can make a thing yeah the the the flood the flood the flood the f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f the the the the the the the th of of of of of of of of of of th of th of th of th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the way that they all reply in unison, and they can make a thing out of nothing. Yeah, I mean, yeah, the flood the zone of the shit, Bannon strategy, this feels like this

was, this had so much shit you could put into that zone. Yeah, yeah. And that's, you know, that's something that he actually admitted. He said, um, Hunter Biden's laptop, you put your own obsessions into it, you know, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. This, th. This, th. This, th. This, th. This, th. This, th. This, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thr. threat. threat. th. threat. th. threat. th. th. threat. th. threat. th. th. th. th, he went, he went after the China thing. For other people, it was the drugs and the women, you know, and for other, and you just put whatever it is that you, that is your obsession, you channel that into like, oh, that Hunter Biden's laptop proves that that's real. I love it. It's a Maga Rorsch. Yeah, exactly. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It's th. It's th. It's thrown, it was th. It was th. It was th. It was the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was. It was. It was. It's, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was th. It's, it was thrown. thrown. thrown. It was thrown. It was thrown. It was th. It was thrown. It was th. It was their their their their their th. It stare into it, see your peccadillo staring right back at you. I think that was fascinating. When Bannon has talked about it, correctly if I'm wrong, he had some moral issues with the idea of putting out some of these pictures of Hunter. I mean, this is a man's privacy.

It's his personal pictures. For all the pictures of him with illicit drug use, there's pictures of like his brother's gravesite. There's all these personal emotional moments that this person put on their laptop and then now somebody else has. They have their search histories, they have all these types of things. And I believe Ban encountered that with, but we're at war. Yes. So you do it. And I think that's what's so fascinated and where we're so fucked right now because there are legitimate things to be curious about with this information and we should be critical of people who have close connections to powerful people. But when it's approached by operatives

who treat this not as an investigation towards justice but as war, then then what you have is people acting with warlike tendencies who will stop at nothing to only win that benefits their side. And that doesn't benefit justice, it benefits the person who is fighting that general. And at that point, that's somebody like Steve Bannon who's trying to rip people off for building a new wall on the Mexico border at the same time. Right. Well, and you' thine thine thine thine thine thine thine that thine that that thine that thine that thine thine thine thi thi that that thi thi thi's thi's thoomomom-a thoom-n't thoes tho-n't the the tho-n't tho-n't tho-n't tho-n't tho-ne tho-ne tho-ne the the the the thoes the thoes thoes thoes thoes tho tho tho th th. th th th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho the the the the the the the to to to to to to to to to to toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooe to to the at the same time. Right. Well, and you have to understand, like, they're not just demanding that the press cover Hunter Biden's laptop, they're demanding that they cover it right now, the way that I want you to, you know, and like these outlets, they do have a responsibility to vet this stuff and make sure that it's true before putting it out there, especially, you know, and I don't don't don't don't th don't th don't th don't th don't th don't th don't th th the don't the the the the thin don't thin thin thin thin the the the the the the the the the that the the the the that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're theanan. thean. thean. the to sway the election. Fast forward, a couple months from now,

investigations into the laptop. Is that a good idea? For Republicans, I mean, yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you? That's just like targeting this one guy who is just taking advantage of the system that like we have created, right? And so I- But that guy, but that guy is the president son? There is, there are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are connections, their their their their their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi... thi. thi.. thi..................................................... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. th. th. th. th. th. th so I... But that guy, but that guy is the president son? Yes. There are connections there to some degrees. And we should know there's no corruption, right? We absolutely should. At the same time, this is the system that we've got. And like if you don't want nepotism babies or or the

children of wealthy and powerful politicians to get wealthy and powerful jobs, then like we need to change the way way the way th. the way the way th. the way the way. the way. the way. the way. the way. the way. the way. the way. th. th. the way. th. th. th. th. And, th. And, th. And, to, to, to, thi. And, thi. And, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, wealthy and powerful jobs, then we need to change the way that we do things overall. And it's not just him. And it's not just the Trump kids either. I mean, look at the way, look at the way that people, the Democrats buy stocks and then pass legislation. Like, this is, it's everywhere. And so that's why I feel feel just going after this one guy is It's so disingenuous, you know And but yes, we should know if there's corruption. Yeah, we should know and and if he did anything illegal We should be in jail of course if America is going to look into the Rorschach test that is Hunter Biden's laptop.

What do you think America begins to see and begins to pull out? It's gonna be it is I mean what we're gonna see the th. the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It's. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to pull out? It's going to be, it is, I mean what we're going to see, there might be something there, but what I think is that we're just going to see bullshit from Republicans. They're going to look for meetings that Hunter tried to set up with his dad, you know, and then do those companies, well do they have connections to Zelensky or, you know, I mean, and then, and then, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and, and, and, and, and, they, th Zelensky or do they have connections to Fauci or you know I mean you had the guy who found the laptop Isaac He thinks that it shows it might show proof that Hunter Biden is responsible for the COVID pandemic that he was involved in the Wuhan Institute of virology and that that that it that he was he was responsible for creating COVID and unleashing it like this is fun now we're talking now we're getting some this is yeah can we tie him to COVID it's gonna become a fun parlor game

pretty soon we're gonna be playing this at Christmas where it's like can you connect Hunter Biden to COVID okay can you connect to the nets having a subpar season this year I'm sure there will be car a there there there the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to be to be to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. It's t. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. the. the. th. th.this year. I'm sure there will be caravan, there will be immigration connections, you know, that they'll, it's 10 degrees of separation. All they need is to find something that maybe connects to George Soros, you know, and then all of a sudden,

like, oh, Hunter Biden is involved in the great replacement theory, you know, it's, it's go, but I can tell you it's going to be a lot of bullshit, you know. I like what it's done to the Trump family, specifically the kids. I mean, it's amazing to watch Don Jr. criticized Hunter Biden for saying, like, how he wishes his name was Hunter Biden so he could make money off his father's name, which is a beautiful thing for somebody like Don Jr. to yearn for, as if that wasn't already the game plan from day one. Make a ton of money and do absolutely nothing except say, hey, you can meet my dad. That's a disgusting trade, right? Absolutely. Nepotism needs to be looked into big time. Yes. What do you think about Ivanka? Oh, she's so gracious. She's the thiiiii's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's to to to thi to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi to make money off of that? Absolutely. Nepotism needs to be looked into big time. Yes. What do you think about Ivanka? Oh, she's so gracious. Yeah, yeah, totally amazing. I mean,

it's just the hypocrisy is amazing. But like, that's never bothered them before, you know, and we're seeing reports of the foreign government spending $150,000 at Trump Hotel, you know, and things like that. And it's like, that that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's thiii, thii. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi, thi. thi, thi, thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin. thi. thin, thin, thi. thi and things like that. And it's like, that's why I have an issue which is like going after this one person, this is, you know, a hunter, you know, just targeting him because he's the president's son essentially. And like, I mean, that shouldn't happen, but like, we need to be consistent here as well, I guess. How should the media responsibly cover this as we move forward? Essentially what this is and what they need is you said, you know, when you go to a Trump

rally, people are upset about Hunter Biden's laptop and they're not sure why. That's all they need. They need people to be upset about this, you know, and that's really all it's about. And the investigations, you ask what they're going to uncover, I mean, Lord only knows where this is going to go, but where it's really going to go is just keeping that drumbeat going to keep that buzzwords, Hunter Biden's laptop, to get that reaction from the base, you know, that you're seeing at rallies right now. Fox News has been pushing this story for a couple years now and recently did a mock trial of Hunter Biden. What the hell was that all about? At what point did you decide, sir, to contact, to contact, to contact, to contact, to contact, to contact, to contact, the federal, the federal, the federal, to contact, the federal, the federal, the hell was that all about? At what point did you decide, sir, to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation about this matter?

