The Daily Show: Ears Edition - September Democratic Debate Special | Jamelle Bouie

Episode Date: September 13, 2019

Trevor covers highlights of the third 2020 Democratic primary debate, and New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie gives his take on the night. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Daily Show with Trevor Noah presents Vogasm 2020. This time, only the best. And five other candidates. Welcome to the Daily Show everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for coming out. I'm Shavanoa, the third Democratic presidential debate, ended literally moments ago, and we are coming to you live, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for coming to your live.

That's right. I'm Shavanoa, the third, Democratic presidential debate, ended literally moments ago and we are coming to you live people. We're coming to your live. That's right. We're live. You don't believe me, check your watch. Eleven o'clock, you see? Told you. Now, we'll get to what happened in the debate in just a second. But first, it's important to know what the stakes were coming in. Because you see, unlike previous debates, where all you needed to make it on stage, was just a permission slip from your mom. This one, this one had a higher threshold for entry. So only the top 10 candidates made the cut. 11 if you include Marian Williamson

debating from the dimension of the minds. So it meant for the first time, Biden, Warren, and Bernie were all on the same stage. Yeah. So this was a major milestone in the primary campaign, which is why proper debate preparation was more important than ever. This morning, the candidates are getting into debate mode in some unusual ways. Bettojord jamming on the drum.

Andrew Yang, shooting hoops. Pete Budajechegegge and Amy Klobuchar sharing the same flight. Budege tweeeting, very funny, United. Wow! I mean it was bound to happen. There's so many candidates flying to so many places it was going to happen. You know who I feel bad for? Anyone who happens to sit next to a presidential candidate on a flight? Can you imagine what it be like? So let me tell you about my 12-point plan and how we're going to get this country back. He's like, ah, can I sit next to the crying baby, please?

The only candidate I would want on my flight is Bernie Sanders, yeah? Because you know he'd start some shit. He'd be like, how come the 1% of the plane has 90% of the leg room? Let's go to first class and kill them. But the candidates weren't the only the only the only the only th w weren't the only ones preparing for tonight's debates. ABC News also took some extra measures to make sure things went smoothly. ABC News hired these local actors so producers could plan lighting and blocking techniques. We've got Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Representative Bettao or Rourke.

Wait, what? How lazy is the costing for this thing? No, I'm sorry, none of those people look like the candidates they're standing in. For the Bernie guy has a mustache, right? The Bero guy has a full beard. And the woman playing Elizabeth Warren isn't even Native American. I don't even know what that was about. I will give the actors some credit tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, no th, no th, no th, th, th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho tho tho tho tho tho tho thoo tho tho tho th they were only on stage for a few minutes, and yet they're all still polling better than Bill DiBlazio. So congratulations, y'all.

Now, one of the more interesting aspects of the Democratic debates has been an unlikely pundit who has emerged online. So, as per our debate night tradition, let's check in on the most recent political musings from Arrenthal James Simpson. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, the their, their, their, their, th, th, the the th. the the the, the th. th. the th. th. th. th. tho, 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. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. too too too too too too too the too too the the the the. One. the World, yours truly. I encourage all of you to try to find some way to watch these debates because we got to know who these people are and really what they're talking about. When it's over, do not listen to these pundits and these alleged experts tell you who won the debate. You have the vote.

You're the expert. I'm just te te te te te te te te te te te tell you who won the debate. You have the vote, you're the expert. I'm just saying, take care. Yeah. You shouldn't listen to the experts, you know, those people who'll tell you that blood spatter can't be in two places and someone did the crime. You just listen to yourselves. Come on.

I'm not surprised OJ's telling people not to listen to the witnesses. Look at him. He's like, come on, guys, do it like the way they did it with me. No scientists, no forensic experts. Also, also, I do like OJ making videos. I just want to let you guys know. I like that he's on Twitter making these videos, because then I know where he is right, palm trees, we're still safe, we're still safe. Is that Statue of Liberty? Where is he? So, with 10 Democrats lined up and ready on the stage, it was time to begin the third Democratic presidential debate. And while most of the candidates used their opening statement to pitch their

version of America, Kamala Harris decided to fast forward straight to her debate with Trump. First I have a few words for Donald Trump, who we all know is watching. So, President Trump, you've spent the last two and a half years full-time trying to sow hate and division among us, and that is why we've got nothing done. And now, President Trump, you can go back to watching Fox News. Oh, Kamala coming with the fire. You hear the crowd?

You know Trump is pissed off wherever he is right now, right? Yeah, he's probably shouting at the TV. Jokes on you. I got picture in picture. He was super furious. He's like, you know what, actually, you're fired again, Omarosa. I'm done with you. So Kamela Harris used her opening remarks to go directly at Donald Trump. But Andrew Yang, Andrew Yang went with a different approach. He just went with cold, hard cash.

