The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Kamala Harris Takes on Fox News, Trump Rambles on Univision, and Laverne Cox Fights for LGBTQ Rights

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Desi Lydic breaks down Kamala Harris’s fiery exchange with Fox News’s Bret Baier and Trump’s rambling Univision town hall. Grace Kuhlenschmidt reports live from an actual lion’s den to discuss the candidates stepping out of their media bubbles. Laverne Cox joins on Spirit Day to discuss the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and how transphobia is being weaponized in the 2024 election. Tech journalist Kara Swisher talks about her memoir, "Burn Book: A Tech Love Story," and the strange Musk-Trump alliance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host Desi Lydic. Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Jenny Leiting. We've got so much to talk about tonight. The GOP doubles down on transphobia.

Fox News puts Kamala in the hot seat and Donald Trump is embarrassing. En español. So let's get right into it with another installment of Indecision 2024. Most of this campaign, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have stuck to doing friendly interviews. Kamala Harris has gone on MSNBC and The View, and Donald Trump has gone on outlets favorable to him like Newsmax and the No Fatty's podcast with the Rufy Bros, sponsored by Creatine. But this week, they tried something new.

She's going into the lion's den of Fox News. Kamala Harris went into the lion's den. Kamala Harris went into the lion's den and came out on skates. Donald Trump last night had a town hall in Univision. He goes into rooms that are not very friendly. Donald Trump is willing to walk into the lion's den. Yes.

Both Kamala and Trump went into the lion's den this week. Although they only got Trump there by telling him it was the name of a strip club. Now, Kamala's lion's den was Fox News. So I guess it was a Fox den where she sat down with Brett Baer, so maybe it was a Baer's den. Anyway, it doesn't matter what animal it was. The point is it was very tense.

The first bill, practically within hours of taking the oath, was a bill to fix our immigration system. Yes ma'am. It was called the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. Exactly. It was essentially a U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. Exactly. It was essentially a pathway to citizenship for the... May I finish responding, please?

You have to let me finish. There were no concerns raised? Joe Biden is not on ballot. I understand. And Donald Trump is. But you talked about it. And Donald Trump is. After George Clooney said, within a few minutes of talking to President Biden at a fundraiser,

that he thought this was not the, right, Donald Trump is on the bound. I understand, Madam Vice President, all of this money that has gone in the past few years, critics say that it goes to Hezbollah, Hamas, and hoodies. We're talking over each other. I apologize. Sorry, can we get that mute button from the debate so she can complete a sentence? Come on, Brett. You invited her on to speak with you.

This is an interview with the vice president, not sex with your wife. You have to let the woman finish. Come on. The whole interview is like this. When he wasn't trying to shut her up, he was trying to put words in her mouth. If that's the case, why is half the country supporting him? Why is he beating you in a lot of swing states? It's not supposed to be, it is not supposed to be a cakewalk for anyone. So are they misguided, the 50%? Are they stupid?

Oh God, I would never say that about the American people. I would never say that about the American people. I would think it, I'm only human, but I would never say that about the American people. I would think it. I'm only human, but I would never say it. Never. Come on, Brett. That was such an obvious trap. Now, Madam Vice President, just put on this I'm with stupid t-shirt and stand next to

this map of the United States. So that was Kamala's experience in the lion's den, an interview with the news network that openly serves as the propaganda arm of her opponent. But Trump also faced down his biggest fear. Hispanic people. He attended a Univision town hall where one man asked him about January 6th, and if I'm reading that man's facial expression correctly, he was not impressed. You know what happened during January 6th and the fact that you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol.

These are people that walked down. This was a tiny percentage of the overall, which nobody sees and nobody shows. But that was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I know that look. That's the look that your dad gives you when you've obviously been lying to him.

