The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Teachers Take to the Streets & Kanye West Says Slavery Was a Choice | Michael Hayden

Episode Date: May 3, 2018

Teachers go on strike throughout the U.S., Kanye West takes heat for referring to slavery as "a choice," and Michael Hayden discusses his book "The Assault on Intelligence." 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. May 2nd 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 Trevinoa. I'm Trellanoa. Our guest tonight, our guest tonight, the former head of the CIA and the NSA, here with a new book, Michael Hayden is joining us everybody. But first, let's get into the news. French President Emmanuel

Macon is still on his world tour. And during a press conference down in Australia, things got a little, awkward. French President Emmanuel McClain raised a few eyebrows during a press conference in Australia by calling Prime Minister Malcolm Turbel's wife, quote, delicious. I wanted to thank you for, you and your delicious wife. Oh, back off Pepe le Puepeu, it's someone's wife. You know, it would have been cool if the Australian Prime Minister thought it was some sort of custom and just rolled with it.

I know if he was like, oh, thank you, President McCurne. Yeah, your wife is quite shaggable as well. I'll totally snack on her, yeah. Now, apparently this was caused by a little translation issue, because apparently the French word for delicious also means delightful. Which is good, yeah. For a minute though, I was worried. I was worried that when Macron came to the US, instead of him rubbing off on Trump, it was

trump that was rubbing off on him. Like they held, they held hands and. Who's gonna pay for it? Belgium, Belgium. Delicious. Speaking of delicious, let's check in with Harold Bornstein, Trump's former doctor and aging Bongo salesman. Now, you may not remember this, but the reason we all came to know Dr. Borenstein was because back in late 2015, he wrote Trump an official doctor's letter saying that Trump was so healthy, that we'd be dumbed not to have him as a to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have him. to have him. to have him. to have to have 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, the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to, to, to, to, to, to, to to that Trump was so healthy that we'd be dumb not to have him as president. Well today we learned something about the letter that we

suspected all along. This morning the doctor who during the campaign proclaimed President Trump will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency says that diagnosis came straight from Trump himself. Dr. Harold Bornstein, President Trump's longtime doctor in New York, signed and released this letter with that statement in December of 2015. But now CNN reports Dr. Borenstein told them those were Trump's words. Quote, he dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter. He wrote it himself. Yeah, of course Trump wrote it himself.

Really, the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency? This is the least surprise reveal ever. It's like if at the end of the sixth sense, they were like, and Bruce Willis was alive the whole time. But like, yeah, that's what we thought. I'm just amazed by how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how how that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that, that's what we thought. I'm just amazed by how everything in Trump's world turns out to be a lie. Like, even his doctor's note is a lie.

His doctor's note. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if Dr. Bornstein is just Trump in disguise. You take off the glasses, you know, you shaved the beard, take all the hay on the sides, put it on top. I'm just saying. I I I I I I I I I I I just just. I I I I I I I th. I th. I th. I th. I'm just just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just just just, I'm just just just, I'm just, I'm just, I it on top. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. So, right now, President Trump is not on good terms with his doctor, but on the other hand, things have gone south with another one of his lawyers. Fox News has now confirmed that Thai Cobb is out as the president's in-house Russia

counsel. Less than a month ago, the president tweeted this, the failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case. Wrong. I am very, all caps, very happy with my lawyers, John Dow, Ty Cobb, J. Secula, they are doing a great job. Yeah, they're doing such a great job that two of them are now gone. You know, whenever Trump tweets that someone's job is safe, it's like that video from the ring, seven days later you're gone. That's how it works. So it's not

official. Ty Cobb is out. And you know shit must be brewing if a guy who looks like Ty Cobb is bailing. Do you know what it takes to scare a guy to scare the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their tie. tie. tie. their is tie. tie. tie. tieck is tieck is tieck is tieck is tieck is tieck is tie. tie. tie. tie. tie. tie. tie. tie. tie is tie is their is tie. tie. tie. tie. tip. tip. tap. tip. tap. tap. tap. tip. tip. tip. S. tip. ty. ty. ty. tha. ty. ty. ty. ty. ty. ty. thae. thae is thae is, do you know what it takes to scare a guy who had cholera during the Spanish-American war? Do you know what it takes to scare that person? I'm just saying, things are looking serious. And now, this is interesting, to replace the Monopoly man's nephew, Trump has hired a new lawyer, Emmett Flood, a man who's best known for defending President Clinton during his impeachment. Yeah, I always feel like you can tell somebody did the thing when they want the lawyer for the guy who did the thing. It's like, I didn't kill nobody, but who was that OJ lawyer again?

But let's move on to education. You see, over the past three months, teachers around the country have been protesting for decent pay and better classroom conditions. With strikes and marches in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, and one of the biggest ones happening right now in Arizona. Arizona is facing a fifth day of teacher walkouts and school closures today. The strike is impacting nearly two-thirds of the state's public schools and nearly 800,000 students. High school teachers Thompson says she works four jobs just to make ends meet and struggles at school.

We have cockroaches in our school. We have rats in our school. It is crowded. Hell yes, it's crowded. You're also teaching rats and cockroaches. And don't you dare call them pests. Because with the help of a passionate drama teacher, those rats and roaches will put on an absolutely stunning production of spring awakening. But America really needs good teachers. Because without good teachers, you get college dropouts who say things like this.

Now, Kanye West is defending himself against really the indefensible. He said slavery was a choice. Here's the sound. You hear about slavery for 400 years? thia thia thia thia thia that that that that thiiiiii that that that that that that that that th th thi thi thi thi thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thuu thu. thus thus thu. thu. thu. thu. thu. thu. thu. thu. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thin. th. th. theea. to to thea thu thu thu thu thu. slavery was a choice. Here's the sound. You hear about slavery for 400 years? For 400 years? That sound like a choice. Eh, eh, eh, just me? No, Kanye. Slavery is not a choice. Going blonde is a choice. Both are terrible, but one is easier to undo. Although, actually, you know what, when I think about it, slavery was a choice for white people. Yeah. White people were like, hey, should we keep doing stuff ourselves or make other people do it for us?

Yeah, other people, yeah, that sounds good. That sounds good. Good choice. So Kanye West popped up at TMZ's offices and decided to freestyle some history lessons. Thankfully, TMZ staff of Van Lathen was there to call Kanye out in person. the slavery comment. While you are making music and being an artist, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. Frankly, I'm

disappointed. I'm appalled and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me that's not real. Wow, that was powerful. I was really, really powerful. And you know, there was one scared white person in that office who was like, Hello, police? There's two black people arguing in the office right now. We'll be right back. 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 My guest tonight is a retired four-star general, former director of the CIA and NSA, an author whose latest book is called The Assault on Intelligence, American National Securities in An Age of Lies. Please welcome, Michael Hayden. Welcome back to the show. It's good to have you here. The last time I saw you, we were debating the possibilities of Trump having a presidency and what that presidency could look like if it carried on. I recall the conversation. It has now come to pass. It has now come to pass.

And your book, your book is speaking directly to the situation where now, the conversation. It has now come to pass. And your book, your book is speaking directly to the situation where now the assault on intelligence, you make your point throughout the book about how Trump's lies have wrecked havoc on the intelligence community. What does that mean? So let me kind of structure it as how I approach it in the book. It's kind of a three-layer problem and it's really important to understand the book. It's kind of a three-layer problem and it's really important to understand the layers. All right? Layer one is us. It's our political culture, and which has moved into what the Oxford Dictionary calls a post-truth world. Right. In which we make decisions based upon emotion, preference, allegiance, tribe, grievance, not on facts, not on data. Donald Trump, we were here two years ago talking about this, Donald Trump recognized that. He saw it. He exploited it during the campaign and

I think he has worsened it with some of his behavior and language while he is president. He's writing that post-truth wave and then finally to make this really complicated. We've got a foreign adversary, kind of coming through the perimeter wire on us, recognizing what's going on here and exploiting it. And it's all based, Trevor, on the concept of truth or post-truth. How is it that it benefits Trump and nobody else? I mean, shouldn't something, like living in a post-truth world, also damage Donald Trump as the person in power?

Well, it will over time because history is shown. And I actually, I hope people enjoy reading the book, but I really enjoyed writing and researching it. I got out of my circle and talked to a lot of folks. I would not normally have talked to philosophers, historians, and so on. And what they point out that the approach the president is taking, this kind of post-truthism, which we've seen elsewhere, it doesn't deliver. I mean, you've got to base decisions on reality, based on facts.

So over time, I think we'll recognize we're speeding down a cul-de-sac here. But it's going to take time. Now, why do you say that it wrecks havoc on the intelligence community, the American people being affected by this, but why does the intelligence community get affected? Surely they're immune to this. Not really. Let me try to describe it this way. The high friction points of the administration, with the broader society have been with intelligence, law enforcement, the courts, journalism, science, scholarship, what do they all have

in common? They're all fact-based. They're all evidence-based enterprises. And that's where we see the friction with a style of governance that is post-fact, not based on hard reality. So we're, it's really interesting, I kind of counted them off of my fingers. Last time we were here, all right, the Intel digit was over here. Because these folks over here had serious questions about how we acquired data. You and I've had that conversation. That's not the argument today. These folks over here welcome the Intel

guys into this circle now because we'll get back to arguing about how we acquired it later. But right now they recognize us like like them, as data people. And it's the fact-based enterprises that feel under siege. Do you understand, though, why some people would argue that Donald Trump is well within his rights to attack the intelligence communities? Because in some ways, the intelligence communities have been responsible for misinformation themselves. I mean one of the classic examples was the flawed intelligence report that led America to the war in in Iraq. So if somebody says yeah but Donald Trump is saying these faith

things some might argue yeah but the CIA and the NSA and all these organizations also did that and that's why America's in Iraq now. Great question and you know I kind of worked our way through that issue. And I mentioned the last time I was here, I was in the room. I voted for it. I believed it to be true. We were wrong. But the difference is we were trying to pursue an accurate picture. to the true picture.