It's time to trust ourselves more than our politicians. That's why I'm going to do something unprecedented tonight. My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now. If you believe that you can solve your own problems better than any politician, go to Yang 2020.com and tell us how $1,000 a month will help you do just that. This is how we will get our country working for us again, the American people. Whoa, look at Asian Oprah over here. Just giving everybody money? Yeah. And clearly Yang's

not willing to wait for the presidency to enact his policy. He's just going to do them now. And I mean it was a cool moment, but I'm glad none of the other candidates went with this approach. Can you imagine if Bernie was like, and I, okay, I will do my health care, free health care right now, drop your pants, everyone's getting a prostate exam, you getting an exam, you getting an exam, everyone's getting an exam. Speaking of free health care,

I hope Bernie has a voice doctor, because something was definitely off with his throat. This country is moving into an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of this country. No, Bernie, what happened to your voice?

Sounds all raspy and scratched up. It sounded like someone gave Bernie a comb and they were like, sir, I think this could help, and then he swallowed it. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I miss his voice. Bernie with a diminished voice is just not the same, man. It's like Luke Skywalker, but with a butter knife, you know, or OJ with a butter knife. And I'm not the only one who missed Bernie's voice. I bet he did too, because the most contentious topic at tonight's debate was Bernie's Medicare for All Plan, specifically whether it's a good idea to replace all private health insurance

with a government-run insurance plan. When it comes to our health care and what comes to our premiums, I go with the doctor's creed, which is do no harm. And while Bernie wrote the bill, and on page 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, 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 their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, their the, the, the, the, the, thean, thean, tean, tean, tean, tean, tean, tean, today's, thean, thean, is do no harm. And while Bernie wrote the bill, I read the bill. And on page 8, on page 8 of the bill, it says that we will no longer have private insurance as we know it. The problem Senator Sanders with that damn bill that you wrote and that Senator Warren Bax is that it doesn't trust the American people.

I trust the American people to make the right choice for them. Why don't you? Yeah, Bernie, why don't you trust the American people? And Bernie's probably thing I'll tell you why, because one in five Americans believes in Bigfoot. That's why. You want those Bernie's health care proposals, Julian Castro decided that this was the perfect moment to try and take down the king. The option I'm proposing is a Medicare for all, Medicare for choice.

If you want Medicare, if you lose the job from your insurance, from your employer, you automatically can buy into this. The difference between what I support and what you support, Vice President Biden, is that you require them to opt in, and I would not require them to opt in. They would not have to opt in. They would not have to to optic. They would not have to be in. They do not have to buy in.

You just said that would have to buy in. If she qualifies to medicaid, you're automatic to be informed? Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? Damn, Castro took it there. No, because he knows Biden's battling the narrative that he's a forgetful old man. Yeah, so he jumped on this opportunity to make Biden look old. Are you forgetting what you just said? Are you forget, and it didn't help that Biden seemed confused,

because he couldn't hear, right? So he couldn't come back. So then Biden was like, what did you just say to me? No, really, what did you just say? I forgot. Why did you just say? So that was health care. The next topic of the Democrats pretty much on the same page. They all agreed on reduced sentences, the need to fight racial bias,

and that snitches should get stitches. So it wasn't the most exciting topic, but things did get tense when the moderator shanked Kamala in the yard. Also a concern for people of color is criminal justice reform. Senator Harris, you released your plan for that just this week and it does contradict some of your prior positions. Among them, you used to oppose the legalization of marijuana, now you don't. You used to oppose outside

investigations of police shootings, now you don't. You've said that you changed on these and other things because you were, quote, swimming against the current and thankfully the currents have changed. But when you had the power, why didn't you try to affect change then? Ouch. I didn't believe in black-on-black crime until now. Because that question was hardcore. In fact, it was less of a question and more of just like a public shaming. And Kamalo was clearly not impressed. I mean, that's the face you make when someone walks into the middle of a staff meeting and just starts reading your browser history. It's just like, penis pumps.com, hamster porn.net, MySpace. And you're like, take that back. I was never on my space. I mean, just look at Kamala's face. You can see she was like, I don't lock anyone up anymore, but I'm willing to make an exception to to make an exception to make an exception to make an exception to make an exception. And to make to make a exception. And to make a exception. And to make, to make, to make, to make, to make, to to to make, to to to to to to to to make, to to to to to to me, the to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me. I to me. I'm to me, to me, 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. the. I. throwne. throwne. I'm th th th th th th th th th th threat. th th threat. th topic, another topic that had Democrats on the same page

was the need for stronger gun control laws. But one candidate stood out amongst the rest. You said, quote, Americans who owned AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell them to the government all of them. You know, the critics call this confiscation. Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work? I am if it's a weapon that was designed to kill people On a battlefield

