The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump Blames the Left for Charlie Kirk's Assassination as Rhetoric Escalates | Rainn Wilson

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Michael Kosta dives into the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, including Trump’s inflammatory response, bizarre takes in the media, and a predictable partisan blame game, and reflects on what we can learn from violent tragedies on the anniversary of 9/11. Why are governments around the world so concerned with bovine blasts? Grace Kuhlenschmidt dives into the science of livestock emissions by speaking with Washington state Rep. Lisa Parshley, who is hoping to start a tax on cow farts, farmer Jake Yancey, who doesn’t give a fart, and the OG experts on burps: children. Actor Rainn Wilson sits down with Michael to discuss his new movie, “Code 3.” They talk about how the film is based on very real experiences in the field, why many paramedics deal with burnout, his podcast “Soul Boom,” based on his book about the need for a spiritual revolution, their shared love for tennis, and how he feels about his beloved character from “The Office.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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it's America's only sorts for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Michael Costa. Welcome to the video show. I'm Michael Cox, though. We've got a lot to talk about tonight. So let's get into the headlines. By now, you guys all know about yesterday's assassination of Charlie Kirk. And this probably goes without saying, but I feel like I have to say it.

I believe killing people is wrong. And I know that's a hot take. But as of now, we don't know. know who did it, but Cash Patel's FBI is on the case, so we will never know who did it. This is as good a time as any to say political violence is never acceptable and should be condemned. And thankfully, many political leaders think the same. All four former presidents are reacting to the death of Charlie Kirk. Joe Biden posting on X, quote, there is no place in our country for this kind of violence. Barack Obama shared a

similar sentiment, writing this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. And a statement as well from George W. Bush, who said this, members of other political parties are not our enemies. They are our fellow citizens. And a message from Bill Clinton, who says he hopes we all go through some serious introspection and redouble our efforts to engage in debate passionately, yet peacefully. Yeah, and let's not get sidetracked by who may or not have been friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Just focus on the introspection thing. But yes, it was comforting to see

our living past presidents and Joe Biden attempting to lower the country's temperature yesterday. But none of those guys are running this place right now. So I want to hear from the current big guy. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers. and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing

in our country today. My fellow Americans, we must come together to destroy each other. So yeah, Donald Trump came out with a partisan message blaming the left. And let's be real. Did we expect anything different? This is what this guy does. The last time Trump delivered a thoughtful message was apparently when he sent a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah. Yeah, that's... I realize that's two Epstein jokes in a row.

It's not my fault. Everyone was friends with this guy, okay? And by the way, I'm not singling Trump out. This is how our society behaves now. A tragedy occurs. Instead of digesting and trying to understand, everyone sets their feet and starts throwing punches. immediately. Like Nancy Mace, Republican Congresswoman, and somehow the scariest type of Mace.

She came out swinging, but apparently wasn't expecting a counter. I'm going to say this. Democrats own what happened today. By that logic, do Republicans own the shooting of the two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota? Isn't this, isn't this on both sides? Are you kidding? Democratic owners. Is there a problem with political violence across the spectrum? Yeah, we're talking about Charlie Kirk right now. Yeah. Okay. We're talking about my thing right now. Not about things that make me look stupid, because if we did that, we'd be talking all day long, okay? All right. Now, we're all, and now we're in very familiar territory. Republican accuses Democrats, so Democrat accuses Republican. What do you say to people who are saying that Democrats need to lower the temperatures?

Oh, please. Right. Why don't you start with the president of the United States? Right. So here we go again. It's Democrats' rhetoric. No, it's Republicans' rhetoric. Has anyone considered that the problem of political violence in America might not just be the rhetoric, but instead something extraordinarily complex? The problem might be a toxic mix of our gun laws, lack of mental health, collapse, social connection, probably a bunch of other things I haven't even thought of yet. I'm sure LeBoo-Boo's are somewhere in there to blame. I guess I just don't think rhetoric is the root cause of this thing. Political violence isn't going to go away if the people on the other side say exactly the right words from now on.

Now, that said, if you turned on the 24-7 news coverage yesterday, you probably saw some unhelpful rhetoric. He's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this who has constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that's the environment we're in, that people just, you can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. I don't know, man. The whole idea of free speech in America is you can't can say what you want and not expect to be shot.