When the laptop became my property, in late July, I proceeded to kind of research what was on it to make sure that what I had seen was what I perceived as criminal activity. God, I forgot about that. Oh my God, it was so funny. It was so funny. Yeah, and they had like a whole jury and everything. And Judge Joe Brown was the judge. Well, tell me before we let you go, walk me through a little bit, as somebody who watches this,

for folks who aren't watching Hannity cover this and amplify this story, how has Hanody taken to this in the last few years? It is, I mean it's just the nonstop drumbeat, you know, and I think what you have to understand about Sean Hannity is his show is just like a stream of right-wing consciousness. It is just these buzzwords, it's Nellie-or, it's the FBI lovebirds. I mean, he still talks about Hillary Clinton's emails, you know. And so he is, he really is, more so than anybody else on that network, I think, he is the king of these bullshit conservative buzzwords, you know, and throwing him that. What are the buzzwords he's, what are the ones he's creating for the Hunter Biden story? Well, it was Barizma, you know, a couple years tha a tha, a tha, a tha, a tha, a thia, a thia, a thia, a tho, a tho, a thi thi thi thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, more thi, more thi, more thi, more thi, more thi, more thi, a more thi, a more thi, a more tho, a more tho, a tho, a tho, a tho, a tho, a tho, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, a thi, more thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. Hea. Hea. Hea. Hea. Hea thi thi thi. Hea thi, more more more isma, oil and gas company, and zero experience hunter is 50 year old son.

And Berisma, zero experience hunter got millions. And that's not all. The report even found evidence linking zero experience hunter to allege human trafficking. Quid pro quo Joe, zero experience hunter, Berisma. Now if you're not, hunter barisma now if you're not if you're not in that bubble in that conservative bubble what that refers to he got the burisma deal you know a million dollar a year no show all the other boards that he said on you know but zero experience hunter that's shot handity's thing you know he just keep saying it over and over again and then he uses this as as an example of the FBI being out of control the d. the the DOe. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to to to to to to to to to to to to toe. the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the th. the the the the the the the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the. the. the the. the the the. the. the. the. the. the. to the. the the the th. an example of the FBI being out of control, the DOJ targeting conservatives and not going after Democrats, how there's no such thing as equal justice

under the law in America. I mean, I could do an entire Sean Hannity monologue right now, like just based off Hunter's laptop, because it's the same thing every single night. But what Hannity understands is that repetition. It's that repetition that that the people people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people But what Hannity understands is that it's that repetition. It's that repetition that leads to the people outside the Trump rallies being upset about Hunter Biden's laptop, you know? You say this stuff over and over and over again, it just becomes accepted as truth. Same thing that, that, you know, crime and inflation are going to be the top issues in the election, you know, it's just, they keep th keeps thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean, thii. theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee thi, thi, thi. the election, you know, it's just they keep saying that stuff and it becomes the reality and yeah, zero experience Hunter would definitely be Hannity's favorite buzzword

though on this. And I, you know, I deal with this as well. It's that balance between like, this is hilarious. This is so funny versus like this is dangerous and like actually scary that so that so many people, thiii. it. And it's you know it's about the conservative movement taking advantage of those people I think more than anything else. How much is that an element in the Hunter Biden story? Because again what does get glossed over is this is a man's private cache of his communications, his search histories and his relationship

with his family and his loved ones, it is something to just dump out everything that was on your phone around your laptop for the world to see. It feels like we don't even grapple with the idea of whether or not we should, we just jump right to whether or not we could. Right, yeah, exactly. And it's, you know, as far as I know, like you said, this laptop, if it is his laptop, it seems to be acquired's, you know, as far as I know, like you said, this laptop, if it is his laptop, it seems to be acquired legally, you know, but it's horrifying. And we saw this, we've seen them do this quite a bit, actually.

If you remember Peter Strach and was, at Lisa Page, I think, like, their sexi and became public and was thrown up on Fox News every single night, you know. They will do this this, if if it it thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, if thi, if thi, if it is thi, if it is thi, if it is thi, if it is thi, if it is thi, if it is thi, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, if it is, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. And, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. public and was thrown up on Fox News every single night, you know. They will do this if they have an opportunity. I think there was also, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but Biden's daughters, a diary was stolen. And that never came out because there's serious legal implications into that right now. But Tucker Carlson has seen it. And he sits there and he regurgitates parts of it and stuff like th and stuff th and stuff, I think she was pretty young, maybe late teens, early teens when she was writing

this and, you know, if you watch Tucker, he'll throw in every single once in a while, he'll throw in that Hunter used, or Joe used to shower with his daughter, because apparently there's a passage in there about that when she was younger, which you know, but, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th... th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, th...... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. he, you, you, you he. he. he's, you, you, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, t. the. the. they don't care. They don't have morals. And that's why it's so silly for, you know, when when Steve Bannon said like, yeah, it kind of feels gross, but like we're at war. Like, no, that's just your justification for doing it. Like, I don't think it feels gross to Bannon. You know, he's a gross disgusting guy. thi, you know, he's a gross, thi disgusting, thi disgusting, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when thi, when thi, when thi, when si, when si, when si, when s' s' s' s' s' s' s' s' s'a, the, the, the, the, they's they's they's they's they's they's they's thi. thi. thi. I you know the the the Bannon's and the Tuckers and the Hannity's you know they really speak towards family values and bringing back the morality to America and civility and how are you gonna smash the pedophiles if you don't go through the diary of a teenager. Thank God that they're all very normal people. Oh thank you. Yeah, thanks. than. thro. th tho. that that than. than. than. than. than. than. than, Andrew, Andrew, than, than, Andrew, than, than, than, than, than, than, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha. that, tha, tho-a, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, they. And, they. And, they. And, thr. And, thea. And, tha. tha. thau. thau. thau. thau. today, today, today, today, tha. to. to. today, today, today, today, thank you for talking to us. Yeah, of course, Jordan. This was so much fun, man. I really appreciate it. After the break, I'll be joined by Congressman Jerry Connolly. We'll be talking about his role on the House Oversight Committee

and how he plans to approach the investigation on Hunter Biden's laptop. Hey, everybody. John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, it's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting, you'll be saying to yourself, TGID, thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me, the election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.