Hell, yes, we're gonna take your AR-15 your AK-47 We're not gonna allow it to be used against a fellow Americans anymore that is a balsy statement from bed or rock because I don't think any other candidate has said flat out they're going to confiscate guns. And he said it was such confidence as well, which is not the way I would talk about taking away assault rifles from people who like to shoot. Yeah, if I was going to take someone's AR-15, I'd be a lot more sneaky about it. Be like, Trevor, are you here to take my rifle? I'd be like, oh no, no, no, no,

that's just here in the neighborhood. This is hanging out, just like, oh, what's that? Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. So that was guns. Next up came immigration, right? The candidates told the audience how they planned to undo the policies enacted by Trump. No more kids in cages, increased legal immigration, give everyone free ladders to climb over the wall. But when it came to Joe Biden,

the moderator was more interested in hearing his opinions on President Obama's policies. You serve as Vice President in an administration that deported 3 million people, the most ever in US history. Are you prepared to say tonight that you and President Obama made a mistake about the most ever in US history. Are you prepared to say tonight that you and President Obama made a mistake about deportations? Why should Latinos trust you? This is the president who came along with the DACA program.

No one had ever done that before. This is the president who sent a legislation to desk saying he wants to find a pathway for the 11 million undocumented in the United States of America. Yeah, but you didn't answer the 11 million undocumented in the United States America. Yeah, but you did answer the question. Did you make a mistake with those deportations? The president did the best thing that was able to be done at the time. How about you? I'm the vice president of the United States.

Oh, I was not a good look for Biden. Because this always happens, right? When Obama is being praised, Biden jumps into the picture with him. But then when Obama's being criticized, Biden's like, look, man, I was the vice president. I didn't do shit. Vice president doesn't do shit. Yeah, I don't even give you the keys to the White House.

You have to wait for someone to come unlock it for you. But like, you can't take all the credit. to to to. to. to. to. to. to. the to. to. the the their. their. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. thrown. I's thrown's thrown. I was thrown. I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was the the vice president. I was thr. I was thr. I was the vice. I was the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I the vice. I. I the the thrown. I. I was. I was thrown. I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was thr. thr. thr. thr. thr. thr. thr. thi. thr. thi. thr. thi. I was thi. I was like, I was and they were like, Batman is a deranged vigilante destroying Gotham with his rocket launching cars, he's a bad man. And Robin's like, hey man, I'm just a sidekick. Like, do you see Robin signals in the sky? No, no, it's not the Robin Mobile. We don't have a Robin Cave. Yeah, yeah. By the way,, the candidates on stage tonight wanted to make one thing very clear.

They roll with Barack. I want to give credit first to Barack Obama for really bringing us this far. We would not be here if he hadn't a courage. We all owe a huge debt to President Obama. What I favor is something that what Barack Obama wanted to do from the very beginning. Well, I'm for Barack. I'm fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama and you're not.

Wow. That's the power of Barack Obama. Almost four years later, so many Democratic candidates are still trying to wrap themselves in his legacy. He was getting so much love at tonight's debate. I bet Michelle was looking at him like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, is something something something something something something something something, like, like, like, is something, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is thi, is tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thei. I'm thei. theiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. I'm thei. I'm the. I'm thrying to wrap themselves in his legacy. He was getting so much love at tonight's debate. I bet Michelle was looking at him like, is there something you want to tell me? Huh? We're smashing all these candidates?

And Obama was like, no, no, no, I was just the president. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new 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 Daily Show. My guest tonight is a New York Times opinion columnist and political analyst for CBS News. Please welcome, Jamel Bowie. Welcome for the show, much to be here.

So here we are. It is officially the third presidential democratic debate. You saw the ten strongest contenders. You saw the 10 strongest contenders. People were really focused on the four up top. When you look at this debate, though, fundamentally, do you think Democrats are getting the right message across on the screen on the nights? I think that for the Democratic primary voters who just really want to beat Trump, that's the only thing they care about. Kind of, right? The first 20 minutes of the debate was spent arguing about health care and health care is very important. But we've

kind of rehashed, we've had that debate before. It's rehashing past things. I think what a lot of democratic voters just want to know is how capable are you going to be on a debate states with Trump. How able are you going to be to beat Trump. And some of that was discussed. A lot of other stuff was discussed as well about policy, but I'm not sure that Democratic voters are all that invested in these policy conversations. That's interesting. So do you think the Democratic primaries should be more focused on like who looks good on stage,

who sounds good, who has a feeling of being presidential, because it's mostly Democratic voters who are going to to to to happen? So the crazy thing is, Democratic voters really want to beat Trump, and they have firm ideas about what being electable means. But the fact that Trump is president means that literally anyone's electable. So it's hard to figure out exactly who on that stage would be best for that task. Is it Biden who polls very well consistently high against Trump, very conventional former vice president? Is it Bernie Sanders who also polls very well against Trump has much more left-wing views than Biden? But again, does well in the head-to-head polls and a lot of

