The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Rex Tillerson Becomes the Latest Trump Casualty | David Byrne

Episode Date: March 14, 2018

Republicans on the Intel Committee do Trump a solid and drop their Russia probe, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gets canned, and David Byrne chats about "American Utopia." 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, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient-to-bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart wherever

you get your podcast. March 13, 2018. From Comedy Central's World News headquarters in New York. This is the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition. Thank you so much, everybody. Welcome to the Daily Show. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Trevor Noah. My guest tonight, my guest tonight, here to discuss his new album, American Utopia Music Legend. David Byrne is joining us, everybody.

David By the way, really excited for that. But first, if your name, if your name rhymes with Ronald Rump, then your friends in Congress have some really good news for you. Ranking news news this hour. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announcing they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they're now shutting down their year-long investigation. Yes.

Just me? Okay. Just me. The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee has declared Donald Trump innocence. Yeah. Which is sort of like your Roma therapist telling you that you don't have cancer. It's not remotely credible, but it makes you feel good.

Yeah. Now everyone else is waiting to see what Mueller has to say, but Trump has already moved on. Today the president spent time at the border, checking out the world's largest Lego project. President Trump is in the air on Air Force One headed to California where he will get a first-hand look at eight border wall prototypes. The round piece that you see up here or you see more clearly back there, the larger it is the better it is because it's very hard to get over the top. It's really deterrent from getting over the top. Who would think? But getting over the top. Who would think? Who would think? But getting over the

top is easy. These are like professional mountain climbers. You're incredible climbers. So, so wait, Mexicans are rapists and professional mountain climbers? I feel like this guy is just inventing new stereotypes now. You know if there's one thing I know about those Mexicans, they love their mountains, yeah. Almost as much as Egyptians love kayaking, yeah, yeah.. these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these these is these is these is these is these is like like these is these is like professional these is like professional these is these is these is these these these these these are like professional these these are professional these is these is these is these is these is these their, their, their, their, their, like professional their, their, their, their, like professional their, their, their, their, like professional, their, their, their, their, like professional, their, their, like professional, like professional, like professional, their their their their professional, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, their professional, their professional, their the know about those Mexicans, they love their mountains, yeah. Almost as much as Egyptians love kayaking. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and this was a slick move, just by the way. I don't know if you noticed, but you know Trump went to the border today because it's

Taco Tuesday. Nice move on. Someone was probably like, Mr. President, you know, we can't have thah tha, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. tha, we can't tha, we can't tha, tha, tha, 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. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. And, and thi. And, and thi. And, and thi. And, and thi. And, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, th no, I respect their culture. I respect it. But let's move on. Because the big news of the day wasn't about who Trump is keeping out. It's about who he's kicking out. This is an NBC News special report. Breaking news out of the White House, the president has asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to step aside, and he will be replaced with the current CIA director, Mike Pompeo.

That's right. President Trump has fired Secretary of State and human grumpy cats, Rex Tillerson. And this just continues an unprecedented run of people quitting or getting fired from the Trump administration. I mean, think about it, we're not even 14 months in, and look at all the people we've lost. This is like saving private Ryan numbers over here. Look at this, right? That's a shit-ton of people. And I'm not exaggerating. Rex was only one of three people who were fired today. Yeah, his aid was fired for explaining how Tillerson was fired.

And Trump's personal assistant was fired for possible financial crimes. Yeah, working for the White House is basically like being in a sore movie. thiiiiiiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thuu. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, tho- tho- tho- tho- tho- tho- tho- tho, tho, tho, tho, and I I I I th, I tho, I I tho, I I tho, I I tho, I I I tho, I thin, I thin, I thin, I thin, I thin, I thin, I thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thoan, thin, thoan, thin, the White House is basically like being in a sore movie, you know, you show up, you get tortured for a while, and then you get killed off. That's how it works. But of course, as always, the president whose catchphrase is literally, you're fired, didn't have the balls or the decency to tell Tilison the news to his face. The Secretary of State was informed the the of Staff, John Kelly, that the president had made a decision to relieve him of his duties, but did not say when that

would happen. He learned about his termination officially in a tweet by the president. Okay, I'm sorry, that's messed up. How can you fire a man in a public tweet? At least slide into his DMs. And the details of the story I've that I I have tooe tooe tooomtea tooome tooome tooe thoe thoe, I have thoe, I have thoe, I have thoe, thoe, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thoom. thi, thi, the, tho-a, tho-a, tho-s, tho-a, tho-s, tho-s, tho-s, tho-s, tho-s, tho-s, th. He, th. He, the the the th. He. He. He. Hea, the the the th. He. He. Hea, thi, thi-s, thi-s, the thi-s, thi-s, thi-s, the. Hea-s, theananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananananed-s, the. Hea-s, the details of the story I've only made it worse. Because when Trump decided to fire Tillerson, he was in Africa, right? He was busy meeting with shit-hole countries.