And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance, it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to Jordan Clepper Fingers the Conspiracy. We're talking about Hunter Biden's laptop because Republicans won the House and apparently that's the issue that they think Americans care about the most. To be clear, Joe Biden is the big guy. This evidence raises troubling

questions about whether President Biden is a national security risk and about whether he is compromised by foreign government. That was James Comer, the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee announcing the upcoming investigation into Hunter Biden and the laptop. For those of you who think government committee hearings are dry and sterile, I have one word for you. Ben-Gazi. You can bet all your crypto that House Republicans will use the Hunter-Biden hearings to make it seem like an explosive scandal worthy of impeachment. So we're going to

talk to a Democrat who sits on that committee right now to see what that's going to be like. How fun! Congressman Jerry Connolly and Virginia, thanks for joining the podcast. My pleasure, Jordan. So Congressman, it's a guarantee that these hearings are going to get coverage in the mainstream media, which means there's going to be a lot of baseless allegations coming from Republicans that will be aired on news channels, and there's only so much fact-checking that journalists can do. Do you see your role on this committee as part fact-checker? Oh yeah, we've been through this before. And I think it's really important Joy to put it in context, right, right, right, right, right, right, the context, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, their, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, and, and, thi, and, thi, and, and, thi, and thi, and thi, thi. And, thi. And, to to to to to-s. And, to-s. And, to-s. And, to-s. And, to-s. And, to-s, to-s, thi. And I think it's really important to put it in context, right? So when the Republicans were in the majority last time and we had a Democrat in the White

House, President Obama, for six years they breathlessly presented and the media unfortunately was complicit in giving them exactly what they wanted, headlines, endless, breathless stories. Hillary Clinton's emails, you mentioned Benghazi, Lois Lerner and the IRS, Fast and Furious, Obamacare, you know, funding the solar, solar energy and the great scandal of the waste of all of that. Not one of those so-called investigations led to anything. Anything. Not an indictment, not a trial. I mean, it was all, you know, sound and fury. All done for one purpose to undermine two political figures, President Obama and Hillary Clinton. And unfortunately, the mainstream figures, President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

And unfortunately, the mainstream media, as you point out, doesn't spend much time doing fact-checking itself. And, you know, they'll ask people like me, well, you know, well, Congressman, you know, they assert, they allege. And I'm thinking, well, even framing a question that way gives it credence when there may be none. The supposition behind that question is completely false, based on either fabrication, distortion, insinuation or no facts whatsoever. And that doesn't seem to matter. And so it kind of puts us at a disadvantage when we even get asked those questions,

it's not unfair to ask them, but it sure would be nice that the media took a little responsibility now and then, instead of absolving itself and allowing the insinuation, that there's something to this. So, I mean, you know what's coming. What is your strategy? Are you going to attempt to discredit the very nature

of this investigation itself? Do you call attention to the Fox News fever dream that this whole thing is? Or do you admit that there are some elements of Hunter Biden's activity that is, of itself worth investigating? I'm certainly not in advance going to concede anything they're asserting is worth investigating and I am going to spend a lot of time talking about what should be investigated that they don't want to talk about. For example, in the same press conference

where you cited you know James Comer said well why don't we just stick with Hunter Biden? That's what I want to, that's really what I want to focus on. My last question is, what are the grounds to investigate? If we can keep it about Hunter Biden, this is kind of a big deal, we think, if we can keep it about Hunter Biden, that would be great. He admitted, he didn't want to focus on the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the fact the Moralago against the law and

lied about it and is being investigated as we speak for criminal behavior with respect to that. Well I thought you wanted genuine oversight. That's a genuine oversight issue. Now of course the world is replete with with similar genuine oversight issues when it comes to Trump and his accolades and his administration, not one of which, not one of which Republicans want to look at. They never supported a single subpoena when they were in the majority and Trump was in the White House for anything having to do with oversight of the Trump administration, not one.

Well, we may need to elect an entire House of Representatives to do with oversight of the Trump administration, not one. Well, we may need to elect an entire House of Representatives to deal with the issues and investigate all of those Trump-era issues. But I guess I'm curious, like, it's always easy for us to, for both sides, to point out what the other side should be looking into. And I think this is, it's pretty clear in a situation like this. However, there are details within this Hunter thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, the their their their their their, their, their, thoomomomom, thoom, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, th. thi, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It, th. It, th. It, th. It, th. It, th. It is, th. It's, thi, thi, thi, thi. It's, to, toe. It's, too. It's tooooooooooooooooooooooooo. And, toe. And, toe. It's the. It's th. And, this. However, there are details within this Hunter Biden story that do rub people the wrong way. People on both sides of the aisle are skeptical of somebody who is this close to the President of the United States, being close to foreign governments at a time where the details are sketchy. Although we know it's going to be weaponized and you know the show that is going to be put on. What do you say to those people who are, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, the, the, the, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi,ized and you know the show that is going to be put on. What do you say to those people who are like I'm still I'm still nervous about

this situation and do think we should investigate that? Do you say yes we should but this is not the place where they will get a fair investigation or do you just discredit that idea on its surface? Well anyone who thinks that this would be a fair investigation, you know balanced fair, let's the the the truth, the truth, th. th. thiii. th. thi. thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I I thi, I I thi, I I thi, I I I thi, I I I thi, I I thi, I thi, I I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I's thi, I's thi, I'm thi, I'm thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thinks that this would be a fair investigation, you know, balanced, fair, let the truth come out, is smoking something, because that is not the motive of stop around the day. It is very clear, the Republicans have already, and been saying this for several years, right? Don't forget, it was Donald Trump who committed a criminal act. We felt, and he was impeached for it with respect to Hunter Biden

because he was extorting a foreign leader with our military assistance which now we know was badly needed in the Ukraine in order to get political dirt on hundred by so so the whole so-called investigation is tainted, going back to that, what Trump called perfect phone call. And so I'm not going to provide any legitimacy to that line of inquiry, unless something has presented to me that would qualify for, yeah, all right,

that's traveling, we ought to look at it. So I'm not gonna concede that at all in advance. And I am gonna point out that, you know, what little fact-checking has been done in the press about this, and I cite Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post, who's sort of their official fact checker. You know, they're looking at one email out of something like a hundred and twenty two thousand, uh, that is subject to interpretation. They're looking at some great scandal about keys,

to an office in Spain that Hunter Biden in fact never picked up, but that, you know, somehow that's a big conspiracy. I would say there's really thin rule here so far. And the idea that we're going to put the entire weight of the Oversight Committee of the United States Congress behind such anemic evidence and thing gruel worries me greatly, but as part of the pattern of my friends on the other side of the aisle going back to Dan Burton and Clinton. I mean, maybe this shows that it is a dying fire and these are the embers if we've gone from but her emails to but his email singular.

Maybe that's showing progress in some way. You bring up something interesting. You've been on this committee for years. Some of these Republicans, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, Andrew Clyde, they love a good conspiracy, they've denied the 2020 election was real. Spread January 6 conspiracy theories. How can you use your platform on the committee to help a viewer who maybe doesn't know their context? How do you let them understand the full context of where they're coming from? The good news about our process is when we have a markup for legislation or when we have a hearing, we Democrats get equal time.

And that's why the leadership of our committee is going to really matter. Can we co-hear and forge our voice as one to a pushback, get the facts out, tell the truth, and puncture their false narratives in an effective way. That is critical when you're in the minority and you're defending a Democratic White House. And if you don't do that, you know, they control the narrative. So fighting for control of the narrative and making sure that you repeat, rinse and repeat

when it comes to facts. Do not assume that having said it once, it's in everybody's head. That's not how human beings work. And in our media market today, given the multiplicity of sources of news, accurate and falls, and everything in between, you've got to really spend time making sure that the truth

penetrates consciousness and public opinion. What does that look like? What are some of the tactics there? I think about the January 6 hearings, which many people would say are have been effectively communicated. Perhaps the lesson there is just don't invite the other side of the table. It's really easier to get your point across. Perhaps it's the use of video, perhaps it's the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the tre tre tre tre truuice truice truths, truths, truths, truths, truths, truths, truths, truths, truthuths, truthuthuths, truthuthuths, truthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuths, truthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuthuth, trupepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepepe, tre, trupe, trupe, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truths, truths, truths, and te, and te, truths, and te, and te, te, tru, truth, truths, truths, truths, truth't invite the other side of the table. It's really easier to get your point across Perhaps it's the use of video. Perhaps it's just the repetition of baseline facts like are there Are there elements that you could draw from From from from from those hearings that you'd like to bring to the forefront here? I think we talk about Benghazi we talk about tho? the machine? to thrown. thin. the thin. the the thin. the the thin. the their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's just just. It's. It's just just. It's. It's just. It's just. It's just. It's just. It's just just. It's just just. the the the the the their. the the machine that is going to be behind this narrative so how do you get out ahead of it how do you change what Democrats did six years ago to be more effective in the upcoming year I don't think there's any one tactic but there are a lot of tools in the kit bag and one of

them is humor I can remember once they were you know you guys the Democrats the Democrats are going to rely on humor. you they they the they they the they they the they they they they the they they they the they they the they to to to to to the to the to the to the the the to the the the the to the they to to to to thi. I I to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be. I I I I I th. I thi. I thi. I thi. I'm. I'm. the the. the thi. the the the the the the. the the. the. the. the the. thi. thi. thi. I thi. the Democrats are going to rely on humor. Oh, oh my God, what are we doing? Congressman, I'll give you an example. Stick to your sweet spot. I'm sorry, I'm Irish and I know how to use humor. I'll give you an example. We had a career civil servant from IRS and the Republicans hauled her before our committee. They were in the majority majority. And her job was to enforce the provision of the Affordable Care Act that you would be fine if you didn't have health insurance. By the way, a provision that was a Republican idea that was enshrined in Romney care in Massachusetts

that we took on. But at every they just excoriated her. And I was getting agitated, waiting my turn. And I thought, there, th there, th there, th there, th there, th there, th there, th there, th there, thi there, thi there, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thi, thus, thus, thus, thus, tho-a, the provisioned, the provisioned, the provisioned, the provisioned, the provisioned, the provisioned, the provisioned, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, that, thooooo. thoooo. thooo. today, thooooo. thoo. thoo. tho getting agitated waiting my turn and I thought you know this is another bit of which I'm going to say that and then I thought you know that's not the effective way of making the point and they're looking for a headline tomorrow that's going to say Republicans accuse IRS official of you know subverting American freedom or something and so I I I when it came time to my turn I said to her so you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you th you th you th you th you th. th. th. they th. th. they're th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I th. I th. I th. There's th. There's th. There's th. There's th. There's th. There's th. I th. There's th. th. th. I th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm they're they're they're th. I'm they're they're they're they're th. I'm th. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I the. I the. I the. I the. There's th to my turn, I said to her, so you're under oath, she went yes. I said I want to remind you, you're under oath, she went okay. I said, have you been consorting with the devil? Not to my

knowledge, sir. Are reports that you can fly accurate? Uh, greatly exaggerated, sir. Have you been involved in any way in trying to pervert our youth in Salem or anywhere else? I certainly hope not sir. You're sure? Yes sir. The looks on their faces like what is it oh my god and because people were no laughing. Well the next day the headline instead of the one try to their faces, like what is, oh my God, and because people were now laughing. Well, the next day, the headline instead of the one the Republicans wanted was IRS officials denies consorting with devil. People were howling with laughter. It completely punctured their narrative.

So sometimes humor can be a tool too. But a lot of this is too serious, frankly, to I mean, honestly, what's so interesting. I, I, I hear th you you you you you you you you you you you th you th you the 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 the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I. the, I. the, I. the, I. the, I. the, I. the, I. the, I, I. the, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theool too. But a lot of this is too serious, frankly, to point. I mean, honestly, what's so interesting, because I hear you on that, and I do think it's almost, in an example like that, we've been talking a little bit about the Steve Bannon, flood the narrative with bullshit, get it out there. Like, how much of it is that? are we using humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor humor, that that to be to be to be to be to be to be a humor, to be a humor, to be a humor, to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be to be a to be a to be a to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be a to be to be to be a tool. tool. tool. tool. tool. too. too. tooom. tooom. tooom. tooom. tooom. tooom. to. to. to. there. Like how much of it is that? Are we using humor in that sense to be like, we know what people are going to click on, we know what people are going to talk about,

and if we can be outlandish in our approach from a satirical point of view, that can trump somebody else being outlandish from perhaps a more politically advantageous point of you? Absolutely. There was another time they had an FBI official who had privately expressed support for Demer, I'm sorry, had privately expressed criticism of Donald Trump. This is early in Trump's tenure. And they were just again excoriating him. So when it came time to my turn,

I started reading criticisms of Trump without identifying who said it. And I said, so that was you, right? and before the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness the witness, I I I I I I I I I I I I I I'm the the, I'm theation, I'm th. I'm thoom, I'm, I'm, I'm theatious, I'm thoomatious, I'm, I'm, I thoeatious, I thoeatious, I theatious, I theatious, I theatious, I theatious, I the, I the, I'm, I the, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm the, I'm, I'm the, I'm the, I'm the, I'm the, I'm the, I'm the, I'm the, I'm theateateateateateateateateateat, I'm th... theat, I'm theateateateateateateateateatea... And I said, so that was you, right? And before the witness could answer, I went, oh, no, I'm sorry. That was Marco Rubio, Republican Senator Fla- and then I just went to, you know, and of course by the time I was finished,

people again were, you know, snidly chuckling, but it completely exposed the hypocrisy of the Republicans for attacking this guy for criticizing Trump when at the same time they were doing it too. Congressman, I got I got to say using hypocrisy as a stand-in for humor, that's my lane. So back off. You're going to use Rubio's words against him and the whole GOP? What else do we have out there? It's dangerous business. But you know, it goes to the old line, a friend of mine, a humorous Jim Bourne once used to say, if you're going to be a phony, at least be sincere about it.

It feels like a lot of the Republican strategy is to work the refs, bully the mainstream media into covering it as a legitimate, massive scandal. Do you think that's working? I think it works all too well, all too often. And that's why we have to be much better at our game. And that's why we have to be disciplined and coordinated. I mean, you can't, this can't be one-off, this can't be one rogue member who maybe is effective, but everybody else is doing that thing.

