The Daily Show: Ears Edition - James Comey Trashes Trump on "20/20" | Alex Wagner

Episode Date: April 17, 2018

Sean Hannity is outed as a secret client of Trump attorney Michael Cohen, James Comey lays into President Trump on "20/20," and Alex Wagner discusses her book "Futureface." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast. The Weekly Show is 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. April 16th, 2018. From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is the Daily ShowA. Show. Thank you so much for tuning in.

I'm telling you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. You guys are. Welcome to it. Our guest to-night is an amazing journalist from CBS News and the author of the new book,

Futureface. Wow, you guys are, wow. Welcome to it. Our guest tonight is an amazing journalist from CBS News and the author of the new book, Future Face. Alex Wagner is joining us, everybody. But first, but first, blasting off just got a whole new meaning. Listen to this, NASA scientists are researching the behavior of sperm in space. They sent samples aboard the Falcon 9 rocket last week. Scientists want to know whether humans would be able to reproduce in microgravity.

Wow, NASA is experimenting with space sperm. That's one small step for man, one giant load of mankind. Yeah, I think we finally got to the bottom of what those ink blotches were in arrival. Yeah, those aliens were literally coming in peace. That's all they were doing. They were communicating with us. And now, NASA says that this is the first sperm in space, right? And I bet every dude astronaut is like, yeah, yeah, first, yeah, come on, men have been in space for almost 60 years now.

There's no ways in hell, this is the first space sperm. You put a dude in a hotel room within five minutes, he's jacked off twice. You know these guys were in the space station as soon as they got, they're just like, uh-oh. Honestly, I think NASA needs to slow its role, because I don't know if you realize this. Just consider how all of this looks if you're an alien. First humans send up telescopes to creepily watch them from a far, right? And then we sent up mixtapes, and then we sent up nudes, and now we're sending sperm. Like at this point, it just feels like we're sexually harassing aliens.

That was what it feels like. I wouldn't be surprised if our first contact was the aliens coming down and just saying, hey, take a hint. We're not interested. Hash tag me too. This is like, sthing, 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, tho, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, 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. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. And, thiard. This is like stop sending this stuff. And now, oh, and now speaking of news that's out of this world, it came out last week that Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is now in deep federal investigation shit, only had three clients in the past year, right? The president, who Cohen helped to pay off a porn star that he had an affair with. His second client, a major GOP fundraiser named Elliot Brody, who to, th, who, who, who, who, who 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 me, to me, to me, to me, to to to to to me, to me, to me, and to me, and to me, and to me, and to me, and to me, and to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me th. And, and to me to me th. And, and to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me the too.e, too. too. too. too. And too. And too. And too. And the. And the. And? The president, who Cohen helped to pay off a porn star that he had an affair with, his second client,

a major GOP fundraiser named Elliot Brody, who Cohen also helped to pay off a playmate that he had an affair with, all right? And then Michael Cohen had one more clients, right? Out of seven billion people, who could have wanted to join this club and use Michael Cohen as a lawyer last year? Only one other person did. And this person's identity was a complete mystery until today.

This is CNN breaking news. We are now getting word. The lawyer for the president, Michael Cohen has just disclosed in court that the client who had requested to remain unnamed was Sean Hannity of Fox News. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it turns out Michael Cohen's secret client was Sean Hannity, which I'm sorry is not a good look. You know right now, Sean Hannity is probably on the phone with his wife. his wife like hey honey it's so weird how I use the guy who pays off

mistresses to get me out of that parking ticket. It's funny right? Hello hello? Just think about how anything how unethical this is for a moment right? Hannity has been reporting on this Michael Combe story from the beginning, the thean to the teu- to to to to thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the-n, the-n, the-n-n, the-n, the, the, tho-n, to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get, to get to get, to get to get, to get, to get to get, to get theanneneu-nigh... theanneau-ni. theateateateateateateateateate, the, theateate, theate, the, theateee, theeate, theeeate,, but he conveniently never mentioned that Cohen was his guy, which even for Sean Hannity is pretty shady. I mean, even Instagram models have higher ethical standards. Because they'll be like, drink tummy tea. By the way, I'm sponsored by Tummy tea. They tell you what it is, right? And I'm not expecting him to aspire to the levels of the Kardashians, but to to to to to to, to, to, to, to, to, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, and I, thi, and I, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, even, even, even, even, even even even even even, even even even even even even even even, even even even, even even even, even, even even, even, even, even, even, even, even, even even, even even even even, even even even, even even, even, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I I's, I I I's, I I I's, I I I I.... And, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I'm, I'm too, I'm too, I'm too, I'm too, too, too, even if I'm too, even if I'm not even if I'm not even, even, even if I'm not even even even, even even, even, even, but come on, Sean. And I'll tell you what else. I'll tell you what else. Once you know that Hanody has personal skin in the game,