And it turns out the only reason that Tillisson came back when he did was that Chief of Staff John Kelly had warned him that he was going to get fired, which was lucky. Because imagine if this happened and he wasn't warned. He could have been in the middle of negotiations in Africa, and African leadership found out on Twitter before him, and he would have been like, you know what, I'm here to tell you what America requires, and they would have just been like, well, I'm here to tell you, I require you to suck my dick. Sir, do you know who I am, according to Twitter, an unemployed to to to to to to to to to to to to to todier todier to twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, tweetetweetweetweetweetweeth! Twitter, twea, tweetweetweetweetweeth! before twee, twee, twee twee, twee, twee, twee, twee, tweetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetet, tweetetetet, tweet, tweet, tweet, t, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twea, twee, and twee, twee, tweeatuuuuuiuuiuuu..eat, thauuuuuuiuuiuiuuiuiuiuiuiui, twe weight of the United States. I will give you the full weight of my balls Do you know who I am according to Twitter an unemployed man?

Now look we may never know the real reason Trump got rid of Tillison, but it's because Tillison disagreed with trump to true on lots of policy issues, you know from upholding the Iran nuclear deal to leaving the Paris climate accord or maybe Trump has a secret reason he would never tell us about. Maybe he's just like, I have to be honest, folks. Chilisin looks like a giant porcupine, and that scares me. And I know that's silly because porcupines aren't real. But if you want to see Trump and Tillison's relationship in a nutshell, the best example is just look at how they dealt with North Korea. Because at first, Tillerson tried diplomacy and then Trump did this. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the US is in direct channels of communication with North Korea

and looking into whether the regime is open to talks. Trump appeared to undermine a new diplomatic channel announced just yesterday by the Secretary of State. I told Rex Tillerson, he's wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocketman. All right, so that was Trump's message. Don't negotiate with North Korea. And Tillerson, the loyal soldier that he was, carried that message to the world. Then last week, this happened. With respect to North Korea, in terms of direct talks with the United States, and you asked negotiations, and we're a long ways from negotiations. Breaking news tonight, President Trump agreeing to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

Mr. Trump blindsided his secretary of state, agreeing to the talks only hours after Rex Tillerson dismissed the idea. Come on, man. These are some serious mind games. It's like Trump was trying to get Tillerson to break up with him. Let's go to the club. I hate the club. All right, let's stay in. Why don't you ever want to go out?

And today, when asked about the firing, President Trump even sounded like he was trying to be a sensitive ex. Rex. Very good man, I like Rex a lot. I really appreciate his commitment to his service. And I'll be speaking to Rex over a long period of time. You know, I wish Rex Tillerson a lot of good things. I think he's gonna be very happy. I think Rex will be much happier now. You know Trump is right.

Yeah, Rex Tillison will be much happier now. Everyone who leaves the White House ends up happier. Just look at this this this this thx thx this thx thx thx thx thx this thx thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'm thi, I'll thi, I'll thi, I'll thi, I's, I's, I's, I I I's, 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 thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I'll, I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. I'm thi. I this guy, all this guy, and especially this guy. Yeah. Why are you so happy Obama? We're dying over here. I've been kite surfing for two years. But Tennyson will be happier than most, because don't forget, he never wanted the job in the first place. He was a reluctant Secretary of State to begin with. He's on the record saying, I really didn't want the job job th th th th th th th th th tho tho tho th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho thi thi thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all this thi, all this thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all thi, all th. All th. All th. All th. All th. All thi, th. All thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. theeeo-s, theo-s, theo-s, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the first place. He was a reluctant Secretary of State to begin with. He's on the record saying, I really didn't want the job, my wife asked me to do it. Damn. Yeah, some wives asked their man to take out the garbage. This one told Tillerson to go live in it.