Can you be challenged? Can you be challenged? Sure. Can you get roasted online? Sometimes. Told to leave a child's birthday party? Yeah. Even though I think I was right that the cake fucking suck, Derek.

That was hardly only the bad take. Even some people who understood that a cycle of violence was not the answer. They still wanted to make sure you knew who'd be coming out on time. The last thing I ever won is violence. Like, I spent nine years in and out of war. The last thing I won is that. But if these people keep pushing, they're going to radicalize a huge portion of America that they don't want. I want us to be able to debate, like Charlie Kirk always did, on every campus, gave the airtime to opposing views.

I want that as my America, not trading gunfire because I'll win. You could have just stopped with the last thing I want is violence. You don't have to add in because I'll win. But I guess it's like Jesus always said, turn the other cheek, but be ready to cut a motherfucker. But by the way, who's they? No one knows who the shooter is or what his motivation was. And even if it was political,

he doesn't represent half the country. But some of these mega guys are acting like this is a liberal declaration of war. If they could do this, they are capable of anything. I think that was the message. I believe that was the message. It's really hard to radicalize Republicans. Yeah.

You know, it's like we're not the radical type. I'm sorry. First off, it's not that hard to radicalize Republicans. You guys almost burned down the country because Cracker Barrel changed its font. Second, far be it for me to tell anyone how to do their job, but you couldn't lose the poop emoji mug for one day.

When Walter Cronkite broke the news about the Kennedy assassination, he didn't come out in a wacky novelty bow tie. I did not expect a groan from the audience on the novelty bowtie. And also, once again, who is they? Does anyone want to specify who they is? Or are we just going to keep talking about all that they do? they are at war with us whether we want to accept it or not

they are at war with us Trump gets hit in the ear Charlie gets shot dead they came after Kavanaugh with a rifle to his neighborhood they went after Musk's cars sort of petered out there at the end

huh Jesse if you're trying to rile people up for war maybe leave out the car vandalism I mean Look, I'm sure people in the media would love to talk about how they are responsible for what they've done and how they had better watch out, or else they'll get what's coming to them. But I think it would be better if we, as a country, understood that we have a problem with political violence, and we need to start thinking less in terms of what they should do and more in terms of what we have to do. It's not lost on me today that the last time it felt like we thought in terms of we

was on 9-11 when we all came together as a nation. And we did. We did. Even if it was just for one day, you know, sure, we turned pretty quickly to scapegoating Muslims and blogging about how Bush did it. But on that one day,

we were united as a country. For 24 hours, we even admired Rudy Giuliani. That's how incredible our unity was. And I don't know what you do to get back to that. Obviously, not another 9-11. I want to be very clear about that. But what about, I don't know, an alien invasion, you know? Maybe if UFO has suddenly appeared over every important U.S. city

and also Los Angeles, that's the thing. that would jolt us off our phones and bring us back together. Or the aliens take over and enslave us all. But at this point, that might be worth a try. When we come back, we found out why climate change is cows' fault. Thank you. and hit play on your next adventure. This fall, get double points on every qualified stay.

Life's the trip. Make the most of it at BestWestern. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Oh, hi, buddy. Who's the best you are? I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us.

Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. Welcome back to the other show. Cows. To most, they're just delicious animals warming our planet with their farts, but to some, cow farts might be a new tool

in the fight against climate change. Grace Koolenschmidt has more. was the hottest year ever recorded. The world's glaciers shrinking at a dramatic pace right before our eyes. These days, it seems like every little thing we do makes the planet hotter, driving to the store, flying home for Christmas, burning plastic outdoors.

Hey, you can't do that. It's okay. I'm on TV. And now, Washington State Representative Lisa Partially wants to track another source of climate change emissions. I sat down with her to find out more. The best way to put this is I'm trying to get a monitoring program for cows, burps, and farts. Yes, cow farts. The bovine blasts that governments around the world are cracking down on.

Denmark taxes livestock gas and even California has started to track farm farts. Is Washington State about to join the fight against this silent but deadly problem? So is the next step collecting humans farts? Because for the record, I'm not using your bathroom here. I refuse. No, we're not going to collect human farts. I don't think they'd be worth it. We know at one point it's possible that the methane emissions from cows in California was

as high as 40-50 percent. And we don't know how much of a problem Washington actually has. So data is always best. Okay, I guess that makes sense, but how do farmers feel about this? I reached out to local farmer and mustache enthusiast, Jake Yancey, to hear his thoughts on the government's plans. This bill that would track cows gas, how would it affect you? The biggest concern is what the financial impacts are going to end up being. Ranchers aren't making a million dollars and having cooks.

It feels like Big Brother is monitoring farts. I kind of feel like we should write a new version of 1984 with farts. The number one thing is cows don't fart. They don't fart? Cows burp. I spoke to a farmer recently, a best friend of mine whom I met yesterday. And he told me that cows don't fart. Well, they burp a lot.

There's no doubt, but they do fart. Whether the gas came out of one end or the other was never clarified. But there's one thing Lisa knows for sure. If a cow is going to fart, it's going to have to pay. We have all the data from Denmark and California. At some point, somebody's going to put the dots together and say, we need to tax this.

But they'll be doing it based on an end. assumption instead of data. And that's not a good way to do policy, nor is that a good way to put in taxes. And if we can find an accurate measurement of how much they're reducing the methane expected, we can give them credit in the future for their work. So she wants to accurately count the farts to help the farmers qualify for fart credits to offset the farder. But how the fart would that work? The European Union has developed a mathematical equation for the average cow A fart plus burp algorithm. I'm not trying to attack the farmers.

They're producing food for us, which is critical. It's about a balance between providing food, farts and burps, and protecting our environment. I feel like everything in 2025 is ruined. This has been the worst year of my entire life. It actually was really good until I heard that farts are harmful. This would have a huge impact on our future, so I decided to gather a panel of experts on the topic of farts and burps. I want to know how scary this is to you.

Do you guys worry about how much cows are farting and burping? I'm not worried at all. You're not worried at all. Do you guys think the government has the right to make a fart mandate? No! Who thinks no? Me! Who thinks yes?

Me! It's okay to be confused right now. If there was a way for farmers to make cows fart and burp less, do you think they should try? I think if they try to stop it, it's a no because if they try to stop it, they might fart on it. If Washington were to implement a tax on farts, how much do you think a fart should cost? One hundred thousand. And you think farmers can afford that? Yep.

Do you think this will be effective in reaching our climate goals? I think you guys should really be researching this. It's going to affect your lives a lot. I keep doing the research wrong. Where are you doing your research? In my brain. In a world full of farts, the confusion continues without any answers. So I went directly to the source.

So how often are you burping and farting? Sadly, the answer was the problem. Oh, burped right now in my face. At the end of the day, all I could do was let the voiceless know. I was fighting for them. I support you. Oh, my God. Thank you, Grace.

When we come back, Rayne Wilson will be joining me on the show. Don't go away. A protein latte at Tim's. No powders, no blenders, no shakers. Starting at 17 grams per medium latte, Tim's new protein lattes, Protein without all the work, at participating restaurants in Canada.

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Welcome back to the other show. My guest tonight is a best-selling author and Emmy-nominated actor whose new film is called Code 3. Please welcome Rain Wilson. Thank you. Cheers to that. Thank you. You know,

unbelievable. Unbelievable. You've got to have some time for a conversation here. Longtime watcher first time. Are you the first time? Seated at the desk.

This is amazing. Well, right. In all your previous acting, you've never been to the Daily Show? I have never been to the Daily Show. I'm so glad you're here. Yes. And so are they, which is amazing.

Apparently. Apparently. Seriously. Wow, this... I will... I will seriously. No, you know, I always like to... Shut it.

Thanks for this movie. Wow, really fun. Thanks. Really touching. Very funny. You're a paramedic in this film. Did you... How'd you train for that?

It looked like you knew what you were doing. Well, we underwent some serious training with other paramedics. In fact, the co-author of the film is here in the audience somewhere. Okay. And all of the stories in Code 3 are based on his real-life experiences.

Wow. And so as people on the front-line workers, MS workers are seeing this film, they're ecstatic. They're like, finally a film that really gets us. But I did a ride along in South Central with the L.A. Fire Department. That was really eye-opening. Yeah. There's a wonderful part in the film where they walk through a hospital and they show you what everyone's making as far as money goes. And it's depressing that the paramedic is averaging, like, 42,000 a year or something.

Yeah. Yeah, the number one thing I would learn from this film was that this population, the population that we entrust to save our lives, to save our grandmother's lives, to come at a single call of 911, they get paid about what someone who works at Starbucks gets paid. There's a great line that's something like, I'm your best friend. your worst day. Why are we paying our best friend than our worst day? Nothing.

Well, yeah, you know, answer that for me. I'm going to... Yeah. Tell me the, tell me how the health care system can be improved. Professional actor. Yes, okay. You want to hear from a sitcom actor about how to fix the American health care system. You know, these systems are so colossally broken from top to bottom. You can talk to anyone,

you know, from a hospital administration staff to the insurance companies to... you know, the emergency room workers. It's, everything is upside down and backwards. We've got to really kind of reinvent the system. But I did that guy, you know, Dr. Mike, he has a big popular doctor podcast. And he was saying, like, trying to fix it.

The problem is, is that people die if you're trying to fix it while it's operating. Yeah. Because it's like fixing an airplane while you're in mid-air. So it's a tricky one. It's beyond me. I was skiing in France one time, and, And my friend went off-piece and tore his ACL.

And the French ski patrol takes the snowmobile up. And before they even put him on the stretcher, they swipe his credit card. And I'm like, that's how we got to do it. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's talk about burnout because what's so fun of this scene of the film that we just saw was, you're done. Like you said, you didn't even know you could feel happy again.

They said the average paramedic works from like two to four years on the job. And my character, Randy, has been working at it for 18. 18 years, yeah. And, uh, but he's the guy you want saving your life. But yeah, burnout is very real in all of the medical service industries. How have you managed burnout at all in your life that isn't medical? And in acting, is there such thing? I mean, you were on a very, very grueling, scheduled sitcom for a long time, was it?

Was it? Oh, that was tough. That was tough. It was, you know, we had a very, very grueling, scheduled sitcom for a long time, was it was, you know, We had so few breaks, and trying to eat the lobster rolls on those breaks was just having enough time to get one in the gullet before your next scene with Steve Correll and John Krasinski was tough, man. Yeah. I'm feeling sarcasm. Yes.

Yeah. I want to talk to you about Soul Boom, because I love Soul Boom. And it's one of these only positive breath of fresh air things that ever comes across my Instagram. Tell us about it. Tell us about it, the people who aren't sure what it is. Oh, thanks so much. So Soul Boom is based off a book I wrote two years ago that is why we need a spiritual revolution and it's using and looking at spiritual tools

both for personal transformation but also on how to make the world a better place, a more just place. Yes, we've been looking at political parties and partisan politics, we've been looking at different kinds of legislation, but perhaps there is in the reservoir of wisdom from the world's faith traditions and indigenous faith traditions, perhaps there's a kind of a wisdom

that we can use to heal. And we're seeing that in the divisions that are happening right now. That perhaps if we simply turn to compassion and really harness it as an energy, we can affect some transformation. Are you... How do I live that?

How do I live it? I'm trying to get on the sea train. It's full. Someone told me my backpack hit him. I don't make enough money at work. Not me. I make plenty. But I mean, like, how do we live the compassion? Is it knowing we're all human and connected?

Well, Carl Jung said, until we make the unconscious conscious, we will live our lives in a certain way and think of it as fate. So it's taking the unconscious habits that we have throughout our life, getting on the sea train, waking up in the morning, brushing our teeth, doom scrolling on our phones, and bringing more and more consciousness. I think a meditation practice is a great place to start for everyone, whether you're an atheist or a theist, to bring more kind of loving attention to being in the moment. That's one place to start.

And then we have to look at it in terms of building at the grassroots, building community and connection. social connection it's so important it feels like it feels like now maybe just now we're starting to realize this is an antibody for

feeling isolated and depressed but we almost need to prescribe social connection I almost need someone to go Michael get off the couch there's a world out there connect with people it's hard to do it and think about how bad it is for our kids right now they're growing up with these like microcomputers in their pockets that

make you feel like you're connected They certainly allow you to communicate, but communication is different than connection. Oh, yeah. So we have to foster that, and I think it's going to happen not online. I think it's going to happen IRL. I like that. In real life. And that's one thing that's one thing that we've lost in, what I say is we've thrown the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater.

Right. So we've chucked out religion, but we've lost a lot in the doing. Yeah. Where it's potlucks and community gatherings and, you know, bringing trays of food to people that are sick and checking in on each other. So we have to find new ways of coming together. It's a tricky one because I hear church and I back off. A lot of people do. Yeah, a lot of people do.

But soul, boom, I'm in. Okay. Connection. Yeah. Or community. Right. And we are losing that. So that's interesting that that's something we should really be focusing on.

Yeah. You know, you talk a lot about climate change. You talk a lot about the fires that you've had to endure and deal with, living in Los Angeles. Yeah. But then you also are about compassion, and yet half this country doesn't necessarily even believe in climate change. Or I see some of what you post and the people that write back, they say really vile and mean things to you. You've been reading my comments? How do your soul boom an asshole is what I'm trying to say?

How do you navigate that? I just caught a glimpse of myself. I look pretty good. Look pretty good. Clean up nice. Clean up nice. Listen, there is about a little less than a third of the United States that doesn't believe in the science of climate change.

Of course, science isn't something you believe in. Science just is. We need to just forget about them. We're never going to change their mind. I do believe that there is a movable middle of people that are really confused, and they hear the science, and they read the studies, and they look online

and they know there's got to be some truth to it because you've got factories belching smoke into the atmosphere for 200 years now and every year is getting hotter and drier and weather is getting more extreme. So I think one of the failings that we've done is especially on the political left is communicate climate effectively.

You guys do it great with humor like the cow farts. And also I think one area that can unite both political left and political right is, again, looking at a sacred or spiritual connection to nature, which we have really forgotten about. We need to be in nature more. We need to train our children in nature more, educate them. I mean, we're still teaching them like home-ec and cursive,

and we need to teach our children to cherish the land. To conserve the land is something that people, maybe on the political right, political right, can get behind. And there are ways to bring people, together around climate that we haven't fully explored. Nature is just such badass, huh? Bad ass! I was sitting on a deck this summer,

and this bee was behind me doing its thing. And my first New York City reaction was, God, this bee is so loud. I was mad about it. I was mad at the bee. And then you really watch what's happening, and it's like, man, we're all connected with this shit, dude. Yeah.

Come on, right? Yeah. Are you, um... We're all in it. We're all in it. Are you... You're on mushrooms now, aren't you? I'm not in. Yeah.

I love that you thought a bee was loud. You live in New York City with like garbage cans and people screaming and honking horns like, bz-z-a-ha-ha-ha! I guess it's... Shut up! Pollinate! I guess it's the noises we're used to.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's the name of my new book. The noises were used to. Oh. You were at the U.S. Open, tennis. Yeah.

They showed you a lot. They love showing the celebs. You're sitting next to Anna Wintour. You're sitting with Hugh Jackman. Yep. John Bon Jovi. Tell me about the tennis, huh? You know, I love tennis.

I've taken it up as a kind of a middle-aged sport. I play a lot. I do U.S.TA matches and stuff like that. I lumber around the court. And you know what? I'm better than I look like I would be. Yeah. So that's all you want.

Yeah. It's a great sport. I read your incredible autobiography about your tennis. Thank you. That's what this was about. His story was great. But, yeah, I think it's an amazing sport, and that's another, you know, we talked about climate change communication.

We need to communicate tennis better because people need to get into tennis way more. We're losing the audience for it. It's such an amazing, it's an amazing sport. The average age of, like, a tennis viewer is, like, 68 years old. No offense. And I completely agree. People ask me, do I play pickleball? And I say, no, I have a good relationship with my parents.

Last question. Thank you for being here. But look, a lot of people know he has Dwight. They must, I know that they, Dwight, they yell, is this a positive? Is this a negative? Are you ready to move on from Dwight? Talk to me a little bit about that. You know, it is a challenge, you know, having played one of the most iconic characters on television history.

It's a challenge, but I am so grateful. I mean, the doors that have opened because I've played Dwight, I got to write a book, I get to go to the U.S. Open. I get to play other roles like the lead role here in Code 3. Opening tomorrow, September 12. Theaters near you. Ray Wilson, everybody. Code 3 will be at theaters nationwide tomorrow, September 12th.

Thank you, man. You're the man. 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. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.