Biden voters really like Berni voters really like Biden. Or is it Warren or is it Harris? And I think part of the trouble for Democratic voters is that there's no clear-cut way to actually determine who is going to be the best up against Trump, who is the most electable. And so part of what we saw at the debate was them trying to figure out ways to position themselves for this particular task or also trying to criticize on the issues where each of them sort of have their niche. You know what's interesting as well is people want to pitch themselves as a president and

at the same time they want to pitch why they would be a better president than Obama without at the same time slamming Obama for anything that he did. There seems to be like this weird balancing game between each panel. I loved Obama, but this is th.. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I 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. People thi. People thi people thi people thi people thi people people thi people people people thi people thi. People thi. People 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 this is what now Obama was great, but this is what I would do. How much more progressive do you think this field is than Obama was? Like when you look at them holistically, and do you think they have to find that balance, or should they just be like, no, I'm doing it differently? I mean, I think overall the field's quite a more progressive go for. I think this is really acute on immigration. You saw this during the debate when Vice President Biden said, you know, we didn't jail people and Hulean Kostra was like, wait a sec. You did?

I recall a very different immigration policy, and I think immigration specifically is going to be this issue where there is an attempt to create distance with Obama because a lot of Democratic voters want a more liberal and humane immigration policy, but there's also this thing of wanting to show that, you know, I'm with the Obama presidency. I recognize Obama was a great president. I support him. And that's a thing that I think they're trying to figure out how to do. It seems like on health care, you they they they they they th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi is thi is thi is thi's thi's thi's thi. thi. thi's thi. thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi. thi's thi. thi. thi. thi's is is thi. thi's thi's thi's thi is thi is thi is thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. I's is is thi. I's is thi. I's is thi. I's thi. I's thi. I's thi. I's thin. I's thin. toeeeeeean. toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooe. they have their arguments, but people agree on the universal aspect of it. You know, the main issue is private insurance, no private insurance, but otherwise people agree. People seem to agree on guns, background checks, etc. Immigration seems to be the place where people are getting tripped up. Yeah.

Is there a win for Democrats in the space of, do you deport people or do you say that all immigrants who come into the country undocumented can stay? I don't hear anybody with like a clean answer whenever they ask that question. Is there a clean answer? I think I mean I think that's a clean answer. I think that some candidate, I think cashers one of them has made the case that you need to decriminalize certain parts of border to make it so that you're not throwing people in a jail for what are basically civil crimes. I think what Democrats should embraces the fact that public opinion is what political scientists call a

thermostatic. It moves in the opposite direction of the person in office. And so Trump is very anti-immigrant and the public since 2017 has become increasingly more pro-immigrant, more pro-immigration, more pro-humane immigration policies. So, I mean, these are politicians, so they should try to be politicians and be a little vague but also embrace the fact that Americans have swung in the opposite direction and really do want to change in terms of the kind of immigration policy the government's doing. That's an interesting, as you say say, be say, be say, be say, be say, be to say, be to say, be th say th say say say thi say thi say thi say thi, be thi, be thi, be thi, be thi, be 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. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. theeei. thi. thi. thi. to change in terms of the kind of immigration policy the government's doing. That's an interesting, as you say, be a little bit more vague because there was one point where they were asking Elizabeth Warren, will the taxes go up specifically? Will taxes on the middle

class go up? And then they specifically asked Biden, would you increase the number on immigration? And specifically, Bernie, what would you do with, myself asking myself one question and that was, does Trump have an advantage because he will just blatantly lie on a debate stage? They go like, who'll pay for a wall, Mexico? What are you going to do with ISIS? I've got a secret plan. Right. Does that give him an advantage in a debate? I think it does. I mean, one of the strangest things to me about all of this is that Trump has no policy ideas. Like you said he kind of the, the, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thi, thi, thi, to to thin, thin, 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 thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, the thin, the the the theee. the the theeee. theeiii. theii. toooooooo He will give you whatever answer he needs to get to the next question or get out of the interaction. And the press treats him like that. Whereas everyone knows that Democrats actually care about stuff. Right. And they have policies. So the press treats them like they care. And so that creates an automatic asymmetry because when you care, you do actually want to get the details, you want to make sure you're not doing something terrible.

If you don't care either way, if it does not matter to you what happens, if you are just trying to pander to the greatest number of people, like President Trump often is, then yeah, you can just say whatever. And it's hard to deal with that in the contexthap 30-second response in a debate. Well, tonight was an interesting night. We'll see how the numbers start rolling out. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Thank you. Jamel Bowie, everybody. The Daily Show with Covernoa, 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. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube 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.