No dad, actually they switched all the grades around so now F is the highest. Anyway, before you go out to the garage, I don't know where the car is. But that face, that face makes total sense because what is Trump talking about? January 6th was a day of love? Sure, we all remember January 6th. That was the day when countless rioters found their soulmate. Wait, I read that wrong. Cellmate.

They got cellmates. Cellmate. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! And in fact, the whole audience was one big reaction gift.

Just watch the crowd's reaction as Trump continues his rambling answer on January 6th. Some of those people went down to the Capitol. I said, peacefully and patriotically, nothing done wrong at all, nothing done wrong. And action was taken, strong action. Ashley Babbit was killedabbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. Yes, this, this is the appropriate reaction to when Trump speaks. I have never felt more sane.

I can't believe I had to watch Univision to feel like I had representation on TV. Feels good. So Kamala and Trump spent this week in the lion's den. The question is, did it help them? To answer that question, we go live now to Grace Kuhlenschmitt. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! Grace, what are you, wait, sorry, where are you right now? Where am I? I'm in a lion's den, duh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! No, Grace, that was a metaphor. You know the candidates weren't literally in lion's dens, right? Oh, no, Grace, that was a metaphor. You know the candidates weren't literally in lion's dens, right? Okay. And now I do. Sorry I didn't realize we were all speaking in riddles.

Grace, they were never going to meet in a real lion's den. Why would they do that? Yeah, honest mistake on my part. Okay. But maybe they should. Those interviews yesterday taught us nothing new about them, but here in the lion's den, I've already learned so much about myself.

Like, for example, I've learned I don't like being in a lion's den. Uh, also, I learned I love black pants. I pissed myself and no one knows. I mean we all do now. Great! That's great because interviews are about honesty. You know, I get to the truth.

I dot my eyes and I piss my pants. I also learned that the lions don't care that I'm gay. Yeah, if they eat me, it's with full acceptance of who I am. In here, we're not Republican or Democrat, we're just predator and prey. We've lost sight of that in this country and that breaks my heart. Grace, it sounds to me like you just skimmed the email

I sent you, went to a lion's den and are now trying to spin it into something more profound. That's exactly right, Desi. See, this is the kind of honesty you can only get inside the den. So if the candidates want to prove their worth to the American people, I challenge them to meet me here with an open heart and a fresh pair of pants. Okay, graceful engagement, everyone.

When we come back, Laverne Cox will be joining us, so don of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Daily Show. We all know I've got great opinions, but I'm not the only one. Studies show that other people also have opinions. So here with another installment of In My Opinion is our good friend Laverne Cox. ["In My Opinion"]

["In My Opinion"] Thank you so much. As you can see, I'm wearing purple and it's not just because I look great in it. I look great in it, right? ["In My Opinion"] I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right?

I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right?

I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right?

I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? I look great in it, right? Now. Now, when you think of bullying, you probably think it's happening in schools. And you'd be right. But these days, the bullying is also happening from people way more immature than teenagers. Politicians. To surge an anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country with more than 500 bills so far this year. 11 states limit instruction around sexual orientation

or gender identity in schools. 25 states bar transgender minors under 18 from having gender-affirming care. 22 states banning trans kids from school sports. And you thought the government couldn't get anything done. Great work, lawmakers. Thanks for making sure schools don't teach about sexual orientation or gender identity,

because pretending trans kids don't exist means they disappear. Just like pretending climate change doesn't exist means it disappears, too. So I guess we'll never know why my tits are sweating in December. Now with all these anti-trans laws one would assume it's because the country is overrun with trans kids taking over sports right? Republicans pushing for the ban have been unable to point to any evidence of a problem. How many girls in Georgia have been unable to point to any evidence of a problem.

How many girls in Georgia have been denied opportunity because of transgender athletes participating in sports? Yeah, so obviously there's not a lot of statistics on that. So there are none in Georgia? Again, I don't have any hard data on that. Hmm. No hard data. Okay, that's okay, no, hon.

I understand. I'm sure that not having anything hard is something you're used to. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Now, these lawmakers claim the purpose of these bills is to protect kids, but the reality is, anti-trans laws actually lead to more school bullying of trans and queer kids, and that is so disappointing to see,

especially from governors like Ron DeSantis. The way that man rocks a pair of high heels. You'd think he'd be an ally. And as the election gets closer, the Republican party is going all in on its transphobia. Since the beginning of August, Republicans have spent more than $65 million on ads focusing on transgender issues in over a dozen states. Baldwin supported efforts to allow sex change surgeries for minor children. Sex change operations attempting to make young boys into girls. Tester even wanted to let men use girls bathrooms and locker rooms. Boys and girls bathrooms. Boys and girls locker rooms.

Boys and girls sports. Kamala's for they them. President Trump is for you. Oh, look who finally learned how to use pronouns. But seriously, $65 million on anti-trans ads? Do you know how disappointing it is to finally have someone spend $65 million on me, and it's for this crap? I didn't want hateful attack ads.

I wanted a house in the hills with six walk-in closets. But with anti-trans messaging playing such a large role in our politics, it's no wonder we're seeing so much anti-trans violence and suicide. And that's something we do have hard data on. I didn't pull that fact from the same place Republicans get their information, www.StraightOutOfTheirAss.com. Uh. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Mm.

Never. Mm. But this is straight out of the bigotry handbook. Using dehumanizing language on marginalized groups provides a permission structure to attack them because when people are rendered no longer human, you can take away their rights, commit violence against them with impunity. But trans people are people.

People with actual thoughts and feelings. And maybe a slight online shopping addiction that they're trying to get a handle on, but then Prime Day comes along, and what if I need a gazebo, even though I live in an apartment? LAUGHTER APPLAUSE Hypothetically speaking,

we're just trying to live our lives. We just simply want to be who we are and not experience stigma, violence, and discrimination for it. And most people understand this, but because that is such a simple and non-controversial truth, Republicans have to flood the airwaves with made-up fear-mongering like this. Can you imagine your parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Now girl you think teachers

can convince kids to get gender from and care? Teachers can't even convince kids to wear deodorant. And here's the crazy thing. It doesn't even work for their electoral chances. Republicans tried anti-trans campaigns in 2022, and they were unsuccessful. So why are they doing them again? Is it possibly because it's easier than actually solving problems that exist?

Yeah, that is the reason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Laverne, you're so smart. Thank you, I know.

Or maybe it's because they truly feel that we're the demons they say we are. But something tells me these Republicans are obsessed with us on a deeper level. Mark Robinson apparently was cheering on transgender porn, K-file reporting on this message board, one of the things he wrote in cover years. That's effing hot.

It takes the man out while leaving the man in, Robinson wrote. for one of the things he wrote, and cover your ears. That's effing hot. It takes the man out while leaving the man in, Robinson wrote, and, yeah, I'm a purr of two. Now, if you had told me that anti-trans politicians were secretly watching and loving trans porn, I would have said, duh. Now, I'm 52 years old, and if I had a dime for every conservative man who's tried to get with me. I could get that house in the hills. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, some people might think that this means self-described pervs like Mark Robinson like trans people. But in reality, turning us into sex objects is just another way of dehumanizing us. And I think it's time to stop dehumanizing

and start rehumanizing each other. Whoo! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll start. Mark Robinson, I don't see you as just another evil bigot who hangs out on nudeafrica.com. I see you as a human being with needs and hopes and, yes, contradictions like the rest of us. And also the ability to type very astutely with only one hand. We see you, Mark. We see all of you.

Specifically, we see all of you on this map. This map shows the top searches for trans porn are all in red states. Oh yes, that is real data honey. Oh yes. And sorry to break it to you. I'm also sorry to break it to you that incognito mode did not work. We see you. We see all of you. And all we ask is that you see us too. And that you pull your damn pants up. The Burn talks everybody! We'll be bringing you on the show so don't go away.

I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be here. show, so don't go away. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother, a lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad free with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to the Beauty Show. I guess tonight is a journalist and entrepreneur who hopes on with Kara Swisher and Pivot.

Her latest bestselling book is called Burn Book, a tech love story. Please welcome Kara Swisher. Yeah! Yeah! Here, give me that. Give me that. Can I borrow? This is my book. Can I borrow? This is my book now.

You gave this to me. It's my book. Can I borrow? This is my book now. You gave this to me, it's my book now. Okay, you can hold it, but you have to give it back. I watched. Spitting image. Yes, it is. How did that happen? I gotta tell you, I enjoyed this very much.

Thank you. It says a tech love story, but it reads like a burn book, baby. That's correct, yeah. Very, very burning, very searing. It is searing. One thing that I learned from this is that early on in your career you kind of had these two paths that you could go down. You could cover politics. Yeah which

is where you wanted to be at the Washington Post. Right that was like the sure-track path for you or you could cover tech and you chose to cover this emerging new world. I did. I did. And oddly enough, I would have been during the Clinton administration, so I would have done the blue dress stories, which would have been riveting as a reporter. Oh, sure. But there was something about what was happening. AOL was a company I started covering because it was in the, ha, laugh, in the Washington area. One person in the crowd is like, oh, yeah, yeah, I know. But when I went out there and met Steve Case

and started meeting the Yahoo people and everything else, I realized everything was about to change. And it was pretty easy to see that everything that could be digitized would be digitized. And I was the young person, which is why they gave it to me at the time, no longer. But they were like, give it to the young person. And that's why I got it.

And I got riveted immediately. You could see they were like give it to the young person and that's why I got it and I got riveted immediately. Yeah. You could see they were gonna change everything. You are the leading expert in this world. In the world. In the world. In the universe really. Let's go bigger. Me and space Karen Elon Musk. Oh we'll get to him. Okay all right. I think most startups would probably say that they get into it because they want to change the world. They want to make this a better place. They want to help society.

But these companies, Meta, Google, Amazon, do you think that there's some disillusionment that what they think that they're doing is beneficial? Oh, I never thought they thought that. I just think they just said that, along with the fact they'd wear hoodies, but they'd be cashmere hoodies. So they cost six hundred dollars. So, you know, they say things, but they don't mean them.

And one of my first stories for the Wall Street Journal when I got there was things they say and then things they actually mean. Like, you know, I'm not the CEO, I'm the chief evangelist, chief Yahoo, whatever. But in fact, they ran and controlled the companies like they were emperors and in fact Mark Zuckerberg utterly controls Metta There's nobody else that can make decisions there and his favorite hero is Augustus Caesar Which is people don't realize comforting. I know yeah And when I tried to explain to him since he didn't finish college that Augustus He ever killed millions of people. he was like, you know, details. He said that?

Details. Something like that. Yeah, yeah. Can we talk about this weird transformation that all these tech bros have? Because something happens to them over the years. We have some examples here. This is, here he is, Zuckerberg. So in his own, then Bezos.

I remember those pants. He wore them a lot. Yeah, and then the Elon. When he didn't have hair. Right, that's interesting, that went in reverse. Yeah, that's a nice picture of him. There's some others that aren't. What happens, is there like a douche code

or something that they... Well, you know, it's interesting, when you get that rich, you can avail yourself to all kinds of, say, human growth hormone or steroids or whatever, and they wanna sort of live forever. avail yourself to all kinds of, say, human growth hormone or steroids or whatever. And they want to sort of live forever. My next book is about this, actually, the fact that a lot of this live forever stuff has been started by tech people, because they want to live forever.