like with Cohen, it's fun to go back and look at everything he said about the FBI raid, because now we can see that Hannity wasn't just mad. He was scared. President Trump's long-time personal attorney Michael Cohn just had his office, his home, and his hotel that he was staying in, rated by the FBI today. This is an unprecedented abuse of power. Cone's payment is a perfectly legitimate business move. Muller's witch hunt investigation is now a runaway train careening off the trash. Spinning out of control. If you voted for Donald Trump, you better get buckled up because this is going to be a rough ride. You know now now that that we we that we that we that we that we that we th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, the thi, thr-a, the thrown, the thrown, thrown, the the thrown, thrown, 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 th. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. thin, thin, thin, t. C. t. ttttte. ttte. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. C. te. C. C a rough ride. You know now that we know he was working with Cohen that looks less like a new show and more like a guy really stressed giving himself a pep talk. It's just like come on. We got to get

buckled up this is going to be a rough ride. Hooh! Oh! Let's move on. Let's move on. You know on a normal weekend. America and its allies launching 105 missiles into Syria would be the only news that everyone would be talking about. But there are no more normal weekends. So instead, the story dominating the headlines was ex-FBI director, James Comey's new book, A Higher Loyalty, the most hotly anticipated book since the sequel to Everyone Poops, too. Yeah. It turns out some people don't poop. So to promote the book, last night Comie sat down with America's most respected lepricon, George Stephanopoulos, in a prime time interview as well. And Comie said all the things that we already know about Donald Trump. You know he said he's immoral, he said he's a lie, he said he's a lie. He said he mistreats women. It's all the stuff that got Trump elected, but what did raise an eyebrow was when Komi revealed how he told Trump about the pee-p-tape.

I'm about to meet with a person who doesn't know me. It's just been elected president of the United States, and I'm about to talk to him about allegations that he was involved with prostitutes in Moscow. I did not go into the business about people peeing on each other. And he interrupted, started talking about it, you know, do I look like a guy who needs hookers? I didn't answer that, and I just moved on. No, no, no, President Trump, of course, you don't look like a guy who chooses hookers.

Totally different. Now, the reason, Comey says he thi th is th is th is th is th is 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. thi. thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Now the reason Comie says he wrote this book is that, as the title suggests, he believes that as a lawman, it's his duty to share the unbiased truth with America. And throughout the interview, he reminded us how noble he is. I actually thought as bad as this will be for me personally, this is my obligation to protect the FBI and the Justice Department. I was trying to be honest and clear with the American people. It really was the right thing to do. If I wasn't honest about that, how am I achieving the goal of showing the American people? This is your justice system working in the right way.

I'm not trying to make decisions with an eye not on politics but on those higher values. Wow. This dude is so loyal to America that when he dies he's just going to turn into a bald eagle and fly majestically into an apple pie. So powerful. Like, he really means it guys, because even when Comie got surprised fired, he didn't think about himself. All he thought about was USA.

Stunned by the news, Comie heads to the airport. It would be his last flight on the FBI jet. So you're in that private jet, basically alone? What did you do? I drank red wine from a paper coffee cup and just looked out at the lights of the country I love so much as we flew home. You hear that? You hear that? Flying home in that private jet after being fired and the only thing that Comie could think

about was how much he loves this country. Yeah, in that private jet, feeling that. You realize that combination of boiling. It sounds like something Drake would say. It's like, sipping on this wine, country on my mind, thinking about the time when the president was lined. It feels like a Drake song. And now look, now look, here's the thing. I know how Comey is trying to present himself, okay? But it's hard for us to believe that this is a selfless, unbiased expose written for the people and for the benefit of the people when you're also throwing grade school shade like this. It was the first time he met Donald Trump. What was your impression?