That's a devoted husband right there, man. Yeah, that's like the dopest things things things thi thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing thing th th th th th th, your husband bought you flowers. My husband works for Trump because I asked him to. But no, daisies are cute too. Yeah. No, you do you, girl. And look, when Tilison first took the job, a lot of people dissed him because he had no diplomatic experience. And he was the only cabinet member with arresting I've got shit on my shoe face. And you know what? Those people turned out to be right. Tilisoning, to listen, to listen, tooen, tooen, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, the too, too, the too, to to too, and, too, too, and, too, the the the too, too, too, too, too, too, too, to to 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 the th too, the too, too, too, too, too, too, too, the too, the the the the the the the the the the to be right. Tillerson was a pretty bad Secretary of State. He defended deep budget cuts to his department. He left many important positions unfilled, and his weak leadership had career diplomats leaving in droves. But even though he was a disaster overall, we should still be able to celebrate Rex Tillison's greatest achievements, which we celebrate tonight in Rex Tillison's greatest achievements. NBC News reporting that the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the president he serves

a moron. My source didn't just say that he called him a moron. He said an effing moron. He said an effing moron. Chilison, thank you for your service. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls.

What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the weekly show with My guest tonight is a legendary musician whose new album is called American Utopia. Please welcome, David Byrne. Welcome to the Daily Show. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Congratulations on your new album. You are a legendary musician.

We're a high chair. Okay. Welcome to the Daily Show. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Congratulations on your new album. You are a legendary musician. It has been a while since you put out a solo project. That clip that we saw might be confusing to some people because they'd be like, that's not David Burns singing.

How did that come together doing video clips, we ask kids, video students, performers like a choir or whatever in different towns, towns that are not known for maybe being in the limelight. Right. That we say, why don't you do it? You make the video, you guys, your high school video crew and your high school choir and everybody, you guys do it. And they did, and it came out beautiful.

It came out so beautiful that you decided to use that as the video. Well, yeah, and I also felt that, well, I felt that their version of the song is more moving and emotionally completely different than mine. Right. Mine is me, slightly paranoid, nerdy guy, worried about lots of people coming over to my house. And with them, the thing is, yes, everybody's welcome.

Right, it's a totally different thi. Totally different. And I thought, why didn't, why didn't I 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, 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, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi,, yes, everybody's welcome. Right, it's a totally different thing. Totally different vibe. And I thought, why didn't I get that? It's a beautiful, I guess, rendition of an idea that is encapsulated in the album. American Utopia is the title of the album. Why did you wait so long to release this? Were you looking for the most ironic time to have this title? Is that what you were going for?

Yeah. Yeah. When I tame upon the title, I thought, that's what people are going to think. They're going to think. This is completely tongue and cheek. It's a joke. thrown it. No, it's saying that we want something better. We want, we all long for something better. We all try to imagine, is this the way it has to be?

Could it be some, could it be different? And so I just thought, okay, I'm gonna put that out there. That feeling and that idea is something that's reflected in many aspects of your life, you know, reasons to be cheerful. So that's on your website, the the the the the themememememememememememememememememememem in the the the the the the the the life, you know, reasons to be cheerful. I saw that's on your website as well. That's like your theme in life right now. Do you think that as people we need to find more reasons to be cheerful? Yes. I personally, I started this, what turned into a project. Like a lot of people, I'd wake up in the morning, look at the paper and get really angry, depressed, etc. And I thought, but, and, and, and, and, I, and, I, and, I, and th, I, I, th th th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, 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 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 like, that's like, that's like, that's like, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, that's like, thi, thi, that's like, thi, thi, like, thi, thi, thi, thi, th up in the morning, look at the paper and get really angry, depressed, etc. And I thought, but then I started finding, I find something good.

Right. And it wasn't like cat rescued from a tree, good. And it wasn't billionaire gives money to a hospital good, because those things only just happened once. These were things that would happen somewhere in the world, in the US, Europe, wherever, and that somebody had an idea, tried it out, tested it, and it was successful. And I thought, that can be adopted, copied, modeled, in other places. This is a good thing.