And you continue to have their brain. I mean, a lot of people think AI, especially because there's so many men running it, especially white men, it's their way of having children, right? That they want to continue themselves through the AI. All just ego, just crazy ego. Narcissism, ego, delusion, things like that. Yeah. What is your perspective on AI in terms of what is the thing

that you're most excited about that you think could be the most beneficial? Lots of stuff, lots of stuff. You know, the stuff around cancer research, gene folding, drug discovery, all kinds of stuff, climate change, it could be really big. The thing I'm most worried about is the people running it. It's the same small group of people

who are the richest people in the world and on their way to being trillionaires. And so these are trillion dollar companies with exactly no regulation on them by our government since it started. They're zero. Are you hopeful that there could be some legislation, some kind of regulation? No.

Really? Not even a little bit? No. And it's interesting because a lot of people think there is. I was just on this panel with a Trump guy and I said, how many laws do you think govern the internet the way pharmaceuticals or airlines or whatever? And he goes, hundreds. And I go, zero, but you were close.

There are zero. And the money they bring to bear is so massive that things don't get passed, and then it gets sucked up into the First Amendment arguments, which are false arguments about privacy and your data. That is yours, but it gets sucked up into I should be able to say whatever I want, except it's the free speech they want versus you want,

and that's the difference. And so they use free speech as a cudgel, and they use it to protect them from crimes or damage or anything else they do. And they don't want to take responsibility, which is why their businesses are so good. They aren't paying the price that the rest of us pay when we hit a car, our insurance goes up, et cetera.

They have a thing called Section 230 that gives them broad immunity. Very similar to what Trump has now from the Supreme Court, but they can do anything. They can walk down, not they can't walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot people, but it's akin to that. They can't be sued, there's no legislation, and they're the richest people on earth.

How do we imagine that's gonna turn out? What can be done about that? Yeah, but you know what? I want to move on with that. I would say iPhone 16 rocks, but go ahead. Yeah, it's all worth it for the upgrade, for the 16. Is there anything that can be done about that? Well, getting money out of politics. And the thing is they've now moved into politics, as you've noticed.

I don't know if you noticed Elon jumping all over the stage, but they've realized how cheap politicians are to buy. Because politicians are cheap whores, that's why. OK. OK. OK. OK. I'm going to use that.

I'm going to use that. I'm really coming out. I mean, it costs Peter Thiel $30 million to get JD Vance as senator. And I always love Rachel Maddow's expression, which he calls JD Vance Peter Thiel's failed intern, tech intern, which I think is fair, fair. What is this bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk?

Are you, you say you think it's gonna crumble and fail miserably. There can be only one attention whore, speaking of whores. But I do think that even when he was jumping around the stage, did you notice Donald Trump like, hmm, sucking up my oxygen? He didn't love it. He didn't love it.

And they didn't like each other before. Trump attacked him relentlessly. I have so many texts that was attacking Trump, very similar to JD Vance. Didn't like him, thought he was an idiot, called him an oaf and things like that. And then suddenly he realized whatever happened to him, and it's a mix of COVID issues around his family.

Obviously the journals written about his ketamine use and everything else. And so this combined into this, he sort of soured the way the internet did, the way Twitter did. But now he sees how easy he can manipulate Donald Trump because it's not very hard. And especially he just,

$75 million is very attractive to someone like Donald Trump, because it's not very hard. And especially, you just, $75 million is very attractive to someone like Donald Trump. Of course. I have one final question for you, as the tech expert in the entire universe. The universe, yeah. What happens if I don't accept the cookies? We're way past cookies now. You're one sweet cookie.

Thanks for coming on. Thank you. The third book is available now. Karen Fischer, everybody. We're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back after this. That's our show for tonight. Now here is your moment of death. These people eat people's pets. My question to you, very respectfully, is

do you really believe that these people are eating the people's pets? Thank you. Well, thank you very much. This was just reported. I was just saying what was reported that's been reported. And eating other things too that they're not supposed to be. But this is all I do is report.

Explore more shows from The Daily Show Podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. Paramount Podcasts. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account

that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother, a lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free with a 48-hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.