that's not what we're arguing about today. What we're arguing about is decision-making that is indifferent to objective reality, that is based on these other things, preference, grievance, tribal loyalty. It's interesting that you say preference and tribal loyalty because this week Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a presentation where he spoke about the proof that Iran had lied about their nuclear weapons program. Now there seems to be conflicting schools of thoughts on this. Some say Iran hasn't lied. This was old information that Netanyahu tried to present as new.

Others are saying no, there was something new. Is there something new in discovering that Netanyahu tried to present as new. Others are saying, no, there was something new. Is there something new in discovering that Iran kept the information, the archives on how to make nuclear weapons? So, I think, and beyond think, I know. This was baked in already to our nuclear negotiations. I walked into President Bush and Vice President Cheney late 07 and say, I know you're not going to welcome this message, but the Iranians appear about four years ago to have stopped

building the bomb. They're doing the other stuff, the missiles, the centrifuges, but the building the bomb, we think they stopped. And Mr. President, this isn't absence of evidence. We've got evidence of absence. We know that they've the Now, number one, Iran never admitted that they were building a bomb up until 2003. They denied it. They lied. We knew that. What you've got from the Prime Minister is a lot of the fine print with regard to where the Iranians were. But the fact that they were building a bomb and that they lied about it,

already accepted, already known, and as I said, already baked that, that, that, that, that, that that that that that that that that th, thi that 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 their thi their their their they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they're thi they're thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi theeei thei thei thei thei thei thei thei their thei their their their their their their that they were building a bomb and that they lied about it already accepted, already known, and as I said, already baked in to our approach. So it's interesting that he came out and presented all of this information the way he did. You know, it was a big PowerPoint presentation. Iran lied, and he had all these CDs, and it was very, very dramatic. I mean, he revealed everything, very theatrical as well. It almost felt like he wasn't playing to the intelligence community and other leaders. It seemed like it was an audience of one that he was playing to, someone who likes big pictures and easy words to understand.

Could it be that Netanyahu will now be the reason Donald Trump decides to definitively pull out of the Iran? And you know, he has to make that decision again in 12 days. Right. Could this this this this th th th th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could th. Could it th. Could it th. Could it th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to theeeeeeeeea. to to to to to to to to to to to to theeeeeeea. th make that decision again in 12 days. This is not happening by accident. So I do think there may have been some theatrics there, given the president some additional motivation, additional top cover perhaps, if the president really does want to rip up the deal. But a lot of folks like me, including the people in my old jobs in this government have pointed out that no, no, we knew this. This is old data. So here's a case where the fact-based guys, the intelligence community in this case, journalism,

they're holding their ground. And they're saying, we like to have the fine print. That's really useful. But in terms of the broad plot, now, we knew this. Let's talk about one additional thing thing thing thing thing thing you said, the structuring the book into thirds, the third of Russia. Russia and the bots and Facebook has become a story that has been all over the news. Many have labeled this as one of the biggest threats to America's democracy because they're pushing forward the post-truth world.

Some might say Russia is only doing to America what America has been doing to them. How do you respond to this as somebody who knows better than anybody what America did to influence or not Russia's elections? Other than as an element of American policy to support what you and I would call democracy? There are no comparisons between what we do and what the Russians have done to our election. Remember my three-layer cake here, and the biggest problem is us? That enables the Russians to mess with our heads. I mean, they've actually made a run at the Norwegians, too.

It didn't work, because Norway isn't a fractured society. And so what the Russians are doing is using high technology and approach to information dominance, which I have to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the Russians are doing is using high technology, and an approach to information dominance, which I have to tell you, Trevor, in terms of its elegance as military doctrine, is really quite good. And if you read the Russian manuals about this, it's quite revealing some really serious thought.

They call it contactless war, where we can use informational means to effect the target population of our adversary. But they're only able to do that because of our own weaknesses. Look, cards face up. I mean, I'll be the last one to say that our government hasn't ever conducted a covert influence campaign. All right? But there's an iron law of physics with regard to covert influence.

All right, you never create fractures. The only way you can make covert influence work is to identify pre-existing fractures, then worsen them and exploit them. That's what the Russians are doing. Wow. It's a fascinating book. You get into it in depth and it is terrifying and also enlightening at the same time. Thank you so much for being on the show. Great having you back. The Assaults on Intelligence is available now. Michael Hayden, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so. Thank you.

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. tho. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. This is been a comedy central podcast. This is a comedy.

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