And that's why, you know, in the minority, especially, our committee is going to have to be organized, strategic, and as I said, discipline, both in messaging, and in the attack of their narrative. What's the best way to do that, to get the truth to the American people and through the media. the media. the media. the media. the media. the media. their narrative. What's the best way to do that to get the truth to the American people and through the media? Have you thought about starting an improv group if you're going to utilize both humor and teamwork with a coherent message, perhaps some sort of yes and exercise, some trust falls. I know a lot of out-of-work people in Chicago right now who could come get on a plane and teach you guys some basics of improv to save democracy. I have enjoyed improv in Chicago myself for many years and it can be very useful, but it's

not a substitute though for discipline narrative, discipline lines of questioning and taking the fight to the other side when they are propounding fabricated narratives when they are distorting facts, peddling conspiracy theories that are without foundation, and sometimes just flat-out making it up. They don't have a compunction about that. We do, which is sometimes to our disadvantage, although I'd rather be where we are than they are, but that means we've got to be doubly more effective in puncturing what they're doing. Well, Congressman, you sound like my parents improv, although valid is no

substitute for real hard work and fact-checking. I get it. I should be a doctor or an architect. I think we can both agree if the fate of our democracy lies on improv, we might be in a bad place. I'm curious, do you think House Republicans are planning on using this investigation as a basis to impeach President Biden? I mean, there's a crowd of them that's already decided that's what they want to do. I think I think they would have trouble right now selling that to enough people in their own caucus to have the votes frankly. There is a there is a dwindling group of more common-sense Republicans and moderate Republicans who are very uneasy about the hard ideological tilt of the Freedom Caucus and their Acolytes and would like to find a way to

reassert themselves and what they believe is what's going to be necessary if the Republicans are really ever going to be successful again in American political life in terms of a real serious working majority. I think that there are some built-in breaks on that. And what I predict is that the Republicans on our committee will do what they always do, which is overreach, right? And when they do that, they lose public support, and they lose credibility.

And in this particular case, they're likely to alienate some of those more moderate numbers of their caucus, albeit in dwindling numbers, they need to get to 218. Do you think that? You really think they will alienate? It feels like there's rarely any pushback or political repercussions for for appearing hawkish and overstepping yes but you asked about impeachment is a different matter and you do think that is a line for most Americans you think they will see

that just as a craven partisan overreach yeah yeah I I don't think anybody in America, well, let me with, I simply don't think that's a majority opinion at all, not even close, that there's something unseemly about Joe Biden that desperately needs to be investigated. And we just had a midterm election. They tried out that theme. It didn't work. You know, Americans did not vote to have, you know, hard line accountability for Joe Biden

because he's getting away with stuff, and that's why we need a Republican majority. They barely got a majority. And they didn't get one in the U.S. Senate. They lost governor's seats net, they lost legislative seats net, and they barely won the House. So I hardly think that's a mandate to go at it. And that says something about, I'm not saying that Americans don't want accountability. They're not persuaded that Joe Biden has done anything

that merits that the American public will be able to sift through and see through the BS? We live in a world with so much in front of us, right? You know, we don't live anymore where, in a world where, you know, I get my news in the evening broadcast for 30 minutes on one of three choices. Those days are long gone, right? So there's this fog of news and data being presented to me and opinion, and I'm somehow expected

to separate the truth from the non-truth or the half-truth and the facts from the fiction. So that's why it's so important we do our jobs and do them well. That we help the American listener, viewer, voter, separate what's true from what is not true. And that's, as I said, why I think our committee is going to be on the front line of this struggle. And it's a struggle as much for the truth as it is for political advantage or partisan gain. Well, Congressman Jerry Connolly, thank you so much for joining the podcast. My pleasure. Let me know if you need any punch-ups on jokes. I work for cheap and I'd like to help this democracy. I'll come back to you on improv.

Thank you. After the break, we're going to be joined by author and journalist Tiffany Cross. We're going to dive even more into media coverage behind Hunter Biden's laptop. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, it's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID, thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully

obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earning calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with's The Conspiracy. We're talking about Hunter Biden's laptop.

Basically, the right-wing fever dream that a Macbook Pro that was left at a computer repair shop in Delaware proves that the Biden family was doing corruption in Ukraine. And that was before it was cool to know about stuff in Ukraine. And also China's involved, obviously. If you watch Fox News or News or News or Real American Truth or any other right-wing media that sounds like it was created by a Steve Bannon word generator, you're probably extremely familiar with the weird details of the Hunter Biden saga. But if you get your news from real places, you might only know some of it.

And that creates a minor dilemma. House Republicans are about to start investigating Hunter Biden, and that means it's probably going to get a lot of coverage on mainstream outlets. So, if the role of the news media is to cover what's happening, but also to stop the spread of misinformation, what are journalists supposed to do here? To help us answer that question, we're going to talk to Tiffany Cross, an author, journalist, cable news veteran, and until recently she was the host of the Cross Connection on MSNBC. Tiffany, thanks so much for talking to us here today.

Thanks for having me, Jordan. It's great to be connected today. Yes. So this Hunter Biden laptop story poses an interesting problem for the news media. On one hand, it's an obsession, fanned by right-wing trolls who most of the time can be ignored. But on the other hand, Republicans are taking over the House of Representatives and they're going to launch congressional investigations into it, hoping for media coverage that makes the investigation look like a legitimate process. So I guess the big question is,

can you have a legitimate investigation into something run by the people who think January 6th was Antifa? Right, I would say no, and I wish that more people in the news media would be so direct and honest about that. You know, when we talk about corruption in this whole incident with the Hunter Biden laptop rather, in Ukraine, I think it's th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, thi, thi, thi, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, and the the thi, when we talk about corruption in this whole incident with the Hunter Biden campaign, or the Hunter Biden laptop, rather, in Ukraine, I think it's really important to remember

what the Ukraine story is, and that is that Donald Trump was trying to hold up hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Ukraine because he wanted President Zelensky to investigate his political rivals. That is the story. The counterpoint to that story was Republicans trying to institute this laptop storyline. And so when you have people who employ the logic of bad actors like Lauren Burbard or Marjorie Taylor Green who will have committee assignments, you know, the Republicans have taken over the house now, we don't know what leadership looks like, We don't know who the speaker of the House will be. Kevin McCarthy is quite embroiled in his own battles.

I think it is very dangerous to pretend that these are intellectual people, that these are people acting in good faith, or that these are people who give a damn about democracy because they don't. So your point, they said they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, they said, th they said, they said, thi, th thi, thi, thi, th th thi, thi, thi, thi, th th th th th thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, is is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi. throoooooi. to to to to to to to to to to to thei. thi. thi. thi, Tifa. We have seen quite blatantly these folks lie. They have said that, you know, they were like tourists walking through the Capitol, even though we saw Republican members of Congress themselves helping to barricade a door. And so it seems to be yet again a lesson that the news media has not learned, and they make such great overtures to this right-wing extremist Republican Party. And they have not yet accepted what we as all Americans have witnessed,

and that is there are no right-wing extremists and a separate group of Republicans. These two factions have merged. And so if you're going to turn over political investigations to right-wing extremists, then you're going to essentially wave the white flag on democracy and say goodbye. This feels like the series finale of the great American experiment and as you can see, it ain't going so well. Tuon in everybody. I guess it brings an interesting question, though, you're right. They may not believe in the tenets of democracy, but is their point of view, in and of itself,

news which should be covered? Because people will look at this Hunter Biden laptop story and it is in many way used as a distraction. But there is news to be made in there. There is perhaps an investigation that could happen around this, whether or not it's a legitimate one, who knows. But you bring up people like Lauren Bobert. A lot of the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news the news to to the news th, to th, th, th, th, thiui, thi, thiou, in thi, in thi, in thi, in thi, in thi, in thi, in th, in th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, their, their, their, their, th. News, thi. News, thi. News, thi. News, thoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes. News, the, not it's a legitimate one, who knows. But you bring up people like Lauren Bobert. A lot of times the news doesn't have to report on all of the wilder things that perhaps somebody like a Bobert will say. But then you'll have people like Kevin McCarthy

who very well could be, the leader of the house, who will repeat those talking points. So what do you say to a journalist who says if Kevin McCarthy McCarthy is the speaker is the speaker is the speaker is the speaker of the house and he says something that means that it is news that must be reported. I think it's fine to report that through the proper context. I think what we have seen is the news media goes out of its way to present something that is factual or something that is at least based in some level of intellect and then they will take something as antoni and present both of these things as though they are equal in thought. So if I say, hey, Jordan, it's raining outside and it's in fact raining outside and you say, well there are purple unicorns falling from the sky, and you say, well, their purple unicorns,

you know, falling from the sky, we'll let you decide, we're fair and balanced. That's bullshit, and we ought to be honest about that. And I think, you know, I think why you have so much of that is because, again, one of my big passions through my career has been newsroom diversity. And so when you have people in these newsrooms who make these overtures to Trump fanatics, you know, to these cult members who are the, thua, thupe, thiiiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, to to to to to to to to thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, th know, to these cult members who are believers of the MAGA doctrine that you've so brilliantly highlighted in your comedic reporting for the Daily Show, you've done better reporting than most journalists out there and just let these people talk and say what they believe. Take no mistake, we have the guns and we are now in the streets.

Can I ask why you're carrying a pitchfork? Well pitchfork is a it's just an iconic representation of how of what people over time have done in this country. It feels more like a weapon to be quite honest. No it's not it's farm equipment and it's legal in this in this city. Yeah are you farming today? It's an icon it's a representation we're not asking for violence right now. I gotta tell you you you you you you you you you t tel tel tel th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thu thu thu thu thu the thu thu thi thi thi thi thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's just thi. It's just thi. It's just th. It's just th. It's just th. It's just just just just th. It's just th. It's just th. It's just th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's a thi. It's a thi. I's a thi. I's just the thi. I's just the thi. I's just the thi. I's just thi. I's just thi. It's just right now. I gotta tell you, from the movies I've seen, the hordes of people with pitchforks are usually the bad guy. And when you have people who say, well, you know, all these people aren't so bad because my grandmother is a Trump supporter and she's my Nana and she's so sweet or my dad supports Trump, I try to talk him out of it, but he still believes that, but they're not thua, th.. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. thr-a, thr-a. thr-a. toguu. toguuu. thr-a. thr-a. thr-a. throoooooooes. People, th other side, I'm saying, I'm sorry to tell you, but they actually are pieces of shit. You know, these are horrible people

who are supporting a horrible man who says horrible, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic things. And if you can't call your family out on that, then that is a problem, because now you're penetrating the atmosphere and not a sympathy fest for people who would see folks who look like me oppressed. And that has created such a chasm in media, Jordan. It is, it is, people have now tuned out media. I mean, you look at cable news and it's really a melting ice cube at this point.

And when people do not trust that there is no reputable outlet where they can get this kind of information, they find their news and information from other sources, and those sources are thors thors are thors are thors are thors are not thors are not thors are not thors are not thors are not thors are not thoers are not thoers are not thoes are not thoes are not thoes are not thoes are not thoes are not thoes thoes are not thus thus thus thoes thoes thoes thoes thoes thoes thoes thoes the the that that that that that that that th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th the the the the that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that thust that there is no reputable outlet where they can get this kind of information, they find their news and information from other sources and those sources are not always reputable and we saw what happened with that in 2016. A lot of people felt like their lived experience was reflected in an internet meme. Well we later learned that was the internet Russia agency who also did not care about American democracy and when they looked at this country and said, how can we mess with American democracy, it took them all of two months and say, oh, white supremacy, that's it. That's how that's their greatest weakness,

and we will tap into that. And this is really an extension of that philosophy. I can't wait for the Tiffany Cross how to do Thanksgiving with relatives, book. Call the pieces of shit out and move on. Please, at my Thanksgiving we don't have that problem, but a lot of people's tables, they do. And I think that is the, you know, with allies and people who, you know, want to get in this fight, it's like, yes, start in your own home. Challenge your own family, because it is not my job to convince the, you know, willfully ignorant people to not believe in a man who's lying to them and it is not my job to extend empathy or sympathy to people who feel

that way. I don't know how to meet a bigot in the middle. So if that is how people feel it's start there. Start there at your own table. That brings up an interesting question because I do thi. that's a question I get on the the road a bunch. Are you th you you you you you you you you you you you you you th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, I thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's to thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I'm to thi. I'm to thi. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi. the thi. thi. to change somebody's mind or what have you? And that's not the intention of the pieces that we go out to do. I think more often than not it's to confront people with logical fallacies that we see back home and see what the reality is in the field. But I do think it's interesting, as somebody, a member of the media, there is this chasm also of bad information that people are getting. And I do think you want to have empathy for those people who have been given such misinformation. How do you balance the deliverance of real news with the idea of showing a certain amount of empathy and outreach towards perhaps voices and people who aren't willing to meet in the middle.

Well, I would challenge the first part of empathy. I think if you do have empathy, Jordan, for some of the folks you have spoken with, that's not such a bad thing. You know, perhaps I can understand that, as long as you're not asking me to have empathy. I do not have empathy for people who have bought into a lie or a myth or a system that means my oppression. I don't have any empathy for such people at all.

I actually think the country would be better off without those people having an influence on what this democracy looks like or how this government works, but that is not the way American democracy was designed. I think when it comes to reporting these things in the media landscape, you run the risk of having a large number of the population, I would call the rising majority, tune you out when your perspective, when the starting point is we have empathy for these people who feel this way. Because you do not hear people saying, well, look, the Nazis the Nazis the Nazis the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when the Nazis, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when their, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thi, when thu, when their, when it their, when their, when their, when their, when their, when their, when their, when, when, when their, when, when, when, when, when their, when, when, when, when, when, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, their, their, thea, thea, theauii.au.a, thea, thea, the.a, thi, you do not hear people saying, well look, the Nazis were fed a bunch of bad information. We have to have empathy for them. Get the fuck out of here. Like we would never say that. We would never believe that. You know, and so why am I

being asked to have empathy for the people who would see me staying in a dilapidated community, sending my children to dilapidated schools, living in rundown neighborhoods and say, well, that's just how it goes. Because they can't win, because if they win, that means I'm losing. I have no empathy. I have no empathy. Tiffany, I got to say, if you don't think people are showing empathy towards Nazis, you're just not on Twitter anymore.