He had impressively quaffed hair that looks to be all his. I confess I stared at it pretty closely. And my, and my, and my, 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, thi, thi, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, t, t, t, t, t, t, t, thi, th I confess I stared at it pretty closely and my reaction was must take a couple of the time in the morning. Tye was too long as it always is. He looked slightly orange up close with small white the half moons under his eyes which I assume are from tanning goggles. You see now that's funny but that doesn't sound like an impartial law man. That sounds like a guy who got fired from White Castle talking trash about his old boss.

That's what it sounds like. It's like, man, that dude smelled like onions before he got to work. And look, don't get me wrong. I'm the last person to tell anyone not to trash Trump, okay? But I do think that roasting Trump would help him sell books, okay? And if you're trying to make money, then just make the money. Don't act like you're doing it for our sake. You know, basically Komi's, he's like hiding the money aspect of this whole thing. It's almost like if Braveheart was like, we must not give into the swords we buy on Braveheart

Weapons Depot.com I promise you this war has nothing to do with me getting rich it's about a higher loyalty by the way use my promo code super brave super brave now charge go 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,

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 the Daily Show. My guest tonight is the co-host of Showtimes The Circus, contributed to the CBS News and the Atlantic and an author of the new book, Future Face,

a family mystery and epic quest and the secret to belonging. Please welcome Alex Wagner. Welcome back to the show. Thank you my friend. Doing so many things and finally writing your book, FutureFace. This is one of those stories where I felt like I was biased because I connected with it a lot as a mixed race person. There's always an interesting story that you tell yourself about your history. Yep. There's always an interesting story in discovering where you come from. FutureFace is really about that but where do you get the title from? In 1993 when I was very, very young there was a time magazine cover her herading the new face of America. It was this composite image of all the different races that would be dominant in the years

hence. And it kind of looked like me. So I said to myself, I'm future face. I am the face of America. I am an avatar of the future brought to the present to show you Americans what your future will look like. I feel like a lot of people have said that and thought that they go like, in the future, you know, we're all going to look like this.

And then Trump came and he was like, nah, uh, pause. Yeah, just pause on that. Yeah. But that idea is something that has stretched from that time. People go like, this is what it's going to be. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. th. th. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. thin. th. thin. th. th. th. th. thr. that. thr. 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. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, to. And, to. And, to. And, to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the. the. thetrace your family history in this book and it takes you down like a really scary part. Like what is what is your mix and what do you discover? So my mom is an immigrant from Rangoon Burma and my dad was born in a tiny town in Northeast Iowa called Lansing. And they had sort of, I had this idea about who I had this idea about who I was but really my identity was thapapapapapap. and Sibago Boat Shoes than it was about any particular axis of my identity. And that was nice, I think, but that wasn't real.

You know, there was not a lot to hold on to. And at a certain point, I began to feel the weightlessness of that. And I wanted to know more about who I was and where my community was, which is I thied, to to, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm to to, and I'm, and I'm to, and I'm to, and I'm to, and I'm to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, to, to, and, and, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, to, to. and, to.a, to.a, to to.a, to th.a, th.a, th.a, th.a, th.a, th.a, th.a, th.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. And, that, that, that, that, that, that, that th. And, th. And, and, and, th community was, which is I think something a lot of mixed-race kids want to know and a lot of Americans want to know, especially right now. And I began to unwind these family stories and realize what my family had been telling itself about where we'd come from was filled with obfuscations and have trues, and in some cases lies. And that we'd been covering up some pretty ugly parts of our own

histories. So this is my attempt at finding the ugly parts, putting some sunlight on them. But also coming to a place about like what does it mean to be an American today and what sacrifices are made along the way. When you were when you were researching your history, you you discover this information about your family, as everyone sort of knows the story of Burma. And people go like, oh Burma is the darling, and Burma, these are the people who were oppressed, and then you discover another side of your own people's history.

It must be difficult to accept that there's a piece of the story that isn't as romantic as you would like it to be, though. Not even just not romantic, but bad. thi. thiiii. thiii. 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, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thr. And, thr. And, thr-s. thr-s. thr-s. toooooooooooooooooooooooooom. And, thr-s, th be though. Not even just not romantic, but bad. I mean, I think especially for brown people, right? There's this idea that brown immigrants come to America and immediately become the sort of virtuous newcomers, and that all the bad things about America exist in the present day, and that there weren't bad things that happened back home. And what I realized is a lot of the sort of tribeism and nationalism that plague modern-day American politics were