So you were basically looking for stories and examples of people moving the world forward, as opposed to being frustrated by people who who, the the the US, the the the US, the the the the US, the the th, the th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, where, where, where, where, thus, where, where thus, where thus, where thus, where thus, in thus, in th, in th, in th, in th, in, where, where, where, in, where, where, where, where, where, in, in, where, in, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, where, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th., thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, where thus, where basically looking for stories and examples of people moving the world forward, as opposed to being frustrated by people who seem to me moving it back? Yes, exactly. And I thought, this is going to keep me sane. Otherwise, I'm going to lose my mind. How deep did you have to go into the newspaper to find that? Because I don't know what newspaper?

I'm like six pages deep and I'm like yeah, this is depressing. Yes, exactly Doesn't happen every day right and I read a few newspapers So sometimes there'll be nothing and then sometimes you find something go there it is right there's something right there. That's really? That's really encouraging. That's a reason to be cheerful like you've you've put out rock albums You've done theatre as well. One thing that has been really prevalent in your work is the creation of an image that goes just beyond, like beyond just the song. You are known as many people regard you as an artiste, as what they say, which is a word not many people use. So when they use it, you know they're being serious. And they go like, David Byrne is th, like th, like 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, 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, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. thiiiiiii. thi. thi. thi an artiste. Or they're making fun of me. One of the two.

I'll go with my version. I think it's better. I think it is more flattering. No, but people say you focus on everything in and around the image of what you're creating. It's the stage, it's how the performers look. It's what the performance is meant to make different in the show that reflects that idea? As you said, the live show reflects the idea somewhat. Right.

It's a completely empty stage. All the musicians are mobile. So the show is made by the people. Right. When you say mobile, you mean like the people, like they're carrying the stuff. Yeah, the drummer is like a drumline. Right. the the the d the d the d the d are the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the showers are all the showers are all the showers are all the showers are all the show. the live the live the live the live. The show 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 the show the show the show the show. The show. The show the show. The show. The show the show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show. The show is their. The show is their their the show is the show is the show is the show is the show is the show. the show. The show. The show. The show. the people. Right. When you say mobile, you mean like the people, like they're carrying the stuff. Yeah, the drummers, like a drumline. Right. The drummers are all carrying their stuff. There's six of them in order to get a full drum sound.

Right. And there's others, there's 12 of us and all. And so the show is us, the show is us. spectacle or exploding stuff for giant screens or whatever else. It's us as human beings. So you can perform while moving. We can perform while moving. Not all the drummers love that, but they're coming around. I like the idea that you guys just move around. You can be like, now to the corner and now to my house.

Yeah, and now to the supermarket. I forgot to buy bread. Now to the David. Come on, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to, th. the the, 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. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. to, the. to, the. toda. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th supermarket, I've got to buy bread. And now to the tapid, come on, man, you're killing us over here. But what inspired that? Why mobile? I realized it could be done, and I had never done before. I don't think anybody's ever done it before. And I thought, as I started thinking it through, I thought, this is kind of nice. It's about the humanity, it's about thiiiiiiii kind of thii kind of thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind kind of thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, kind of thi. thi. thi. thi, that that that that that that, kind kind kind kind kind kind kind of that, kind of thi, kind of thi, kind of thi, kind of thi, kind of kind of kind of kind of thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to to to to thi. to thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. that, that, that, thi. thi. th's about the humanity, the peoplehood of the performers. It's about us as people and not about all the crazy stuff going on. Right. The audience, and I think an audience relates to that. They relate to human beings. They relate to flame pots and everything

else too. But I mean flames and human beings is what we relate to as human beings. I feel like that's a common theme. If we look at the album, American Utopia, someone says to you, David, how is this going to make me feel? What do you want this album to make me feel? What would you say to them? I think the words in the record are sometimes dark, a little bit dark and sometimes disturbing, but they're tempered or countered by the kind of the musical feeling. The music is very uplifting, I think.

It's a great music and sometimes scary words. Sometimes scary words. That's a fantastic review. I've been talking to people in, there's one song about a point of view of a dog. Oddly, I just thought people are not going to get this. People are to be one of the people are liking that. Yeah, people are like that. I like the point of view of a dog. I find that all of New Yorkers will be like, yeah, I have the same point of view as a dog, to be honest with you.

Yes. It's an amazing album. You are a legend. Thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate your time. American Utopia is available now. David Byrne, everybody. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. The Daily Show with Trevor No. 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.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content and more. 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 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.