You're right. And Elon, my Twitter, it is a thiiiiiiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thee. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. thi. thi. somehow coming back in vogue. I guess I have a question who makes those decisions about what gets covered and what doesn't get covered at a network level. Is it anchors, is it producers, news executives? Is there a conversation that happens in the newsroom? Well it's a variety of things and I think it all depends on the news. You know broadcast has a different set of rules than print. When I was in cable news, I made the decisions about what I covered on my show, but I did not do so without a fight.

You know, there are assignment desk, assignment editors, and there are people who oversee, and people who oversaw my show, and it was always a fight because, you know, it's like the echo chambers, right? Like the three news networks are covering mostly the same things. I mean, now, you know, Fox would be an outlier and, you know, still cover Hillary's emails, but for the most part, people were covering the same stories throughout the day. I was very intentional about disrupting that and talking about stories that impacted communities of color, policy, you know, people who live below the poverty line. I wanted to have conversations that were being had in the corner office as well as the barber shop, as well as the beauty salon,

as well as on the block, you know, for the old men who sit outside in front of the convenience store all day. I wanted everyone to reflect the lived experience of everyone. Well, we talked a lot on this the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the toe toeoeoe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, tho, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, thoomomomomomomomomomomomomomomome, thoomomomomom, thoomomomom, thoomomomom, thoe, thoe, thoe, thoe, thoe, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, thi, thi, thooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooe, the, th lived experience of everyone. Well, we talked a lot on this show about the tragedy of America's maternal mortality rates, especially the disparity that claims black and indigenous women at three times the rate as white women. Imagine being without clean water for six straight days. Well, that's the reality right now for the 150,000 residents of Mississippi's largest city. All right, after centuries of genocide and oppression, the ancestor, theeeeeeeeuuuuiiiiiiiiiole, toe, toe, toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and th. toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and toe, and thi, and th. And, and th. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and the th. the th. th. the th, and, and, and, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. And, and th. And, and I I I I, and I, and I's, and I's, and I's, and I's, and I'm the, and I'm the, theanan, thean, thro thean, toean, thro toean, thro thean, throan, thro thean, anda.ean, anda, anda.a. All right, after centuries of genocide and oppression,

imagine seeing your ancestor stolen belongings sit in a museum, and you're told you can't have them, you can't touch them, or even photograph them. You take something even as simple as the economy, right? You know, a lot of people in these morning news shows, and talk to people in my pre-gentrified neighborhood, they would not say the economy is doing well.

You take labor reports and they're like, oh, we added X amount of new jobs and here's the unemployment numbers. Well, that's the overall unemployment numbers, but when you disaggreg oh, the jobs reports numbers are great. And so the more that people kind of centralize white perspective and white voices, it leaves so many people out. And so when you talk about newsroom diversity and who makes these decisions, don't come tell me that you just hired, you know, 50% of people of color and women, and they're all entry-level employees or mid-level management. Put those people in the C-Suite, put those people in decision-making positions so they can

disrupt the echo chambers in a meaningful way. Because what is a 25-year-old to do when a 55-year-old is in charge of the entire newsroom and they're making a decision that runs contrary to the lived experience or belief system or experiences of the rising majority. They don't always have or feel the sense of agency to challenge that. And so when they don't have that, they either exit the business or they become a part of this machine that keeps doing the same thing over and over and it never gets disrupted or change forever. Those battles that you're having in the newsroom with your show on MSNBC, the cross-connection. How much did you have to split your time the to to to the to their their their their their their their their their their their the newsroom with your show on MSNBC, the cross-connection. How much did you have to split your time being the host of that show, helping create the narrative of that show, the stories you wanted to cover?

And also what sounds like a teacher of this experience. Did you find yourself having to put on those two hats? Were you surprised by that culture at MSNBC? Yes, I put on those hats every day. And so what I found on my show is I would have to do something to please network executives. And then I would have to do the rest of my program to please the viewers. And those things often went like this.

You know, if I was going to please the executives, fine, I will will thua, I will thua, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, two segments on Trump, because that's what everybody wanted, you know, the network effect is wanted to talk about Trump. However, if, you know, one of the members of the group Migos was murdered, well, that was something that a lot of people were talking about, especially on the hills of so many other hip-hop artists being murdered. So that was going to be something to please viewers. If there was there was there was there was there was there was there was their was their was their was their was their was going th was going th, thoom thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be something to be something to be something to be something to be something to be something to be something to be to be to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to bea, to bea, to bea, to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be something to be something to be something to be a to be something to be a to be a to be a to be a to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. too. too. too. tooome. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. to please viewers. If there was a story about indigenous communities, you know, having to travel over two hours to vote, that was something that was going to please viewers.

If we were going to do something that was going to please viewers. If we were going to please to please viewers, if we were going to please the tas know, the way my bank account was set up, I had to at least do some things to please network executives, but it was always my mission, you know, and I would encourage, you know, anybody who wants to pursue any career, when you are mission driven. And I was mission driven. And my mission was for the equality and liberation of black indigenous and people of

color, the rising majority of the country. That was the the the the the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and thease, and the, and to thease, and I the, and I was, and I was, and I was, and I was, and I was, and I was, and I was, and, and, to, to, to, and, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thean, thean, thean, thean, the the the thean, theyy, the theymea, they, the the the theaugh, the the thean, thean, thean, the rising majority of the country. That was my mission. And so nothing was going to sway me from that mission. And I knew if I ever fell out of favor with network executives, that would have to be okay because my mission was to elevate the lived experiences and to hold the line for the people who were very much architects of this country and very much deserve to have their voices and perspectives heard, particularly after centuries of being so violently silenced. Now, I mean, your new, your show was canceled days before the midterms.

Four days before the midterms. An important voice in this conversation and made a lot of news and there were a lot of questions. How much, how much did you find that your personal mission was out of touch with whatever MSNBCBC-in the th the th the th the th C th C th C th C th C thi thi thi thi thi the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th of th of thi thi thi thi thi of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the the the the thi. theeeeeeeea thi thi thi thi lot of questions. How much did you find that your personal mission was out of touch with whatever MSNBC's mission was? Um, well, I felt that pretty early on. Um, every week I had to defend and fight for segments that we did. You know, that did that feel, did that feel contrary to what other hosts at MSNBC were having to do with their own shows? Yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you th th th th th th th th th th thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th.. th. th. th, th. th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. theeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. thii. thi. thi, thi, thi, thed contrary to what other hosts at MSMEC were having to do with their own shows? Yeah, you know, I would say my colleague Joy Reed and I probably had the most pushback

on our shows. But there were also things that other hosts hosts their hosts their hosts, throwns, thrown, their host would do that would make it easier for us, which again is problematic. My colleague Ari Melber, you know, you is th, you is th, you is th, you is th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, I I that, I that, I thi. I that, thi. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. th. thi, thi. thi. that's thi. thi. that's thi. thi. that's that's that's that's that's that's that, that, thi. th fan. If you watch five minutes at his show, you know that. He quotes rap lyrics all the time. And it was fine when the white man did it. You know, when the white man did it, it made it easier for everybody else to do it. But let the black woman start out doing that. And it would have been a major problem,

a major problem, but he was celebrated, that it was never fine that was never accepted amongst the audience members. Well he's thinking rap artist on his show and you know they seem to you know play into it but either way you know you look at morning Joe Joe Amica I mean we got the term Moscow Mitch from Joe Scarborough but if you know if Joy or I were to say something similar, it was like, hey, we don't really want name calling. But even if you take it out of MSNBC and just look at the media landscape in general and some of the more colloquial conversations that happened when it comes to voters, there were so often in the media landscape that you would hear terms like soccer moms, NASCAR dads.

Well, those were all euphemisms for white voters. And it's not that black people could not, you know, have that same moniker as well, but we understood what that to meet, what those terms meant. It did not feel inclusive of the black experience, which is the biggest voting block when it comes to Democratic, with the Democratic Party. And so, even, even th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho, tho, tho tho tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thoes, tho, thoes, thoomom. tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th. th. th. th. Well, th. Well, th. Well, th. Well, th. Well, th, th. Well, th. Well, tho, tho, the the tho, tho, the, the, the, theeeea, thea, thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea, thea, the, voting block when it comes to the Democratic Party. And so even when they did Voters of the Heartland, you know, you go to these diners in the middle of nowhere where apparently no black people have ever been or ever eaten, and that was voters of the Heartland.

But why not go to a basketball game in Southwest Atlanta after it let out and talked to the parents there. Are they not voters of the heartland in a purple state, I'd add? Why can't we have like basketball dads or, you know, the unseed voting block or something that reflects my lived experience? Even when you have candidates on and you'd have, you know, these Democratic candidates and the anchor would always press them. How are you going to appeal to these red state voters? How are you going to, you know, get these Trump voters who feel homeless? How are they going to come over to you? I have yet to see somebody ask, a Republican mega voter,

how are you going to appeal? You want to appell the Democratic Party? How are you going to appeal, the base vote? the baunt. their thi. top-I the base vote is the base vote is thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. throwns. their, thee. their, thee, tho, their thoomom-I. they're tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, they are they they they they they they they they they are they they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are they are thr. I I I I is throwns. I is thr. I is thr. I is thr. I's, thr. I's thr. I's thrown. I's thrown. I'm thr-a. thro. tho. thee. tho. tho. thee. th? How are you going to appeal to the changing demographics? People of color are increasingly becoming the base vote. What are your policies that speak to that demographic? Those things never happened. I was never able to get Republicans to come out on my show because they did not want to answer those types of questions. But access journalism would grant you an interview with Ted Cruz or Marjorie Taylor Green or the guy, the Senate guy, the Senate candidate, Ron Johnson, the Trump Acolyte who was running for Senate in Wisconsin. He would happily go on those shows if he knew it was going to be an easy interview and that does not serve anybody but the anchor itself.

It certainly does not serve viewers or voters. You bring up an entry point. It is in 2016 after the media landscape was quote unquote surprised by the the red wave, the trumpism there, there was all you saw was anchors in these small little diners and now we have this midterm election where everybody's shocked by the the blue, whether you call it the blue pushback right there, but we're not seeing anybody go to these other democratic areas and try to figure them out. I guess, I think you're hitting on something that, I think there are a lot of perhaps progressives out there who look at a place, who look at the media landscape. Everybody's picking their own media outlets

to try to tell them, perhaps the story that they think one elucidates the world that they see or the story that makes them feel better about themselves more often than not. There are those places in the mass media market that that the to thea...................... I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. the the the th. the th. the the th. the. the. the. tha. tha. I. tha. tha. to be. I. the tha. to't have to go all in on MSNBC, but I do know that is a place for a lot of people who look at that as having a left-leading perspective, who will take in a lot of these considerations. And I think hearing some of your stories here is depressing to hear that even these ideas of being inclusive in the stories that we tell is meeting such resistance at these levels. Where do you see these stories being able to be told?

Clearly we know where they need to be able to be told. Where are you seeing examples of them being told? Well, I think social media has really democratized who has a voice in this space, which has come with great benefits to democracy, but also to some of our demise. Like we talked a little bit about Twitter, which you know you have superstars on their the't know who they are, we just know their avatar. You know you have people who just create these YouTube shows who can just declare themselves journalists who might not have the journalistic acumen to really interview. The podcast drink champs, you know and they had Kanye on that

that that wasn't a journalist you know that was somebody having a drink with Cony so there wasn't the space..... the space. the space. the space. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I the space. the space. I the space. the space. the space. the space. the space. the space. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You're th. I th. You're th. I I th. I I th. I I I I I I th. 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 th. I th. I th. I th. I'm t. I'm tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttoday. I'm, tttttoday. I'm just just just just, you tttoday. I'm, you today. I'm, ttttt. You know, that was somebody having a drink with Kanye. So there wasn't the space to challenge some of the things that he said. And so, you know, I think the good thing about it is their space, and it has made everybody wake up and say, well, wait a second. You know, a lot of people are getting their news from other places, like the daily show quite honestly. And I have been a long, long time fan of the daily show, but I do think, well, that should not be your only news outlet. You know, you do have to supplement that. Even my show and people would say, I don't watch any news except for your show,

it would make me a little nervous. It's like, well, I'm a prospective host. And you know, I both know print drives broadcast, print journalism drives broadcast journalism. Everybody starts out reading the paper, read six, seven, eight papers, but even there there's a lack of newsroom diversity. So I don't know that I can say where news should be consumed. I would say the best answer I could give to that is stay tuned to where I land. A final question in here. Do you think the media is glad Trump's running again? I do.

I do. I think Trump gave the cable news network such a boom that they salivated. And that's why I think they were always constantly trying to get me to do Trump, Trump, Trump. But I think they're going to be disappointed. I I have th th th th they have th th they have the the the the thi I have the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thiole thiol-a thiol-a thiol-a thiol-a thiol-a thi the the the the the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi trying to get me to do Trump Trump Trump Trump you have to talk about Trump. But I think they're going to be disappointed. I have seen some in the news media a day late and a dollar short be a little more mindful about how they cover him. But I also think that the American body politic has lost their appetite for the reality TV show that was cable news. For a brief moment in time, people love to see, you know, this throwdown, this battle, this kind of gutter back and forth

between opposing viewpoints. And, you know, it was like the anchor would do all, but say, let's get ready to rumble, and then you bring in this, you know, segment. You know, I think post pandemic and being overly and being overly sensationalized by this level of yellow journalism from print to broadcast has left people a bit apathetic towards consuming news at all. Yeah, well, Tiffany, I'm excited to see where you land.

That is definitely going to be the place to check out. Thank you for coming on and than't everybody else for checking out this episode, the conspiracy. Whether you're listening on your phone or watching, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the to, to, to, their, to, their, their, their, their, their, their, and, and their, and their, and thepper Figures the Conspiracy, whether you're listening on your phone or watching on your laptop, especially if it's a laptop at a repair shop in Delaware, we'll see you next time. Thanks, Jordan. Listen to Jordan Clepper Fingers the Conspiracy from the Daily Show on Apple podcast, the I-Apo-Po-Cas.

The I-Hart Radio App or Wherever you get your podcast. Explore more shows from the Daily Show Podcast Universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, it's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting, you'll be saying to yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday we're going to be talking about. All the things that hopefully

obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking? What are they the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. the the the th. the th. the tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. the the the the tho. tho. the the the the the the the the the the the the show. the show. the show. the show. the show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show show. the show. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to. We the to. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. We're the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your

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