a huge part of Burma's past and we're seeing the sort of harvest of that right now with the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma. Right. And what I realized is that, you know, my people in Burma could have been the ones wearing the like, make Burma great again trucker hats. And that's not something you think of as a person, thiiiiiiii, the the thi, thi, thi, the thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, 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, is, thi, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is a sort, is a sort, is a sort, thi, is a sort, thi, is a sort of, thr-s, thr-s, throoooooooooooooooooooooooo.eea.a. And, is a sorta, is a sort of, is a sort of, thi, is a And that's not something you think of as a person that is half brown, right? That the brown side might have been just as sort of ethnically nationalist as the white side. It is a difficult thing to interrogate, and it's a story that seems to repeat itself in America. Because you have many Americans struggling with the narrative of their past,

because it feels like they're being indicted for what their forefathers did. So you see it with the monuments, you see it with the South and the argument about the Confederate flag. People go, no, it was only about the good. Do you think that in many ways Americans like to romanticize or lie to themselves about the true story of their origins? Yes, I mean, it's In what way? Well my dad had this story, my dad was an avowed Democrat, progressive, liberal, right, but he had they had this idea that, you know, we just came to Iowa and we harvested God's bounty and how

great that was. But actually when you dig into it, there's a reason there weren't people of color in the town didn't allow them up from the South to claim the land when it was open to everybody else. But those stories about American history rarely dovetail with our own personal histories. And that's what this book is about. It's about taking the sort of American narrative and refashioning it with some truth. Right. It's a fascinating journey that you go on discovering about yourself, about your family. And I feel like that's served you well, because you do everything everywhere. I mean, I know you from CBS.

We know you from riding at the Atlantic. You're now working on the circus. I am. And it's a circus. Your most recent trip you took was to Russia. Like when everyone was like, oh, leaving, I'm like, I'm coming. We went to Moscow and we basically went through the looking glass. Like, we saw the Russian propaganda apparatus at its heart. Spoke with the Kremlin spokespeople, foreign ministry spokespeople, the head of RT, Russians

on the street. It is a parallel universe over there. And in what way? The denial of basic facts, which is something we can understand here in America, coming from a different place, and also the sort of resoluteness, that the truth that is being sort of sent out on Russian airwaves is the only truth. And when you speak to these people about that, when you speak to young Russians who you would think are connected and worldly, they believe this information wholeheartedly. What's happening to young Russians is something different. I think there's an older generation that doesn't sort of believe in America and still

harbors a lot of the same Cold War animosity. The younger generation is today. their generation is corrupted. the younger the younger the younger younger the younger the younger the younger the younger the younger the younger the younger the younger the younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger. The younger is the, the, the, theauiiiui, the, the, the is the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thiiii. T is thiiiiii. T is thiiiiiii. They is thiiii. They's is thiiiiiii. They's is thi. They's is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. thii. thi. America's elections are corrupted, Russia's elections are corrupted. American media is corrupted, Russian media is corrupted. And so there's this really dark apathy that set in that is really disheartening. When you when you speak to them, is there a fear that that kind of attitude could come through to America? I mean, sure. If we don't have more Trevor Noah's in the world. Oh, shucks. Like, keeping us worse. It's true.

No, but you know, actually, like, I mean, I think humor and analysis is also what keeps us alive and awake. And I didn't see a lot of that over there. Now, we didn't spend an infinite amount of time over there, but I mean, I think satire and conversation and dialogue, I mean this is what keeps our democracy alive. And that's the thing that I, you know, that I sort of lean on in the dark times, the end of days that we seem to be fast approaching. Right.

I like how you said that so it's a little dark day. You know, just the darkness at the end of days. No big deal. But, you know, we're still alive. We've still got still got still got still got still got still got still got still got a the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. tho. thoes. That's thoes. thoes. That's thi. thoen. thoome. thoomome. That's thoome. That's tho though. That's though. That's thi. That's thi. That's th. That's th. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. thea. tha. tha. tha. thea. tha. tha. thea. thea. thea. tha. thea. thia. thi. I th know, we're still alive. We still got a heartbeat. We're still alive. We've still got a heartbeat. Thank you so much for joining me on the show.

This is a fascinating book. FutureFace will be available April 17th. You can pre-order it now. The circus airs, Sundays at 8 p.m. on show time. Alex Wagner, everybody. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show Weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show.

to the Daily Show. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. John Stewart here. Unbelievably exciting news. My new podcast, The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election, economics, ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.

Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast.