The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Turkey Attacks U.S. Allies in Syria | Rand Paul

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

California cuts power to thousands to avoid wildfires, Turkish forces attack America's Kurdish allies in Syria, and Sen. Rand Paul discusses "The Case Against Socialism." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. The future of America is in your hands. This is not a movie trailer, and it's not a political ad, but it is a call to action. I'm Mila Atmos and I'm passionate about unlocking the power of everyday citizens. On our podcast, future hindsight, we take big ideas about civic life and democracy and turn them into action items for you and me. Every Thursday, we talk to bold activists and civic innovators to help you understand your power and your power to change the status quo.

Find us at Future Hindsight. Or wherever you listen to podcasts. October 10, 2019. From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is the Daily Showanish everybody. Thank you so much for tuning it. Thank you for coming out. Wow, so much energy. Thank you for coming out. Let's do it. Let's make a show. I'm Trevor Noah. Our guest to-night. Thank you so much energy. Thank you for coming out. Let's do it. Let's make a show. I'm Trevor Noah. our guest tonight is the only Republican senator

who is actually willing to talk to us. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is joining us everybody. We have a really cool conversation with him. Also on tonight's show, mutiny on a cruise ship. California goes back to the dark ages and shockingly there's a war in the Middle East. So let's catch up on today's headlines. Let's kick it off with the big news out of California. Last year around this time, falling power lines sparked major wildfires across the state. So with the winds picking up again, the electric company decided to play it safe and pulled the plug.

Tonight California's largest utility take an extraordinary move, cutting power to hundreds of thousands to avoid wildfires sparked by wind-blown power lines, but many are furious. The utility company PG&E just proactively shut power off across the region. After power lines sparked a series of historically devastating wildfires, while residents stocked up on supplies, PG&E's website crashed, leaving families like the Garcia's wondering exactly how long they'll have to power through without electricity. I'm hoping it doesn't last five days, you know? I mean that's kind of insane. That's right, California has turned off the power for half a million people to prevent wildfires, which may be smart for safety, but obviously it

sucks for the people without electricity because now they have to talk to their families for the first time in ages. It's gonna be so awkward. It's like so uh, Tommy how's a fourth grade? Dad, I'm in grad school. Oh, oh, man when is TV coming back? Also, you know what's not cool is that the power company shut off power for 600,000 people, but they made sure that Silicon Valley Valley?, 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, 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, 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 th not cool? Is that the power company shut off power for 600,000 people, but they made sure that Silicon Valley got to keep their electricity. Yeah, the dark area, all the black is where the powers are, and then like everyone else has, like they should have done the opposite.

They should have only shut down Silicon Valley. Yeah, because we could use a break from social media. their racist president's their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their their their their their their their. I. I. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. I. to be. I. I. I. I. I. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their their their their their their their their their their their their their thaililicicicicicicic. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the, we can all chill out. No one has to read their racist uncle's Facebook status, huh? Yeah, or their racist president's tweets. It would be so much fun. But you know, who's winning so hard right now? You know who's winning hard? their thoo's their to' to winning to winning hard, to winning hard, thi, thi, thi, to winning, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, too, thi, thi, thi, too, thi, too, thi, or thi, or their, their, or their, or their, or their, or their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi...... thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. their, the act smug as hell, just rolling into town on their horse and buggy singing Old Town Road, you know? Just like, well, well, well, feeling stressed, art thou?

Would love to stay in chit-chat with you light bulb having motherf-hackers, but my butter ain't gonna churn itself. Jeremiah, out! The story, though, is just a reminder, that we've made too many things require electricity that don't actually need it. Yeah, 20 years ago, power outages would hit, wouldn't feel catastrophic. Now, everything needs electricity. When the power goes out, you're like, how will I brush my teeth? Oh no! How will I smoke my weed? The one was like, we could have sex.

Oh, I can't. My penis doesn't work without Wi-Fi. Why did I upgrade to a smart penis? Hey, Alexa, why did I upgrade to a smart penis? Alexa? Oh no, they killed my friend. All right, let's move on to news from somewhere off the coast of Norway. A boatload of people who thought they were embarking on an exciting cruise of the fjords of Norway say they got a different kind of excitement. Mutiny on a luxury cruise ship. Several say their toilets stopped working.

The toilet just does not plush. It smells, it leaks. Passengers got into tense confrontations with the crew. Nothing on this itinerary is to say. Look at the only thing. Nothing is the same. Look at the list. Nothing is the same. Not one thing. They don't want any of the videos going by all. There's no internet. And shut down the internet. Norwegian cruise line issued a statement apologizing for their guest's inconvenience, blaming weather for the change in itinerary.

They also offered passengers a 25% credit for a future trip. Wait, wait? Instead of a refund, the cruise line is offering 25% of another cruise? You know, that's hell a gangster, man. Imagine if the Titanic did that, right? Yeah, they're just pulling people into the lifeboats like, I'm so sorry your husband froze to death. Here's a coupon for a frozen margarita next time. Also I get that this vacation wasn't perfect but I'm not gonna lie

these people were being a little extreme all right okay some toilets don't flush and the food's not good you're still on a cruise ship you got slides and pools and endless alcohol that's all you need for a good time if the toilets don't work you have the ocean right there I mean it's nature's original to toilet to just do your things you know over over. the to to to the to to the to to the to the to the the to to the the to to the to to to their I I I I I I 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 to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the to to the the to the the to the toldld. the to the the the toil. the toile. the the toile. toilet. toilet. told. told. to to to to to to to the side, go back to the pool. You know how I know things weren't that bad? It's because people got together to make a group sign. All right? That doesn't happen in a real disaster. Right?

When shit's really going down, no one's like, no, we're gonna die. Who's got a pen and paper? We're all gonna die. What would it be funny though if the passengers did take over, because I like other people who are like, I want to see that captain? Imagine if they just took over the ship and it became like a pirate cruise? Just people sailing around the seas, attacking out of the cruise. Arr, take the shrimp buffet. Arr.

All right, well, moving on. the time on the nation's largest festivals. Fire falling from the skies, a hot air balloon engulfed in flames with a passenger and pilot on board. Just one in a string of balloons in distress during one of the nation's largest festivals, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico. Authorities also rushing to help the passengers on this balloon after it goes flying into the cable line.

And not far from there, a balloon crashed into a tree on a golf course and is ripped apart. Okay, I am so happy everyone survived those crashes. And on top of that, it is nice to see a story where I know no black people were hurt. I don't even need to read the articles on this. So, things didn't go as planned, but what was the plan? I always wondered this. They're balloons. You can't control them. It just goes with the wind. Who wants to travel like that?

Like, imagine if you got in your car and it just went to the direction the wind was blowing? It was like, all the way. 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. th th thi. thi. thi. thi. th th th thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. Things thi. Things thi. thi. Things 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. to. to. to to thi. to. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to the direction the wind was blowing. It was like, all right, all right, all my way to work, no, it looks like I'm going into the lake. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm not getting into any mode of transportation that's built around a basket. I've never been at a picnic and thought, yeah, I want to United States and Joker understudy. It feels like we say this a lot, but the President is not having a good time. A new poll is out showing 51% of Americans now support impeaching and removing him from office. And by the way, by the way, this was...

By the way, this was... By the way, this was a Fox News poll. Yeah, which must have heard, must have heard Trump. That's like if Gail said she was 51% against Oprah. But while the Ukraine scandal continues to engulf President Trump, vice president Mike Pence is doing everything he can to stay clean. Well, were you ever aware, Mr. Vice President, an interest in the Biden's, an interest in investigating the Biden was at least in part of the reason for a to Ukraine-day help them? I, I, what I never discussed the issue of the issue of the Biden's with President – within the administration, what I can tell you is that all of the Biden's with President Zelensky. But within the administration, you ever aware, within the administration?

What I can tell you is that all of our discussions internally, I mean the President and our team, in our context, in my office with Ukraine were entirely focused on the broader issues of the lack of European support and corruption. You are aware of the interests in the Biden's being investigated? Is that being tied to a two-grade being held up? Well, that's your question. Let me be very clear. God damn.

Oh, Mike Pence avoided that question like it was a woman with her ankle showing. That was extreme. And I like how he says, well, that's your question. Yeah. And now you answer. That's how questions work. Mike Pence is out here trying to pull conversion therapy on a question. He's like, with the power of Jesus, we will cast out the demon in that question.

Now, while the impeachment train is picking up steam, that's really not the allowing Turkey to attack America's Kurdish allies in the region. And guess what? That's exactly what happened. Turkey tonight, wasting no time launching a military attack on US Kurdish allies inside Syria just two days after receiving a virtual green light from President Trump. Dubbed Operation Peace Spring by the Turkish government, Turkish forces driving deeper into northern Syria, attacking U.S. allies, the Kurds, with advancing troops on the ground, while pounding Kurdish positions from the air.

Another danger, as Kurdish fighters now rush to the front lines to defend themselves against Turkey, they can no longer properly guard detention camps packed with tens of thousands of ISIS members. What a shit show. Thanks to Trump's impulsive decision, people are now fleeing Syria. The Turkish are now bombing the Kurds and over 10,000 ISIS fighters could be back on the loose. Yeah, which is bad news for everyone. I mean, great news for truck dealers

because ISIS guys love trucks, you know, and that's the only people who's winning. Yeah, as soon as they escape, they'll be like, we're free just in time for Toyota Thorn. Yeah! So in the midst of he knows out by being petty as hell. Here is how President Trump defended his decision to abandon the Kurds. The Kurds are fighting for their land, just so you understand. They're fighting for their land.

And as somebody wrote in a very, very powerful article today, they didn't help us in the Second World War, they didn't help Normandy as an example. Wait, what? Trump's saying America shouldn't help its Kurdish allies because they didn't help America in World War II? I mean, to be fair, not helping in a war is one area President Bonespores has experience with, but still, this logic doesn't hold up. Right? Because the Kurds are helping America fight ISIS right now. Imagine if your boss used that logic.

You just walked in like, Bill, you've been a great employee for the last five years, but you shit your pants 30 years ago, we gotta let you go. I was like, but I was a baby back then. HR still thinks it's gross, I'm sorry, man. Oh, and just by the way, just by the way, the Kurds actually did fight with the Allies in World War II. Yeah, so next time Trump wants to bring up history, you should first check with his friend Frederick Douglas. It's not a real thing. So Trump clearly has no regrets about America abandoning an ally that has lost 11,000 of their troops helping fight this war.

He also doesn't give a damn about what could happen if those ISIS fighters escape. The president pressed two on those ISIS prisoners. I think the ISIS fighters escape and hold a friend elsewhere. Well, they're going to be escaping to Europe. That's where they want to go. Wow. Wow. So what? Trump doesn't care about ISIS fighters because he thinks they're only going to go to Europe. That's really heartless.

And also Trump, you realize you need Europe. Because without Europe, there's no Romania. Without Romania, there's no vampires. Without vampires, you don't have a lawyer. And then, who would there be the eye on dice? I mean, secondly, it's really short-sighted, because if you let thousands of ISIS fighters regroup, they could come back bigger than ever. I mean, it's exactly what happened with the Backstreet Boys.

We took our eyes off them. They regrouped, and now they're touring all over the world. I'm just saying, it might seem right now, like a few ISIS prisoners, but in a few years we'll be like, oh my God, they're back again. So look, Trump's decision to move American troops and allow this Turkish invasion could have truly disastrous consequences. And many people have been racking their brains, trying to figure out why Trump did this out of nowhere. But instead of guessing, maybe we should just be listening to Trump himself. President Trump's decision to pull troops from northern Syria is once again raising

questions about his business stealings. As the Washington Post points out, the first person to suggest that Donald Trump would have a conflict of interest in dealing with Turkey and Turkish President Erdogan was actually Trump himself. Here he is back in 2015. Well I also have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul. And it's a tremendously successful job. It's called Trump Towers, two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one, it's two.

Two towers, not one. It's one and another one. I call it two. In Istanbul. Yeah. I mean, this whole thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi this whole thing would make sense because for Trump it's always about real estate People think he's playing three-dimensional chess. Maybe he's just playing monopoly, you know, but whatever the reason is Trump is now dealing with a major world crisis in addition to his impeachment inquiry. So that's two scandals not one but two We'll be right back. The future of America is in your hands. This is not a movie trailer and it's not a political ad, but it is a call to action.

I'm Mila Atmos and I'm passionate about unlocking the power of everyday citizens. On our podcast, Future Hindsight, we take big ideas about civic life and democracy and turn them into action items for you and me. Every Thursday, we talk to bold activists and civic innovators to help you understand your power and your power to change the status quo. Find us at Future Hindsight.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome back to the daily show. My guest tonight is a position and Republican lawmaker from Kentucky who has a new book called

The Case Against Socialism. Please welcome, Senator Rand Paul. Welcome back to the Daily Show. And it's good to be here. I can't believe more Republicans don't want to come on. It's weird, right? Welcome back to the Daily Show. And it's good to be here. I can't believe more Republicans don't want to come on. It's weird, right?

Must arch you're right here. It hurts me so much. You know why? Because more Republicans came to the show than Democrats before Trump was president, and then Trump won, and then all of a sudden you guys almost like you like afraid of what Trump will think if you come here.

Is that what it is? I... No, regardless, can I tell you? I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate you coming here if I didn't talk about the news of the day. Donald Trump pulling the troops out of the region in Syria.

You supported Trump's decision to withdraw the troops. Why? Well, as you and I have talked about before, I've been opposed to regime change in war in in the Middle East for a long time. I agreed with President Obama's decision to come out of the the thought the Iraq war was a good idea to begin with. I think it was one of the reasons he built, he beat Hillary Clinton. I think it's also been one of the things where there could be some agreement between right and left, but I think people have kind of got distracted with the things they don't like about President Trump.

But do we really want another war? five different countries fighting and are 50 soldiers going to stop the advance of tens of thousands of Turkish troops? But they did though, they did and they were. Like let's argue it this way. There were 50-odd American troops in that region, right? And the Turkish forces weren't attacking the 50 troops. But here's my point. So you're saying President Trump did that to protect the truths because that was about happening. I think so, you know so.

You know so? No, honestly, I'm asking. I haven't had a discussion with the president over it. But what I would say is that I to go to war, let's go to war, but you don't go to war with 50 people. But at the same time, the Pentagon has said to that point, the Pentagon has come out and said, no, but this was strategic. We didn't want to war.

Because it doesn't always have to be war. the war. the to be the to be, it, it, to be, tooge, the tooomk, the the tooomahahahahahahahah. the the the the the the the the the the the too, the the the the the the the the to. the the the to be, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, to the, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. 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. We had 300 people in a barracks. We had a bombing. And it was a calamity. And even Reagan back then said, well, gosh, now we could go in with an all-out war. We could decide that the Middle East is very messy. I would say that right and left agreed for a long time that regime change didn't really help us in Iraq. It didn't really help us in Libya. of us, look I've agreed with Bernie Sanders on Iran. We shouldn't be going into Iran without Congress first voting. We should have a vote to declare war, but here's my question, Lindsay Graham and the Cheney's are running around the place, and now we have the left agreeing with

them. I mean, here's the, where is the opposition? They're running around saying, oh, we need to have a resolution, the next week in Congress, supporting that the 50 U.S. troops should stay in Syria. And I think we should have a resolution saying, are we going to declare war? Are we going to be involved in a war? But if so, who are we fighting? Are we going to fight the Turks? Do you know who's allied with the Turks now? The Free Syrian army.

They were our allies. For seven years, we're to be supporting the Turks who are allies, who are supposed to support. So if the Kurds and the Turks get into a fight, by law, we're supposed to actually be supporting Turkey. You've got Iran in the mix, you've got Russia in the mix, you've got Assad in the mix. But really it all stemmed from the same philosophy that we did in Iraq. In Iraq, we were going to break out and the Middle East was going to be this wonderful place. It's the same with Assad. Maybe it's a faulty sort of notion that regime change is good for the country and or good

for the world. I think you get less stability and you get more terrorism every time we try to top all these governments. Right, but in this case, it feels like what you're saying would be perfectly fine and true were you not dealing with previous actions? And I understand where you're coming from and you have been fairly consistent in this regard where you've said I don't want to go into wars. But America has already placed itself in these positions. The Middle East is what it is partly because of America's actions. And so are you now saying walk away despite what has happened?

Because now, like I said, what if the Turkish I what is the tookish I supported I supported across the aisle President Obama's decision to leave Iraq right and to lower the troops and say the war is over do you think it's what the devices comes back well see here's the problem everywhere you go and this is what the new cons in the right wing and the Cheneys and all the crazy warmongers want. They say if you ever leave terrorists will come back. But the problem is that argument could go on forever. These same people would still be in Vietnam. They would never have left Vietnam. These people never get over and they never understand that these wars aren't working. You can't spread democracy through

military means and at the point of a gun and And we can say, well, we could save the Kurds. What's complicated, you know, there's four different sets of Kurds. There's Iraqi Kurds, there's Syrian Kurds, there's two political parties in Syria. Some of them have been considered to be terrorists and have had terrorist acts on Turkey. There's a Turkish political party that we're going to be able to, if we wanted to carve out a region of Syrians, say, the Kurds, you can have it and we're going to stay with you forever, we'd have to put 10, 20,000 troops in there. And I'm not for that.

I'm not really for getting involved in the Syrian Civil War. I don't know who the good guys are or the bad guys are over there. say you have been fairly consistent, which makes this stance that you're taking strange for me. Because in 2015, you advocated for the arming of the Kurds. You said specifically, you said that you think that they are the most effective and significant fighters that America has, and if the Kurds fight to push out ISIS, that Americans should give them a homeland. And really, essentially, that would have required creating them, cutting out land. No, essentially we have advocated for, and I have supported, within Iraq, an area of autonomy.

I would prefer to be their own country. It's one of the few things that Biden actually had a good comment on at the end of Iraq war. We should have divided it up into three countries. And really a lot of the problems that come from the Middle East actually stem from right at the end of World War I. What happened is, you know, Western powers carved up all these countries regardless of who live there and what their religions were and who their tribal affiliations were. And so we got stuck with a map like this. But yes, I have advocated in Iraq for a place of autonomy for Kurds, but I haven't advocated or said it would be practical the their their their their their thi or said it would be practical thi or said it would be practical thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, their, and thi, and thoomoma, and thoes, thoes, thoes, thooma, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thr.. So, thr. toe. toe. toea, toooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, too, tooomorrow, toe. Wea, toe, toe, regardless of, regardless of, regardless of, would be practical to create one in Syria. And in fact, I think the same problems that we got into with regime change in Iraq, we have the same problems.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Syria, and maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved in the beginning at all in trying to top of Assad. Maybe it's not the job of America to always decide who runs every country. That's an interesting, that's an interesting standpoint. Let me, let me ask you this with regards to news that is happening now, aside from Turkey, the impeachment scandal is growing every single day. You know, you've had your point of view and you've said, you know, you think the Biden should be investigated. You think that America should be looking into what Donald Trump has said is a corruption that is happening somewhere there.

So I understand your standpoint, and I'm not ignoring it. That aside, though, do you think that Donald Trump was appropriate in the way he handled that? Do you think he did it in the right way? Because if he believed that there was a corruption, why did he not go through thruuuu and the FBI the FBI leader with the promise of American aid? Was that in my contract? We were gonna, I was gonna talk, I have to talk about the impeachment? No, no, no, I don't talk to many senators. No, I'm just, I'm... I would have asked Will Smith yesterday, but I mean, you are more appropriate, I mean... I would say that there is not anybody from either party that has not tried to manipulate the aid of Ukraine to get what they want.

And then there's a broader question you could ask and you could say, well, should aid, when we give money to a country like Ukraine, should it be contingent on us getting what we want? And then you can say, was it appropriate to their country, to ask, thrown, to say, well, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, 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 the the the the the the the the the, is, is, is, toda, today, tod, tod, tod, tooom.e, tooom.e, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is?a?ea? t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t t today? t t t well, was it appropriate for Joe Biden to ask that say, well, we're not going to give you a billion dollars worth of aid unless a prosecutor quits investigating a company that my son works for and gets $50,000 a month? So I think you could argue. You can't cancel each other out? If two even do a bad thing, does it cancel each other out, then? a lot of us are partisans on either side, but I'm saying most people in America want people

to be judged with the same sort of law. So if it looks like we're going to judge Trump with one law and we're going to judge Biden with another law, some people are going to say that's unfair. Some people will retreat in the corners and say it's not. So then would you, okay, so if you're with those something wrong? Well what I would, then what I would say is yes. I would say that we can judge what they did whether it was right or wrong. I don't think either one of them are things that we should impeach someone over. So the fact that the president said, well, you know, you ought to investigate Hunter Biden

and the 50 grand he was making a month. You know, there's no specific law, there's no specific thing saying, well, we should impeach people for doing that. There's another thing, you know, you mentioned earlier that over half of the public now wants to impeachment. But if you ask the public, ask them, you know, are you in favor of actually sending money to Ukraine in the first place? I think you'd find 75% of Americans aren't really for sending money to Ukraine anyway, because.... the the the the the the the the the the the they.. their. So, their, thuuui. So, thui. thui, thui, thui, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thoes, thi, thi, thi's thi's thi's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, thoes.e.iananananananananananananan.I.I.I.I.I's, thi.I's, thi.I's, thria.I's thria.I's throwneananananananananananananan't thoooooooomoomoomorrow, there's there's there's there's there's there's there's there's think you'd find 75% of Americans aren't really for sending money to Ukraine anyway, because we actually have to borrow it from China to send it to Ukraine. So I think there's a lot of different viewpoints on this, but I think in the end, what's going to happen with the impeachment thing is people are going to retreat into their camps, and then the people in the middle are going to, and theymy, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is to, and, and, and, and, and, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their, their, and, their, and, and, and, thi, thi, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, and, and, and, their, their, their, their, their, and, their, and, their, and, their, th............. th... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to, to, to, to, to, to to to to to to to to to th. to to to the to the the to the're fine with going on this? I think there is a danger. This is why I'm against most of these special

prosecutors, whether they're going after Republicans or Democrats, I think they have too much power to go after a person's entire life that I think really we're going to devolve into where we criminalize, and when the Democrats win they'll go after the Democrats, I's, I's, I's, and the Republicans, I's, and the Republicans, and the Republicans, and the Republicans, and the Democrats, and the Republicans, and the Republicans, and the Republicans, and, and the Republicans, and their, and their, and their, and th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I'm 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 is is is is th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi's is thi, is thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thiiiiiii's thiii's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi, thi,, they'll go after Republicans, when the Republicans win, they'll go after the Democrats. And so I think there's a real danger to becoming our country where everything's so criminalized, we're going to have an election in a year. Can we not just sort of wait for a year to decide who gets to run the government? Oh! I hear your points, and while we think about it, for a short ad break and we'll have more with Senator Rand Paul when we come right back. The future of America is in your hands.

This is not a movie trailer and it's not a political ad, but it is a call to action. I'm Mila Atmos and I'm passionate about unlocking the power of everyday citizens. On our podcast, Future Hindsight, we take big ideas about civic life and democracy and turn them into action items for you and me. Every Thursday we talk to bold activists and civic innovators to help you understand your power and your power to change the status quo. Find us at Future Hindsight.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome back to the Daily Show. We are joined by Senator Rand Paul. Your book is

self-explanatory. The case against socialism. Straight into it, you are clearly against it. The question is why? Well I think that if you review the history of the last 100 years and every time we've tried socialism, it seems that time and time again it ends in authoritarianism, ends in genocide and famine. When you say we, who are you referring to? When you look at the cases of socialism over the last hundred years, whether it be Hitler, or Stalin or Mao or Paul Pott, or Castro, or 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, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu thu thu the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, their, th, their, thu, their, thu, thu, thu, thu, thi, thii, toea, toea, thee, thean, thean, thiiiiauuuuiauiauia, thia, their th, whether it be Hitler or Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot or Castro or currently in Venezuela, what you see is famine, what you see is a disaster

of epic proportions, and I think we have to be careful that we don't somehow think, well it's going to be different this time. And that's one of the questions of the book, and the question is, is violence, is state-sponsored violence, an anomaly? Was it just accidental that we got Stalin? Or as some economists and philosophers have said, if you're going to take all of the property from private ownership and the government's going to take it over, there is a point at which people will resist. theyme, the farms were collectivized, people resisted and they were killed by the millions. Same happened with Stalin.

Hitler was different. He was socialist also. His was sort of was racially motivated as well as confiscatory in nature. But now today's socialists say, oh, that's not what we're for, we're for Scandinavia. So we spend a lot of time in the case against socialism, looking at Scandinavia and asking the question, are they socialist? Are they successful? And one of the conclusions we came to is that actually,

Bernie is actually two socialists even get elected in Denmark, or anywhere in Scandinavia. In fact. And he's American, but yes. That's a problem, too. But when he was bragging th br bra bra bra bra bra, too. But when he was bragging about how great socialism was in Denmark, the Prime Minister of Denmark came forward and said, well, we're not socialists, we're open for business,

don't let Bernie mislead you, we're not socialists. Right, so then let's talk about that. Because it does feel like everybody has a different definition of what they think, socialism or capitalism is. It genuinely feels like that. So for instance, you bring up Venezuela. What's interesting to me about Venezuela is when people have that conversation, they always ignore the fact that Venezuela is plagued by multiple other issues.

So people go, look at what happened to Venezuela, socialism. Then I go, does the corruption not count at all? Right? Because as I understand, socialism, if the peoplethen truly socialism or is it now a corrupt form of socialism which is more an oligarchy? Is that not what it is? Well, socialism is when the government owns the means of production.

They can either own some of them or a lot of them. The oil industry is owned by the government down there, but all the prices for all the goods and services are said as well. have our massive and profound shortages. But if you want to see how devastating- Excebated by the corruption, once the crisis happened with the oil price. But here's the question. In a market economy like ours, people become rich because they sell something that people want. In an economy like Venezuela, what happens is you become rich if you control the reins of government. And so as power becomes more and more centralized to a few people, the possibility for corruption is much the the the their their their their. their. to to their. to to to their, to, their, to, th reins of government. And so as power becomes more and more centralized to a few people,

the possibility for corruption is much greater unless the power is diffused. One of the great principles of our country is we have always resisted centralization of power. We didn't like a king, and we didn't like a powerful president. But we still resist the idea, and we promote the idea of separation of powers and checks and balances. This is interesting, because no, no, no, to to to to to to to to the the to the to the the the the 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 possibility, separation of powers and checks and balances. This is interesting because, no, no, no, no, to this point though, but this is interesting. Because I do like what you're saying there about America has resisted that idea. But could one not argue that capitalism has gotten to a point in America where you do in fact have kings and rulers? You do in fact have people who define how other human beings can live because of how much

capital. Because what you just said was people become rich because they sell something other people. But oftentimes we've seen with capitalism, you can also become rich because you control a certain resource in a monopolistic way where you can then force people. So like let's just talk about, for instance, just the medicine industry in America. We've seen opioids, they know how to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get the people to get the people the people the people the people to get their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, 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, and, their, the, and, and, the, and, and, their, their, their, their, their, their, and, and, their, and, their, and, their, and, their, and, their, their, the, and, and, the, and,'s just talk about, for instance, just the medicine industry in America. We've seen opioids, they know how to get the people addicted to them, they can then set the prices, they can then figure out how to keep you within that loop of staying with. So now you're in a world where you don't have a choice anymore. If you're a diabetic, you don't have a choice about the insulin you buy. That seems like it's a corrupt system masquerading as just pure free markets.

When you have honest capitalism, people do get rich based on merit and based on selling something that consumers want. Sam Walton, for example, the people who have started things that become incredibly popular, but there are examples of crony capitalism as well where the system has been corrupted, but the system's been corrupted by taking people taking and using government to their advantage. So big pharma and the pharmaceutical industry has done that. I'm not a big fan of it. I think they've really corrupted the patent system.

I think they've abused the patent system, and that needs to be fixed. But that's not real capitalism. That's people using government to corrupt. the the the the thapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapse. the the th. th, the th, th, their, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thoom, thoom, thoom, and thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and th. So, so th, so th, so th. So, so th. So, so th, so th, so th, so th, so big, so th, and th, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their their thi. Some, thi. Some, thi's is thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's thi's big, thi's big, thi's big, thi's big thi. Some, thi. Some, the system. I agree. I agree. But time and time again, what you'll find is that the freer people are, the less central power there is in government, the richer they are, and it's amazing when you look at the progress we have. There's a website called Human Progress.org. And if you look at poverty, over the last 200 years, it's amazing what we're doing the world lived in the the the the the the the their their their their their their their thiiiiiiiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thoomomoomoomo, their, their, 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, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, is thi... And, is thi. And, is thi. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Weaugh, toeea, toer.ea, toea. to toea. three three thrii% of the world lived on less than $2 a day. When I was born in the early 1960s, it was down to a third of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, less than 10% including all of the poorest countries you can imagine. Less than 10% of the world lives in extreme poverty. That's because of capitalism and

freedom and trade. Let me ask you this, then, to that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the their, their, their, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their, thrown. We's too, too, too, too, too, too, too, thoooooooooo, their, their the world, their, their, their, then, to that point. In the book, you talk about how young people in America are less in favor of capitalism than ever before and they support socialism more. Now you don't seem to acknowledge in the book the why. You say like, oh, they don't understand the wise of capitalists. They don't understand that they're living better lives, etc. But are young people not just witnesses to what capitalism did to their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, tho, tho, thoom, thoom. thoomoomorrow, thoomorrow, thoomorrow, thoomom. thoom. thoom. thoom. And, thoes, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi.... And, thi. And, thi. And, the, the, the, the, the. And, the. And, the. And, thea. And, thea. And, theea. And, thea. And, thean did to their lives and their parents' lives through the crisis? So for instance, when people were trading freely with credit default swaps, that's capitalism, that's capitalism running rampant.

That's people going, you can buy a thing that doesn't exist and nobody understands it, and you don't have to regulate it, and then all of a sudden, the markets houses. Isn't that also capitalism? Actually, I think there are many that would argue that that was a form of crony capitalism as well. When the regulations came upon that created that marketplace, there were people like my father who voted against that, because he saw that as a crony system that was being created by the government, and he actually voted against that. It was called a deregulation bill, it was a thousand pages long, and he th. And he th. And he th. And he th. T there there, th. T there, th. T there, thi. There, thi. There, thi. There, thi. There, thi. There, thi, there there there there there there there there there there there were, there were, there were, there were, there were, there were, thr-a, thoom. There was, thoes, thoes, thed. There were, thed. There were, thed. There were, thed. There, thed. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There, th. There. There. There. There. There, th. There. There, th. And, thi. And, thereeea. And, thereea. And, thereea. And, thereea. And, thereea. And, thereea. And, thereea. And there were people was people was peopleto these things. And so there were people who believed in limited government who did predict these things would happen in the credit default swaps. But when you look at it, when you look at socialism and the history of socialism and you look at that versus what we've had in this country, I think the younger generation that's saying

in majority numbers now, socialism would be a good idea. I think that that that that 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, 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, thin, thin, thin, thou, thin, thou, thin, theeeean, thin, theean, thin, theean, thithink that some of that is a misunderstanding of what socialism is. They're say, well, the world should be fair, or we should be more equal. But they're not really understanding that socialism, in its definition is the government, owning the means of production. And when they finally come to own it, when they come to take the houses, the farmland, the factories, there has to be their th, th, th, th, th, th, th is th is tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their thi, their their their thr-and their their thoom, their, their, the world, the world, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, and the world, and the world, and the world, and the world, and the world, and the world, the world, the world is the world is a the world is a their their their thr-a.. their their their their their their their their their their the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, there has to be violence. Nobody's going to give it up just sort of voluntarily. I think that's an extreme definition of what socialism is, especially if you talk about democratic socialism. And I say that because I think any extreme can be used as the cherry pick that defines your

argument. Because when you look at America, let's just look at Republicans in America. Look at how many people voted for Donald Trump, and why did they vote for him? Why did they say they voted for him? They said because they haven't moved in their lives. Their wages are stagnant. They have no money. Factories have moved to countries where it is cheaper to make things. Companies have found ways to pay less, taxpay their workers less. And wages in America have been stagnant for But the interesting thing. But is that not capitalism? That's what I'm saying. Because I understand, if we go socialism bad, but then is capitalism great? But the interesting thing is since President Trump was elected, the median wage has gone up

4,000. Unemployment is at historic lows. So there's a lot of progress that's happening in a country, but we've become so polarized that people are unwilling Things are much better. No, unemployment people have acknowledged. But in terms of wages in America, wages are stagnant in America. People are better off versus the previous generation in America. They absolutely are. They absolutely are.

I mean, the numbers are amazing. No, no, more people live at home before. People cannot buy their own houses. Oh, it's just, the statistics are overwhelming. I'll give you a couple of them. A hundred years ago, if you were to take a certain amount of money and average workers pay and buy goods, you get one basket of goods or one container of goods. You get seven times as much for the same price now. The amount that the amount that we-

No, no, no, this is true. That's true. The amount of your income that you paid, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you, that you that you that that that that th. th. tho, tho, tho, tho, that tho, the tho, the the the the tho, or their, or, or their, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, the amount, or, the amount, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the tha, 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 ta, one. your income for few to 1919 was like 35 percent. It's down to 12 percent. But then the difference as well is the amount of income that you pay for medical care and essentials now has also gone up an insane amount versus that time. Exactly. So then the argument, the one thing I'm having with you and I know we can't talk about it forever because we want people to read it, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, the, the, to, to, the, to, to, to, to, to, the, to, to, the, to, the, to, the, to, the, th, th, to, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, is, is, is, is, tho, tho, is, tho, tho, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, and, and, and, and th and th and the th and the the the the the thi, and I I's is, and I's the thi, and I's tho, and I's tho, and I'm thooooooooooooooooooomomo, and the thooooo, is thoo, is tho, is tho, is tho, is then, the argument, the one thing I'm having with you, and I know we can't talk about it forever because we have the book, we want people to read it, but this, I'm just asking you this then. But the next argument, before you get away from you, I just want to ask you this.

I just don't ask you this. Just this. Before you get away, yeah, the, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, the, the, the, the, to, the, the, the, the, to, the, the, the, the, the, I, the, I's, I'm, I'm, the, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, 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, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I'm. But what is the commonality between the two? Government involved them. They're not great capitalistic experiments. They're not great examples of capitalism. Health care, over 50% of health care is provided by the government now. The prices are largely fixed in conjunction between big government and insurance companies. There's very, very little capitalism in the delivery of health care.

So we could say, government's government's so good, we want more government, or we could say government's not working very well and we'd like more capitalism in health care. And there are ways to bring prices down in health care. I would let all consumers get together, all individuals who have to buy insurance by themselves. I'd let them join a group, an association like Costco or Sam's Club, buy their insurance together. and what would happen is through sheer numbers of collective bargaining we drive the prices down. There are ways to fix it but that's a market mechanism or you can say we'll subsidize people because the prices are too high but when you subsidize them and the prices are going up, guess what? The prices go up even higher so it doesn't work. That's what we've been doing is giving people money and the money goes to the insurance company. So since we passed tha tha tha th. th. th. th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, we've tho, we've tho, tho, we've, tho, the the the tho, the the the tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the is thooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooan, tha, tha, and the money goes to the insurance company. So since we passed Obamacare, the insurance companies' profits have gone from $6 billion to

$15 billion. They know how to play the system. That is true. We do not play the system. We have a racket. Yes. It is true. And I think what you're saying has a lot of merits in that corruption within capitalism slash cronyism doesn't help the system. The book is fascinating. I love having you on the show because we argue and we do.

No, no, we just go back and forth. But I appreciate that you come here. Thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Show again. The case for socialism is available now. Senator Randallall, everybody. Thank you again. The Daily Show with Cover Noa, 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. 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. The future of America is in your hands. This is not a movie trailer, and it's not a political ad, but it is a call to action. I'm Mila Atmos and I'm passionate about unlocking the power of everyday citizens.

On our podcast, Future Hindsight, we take big ideas about civic life and democracy and turn them into action items for you and me. Every Thursday we talk to bold activists and civic innovators to help you understand your power and your power to change the status quo. Find us at Future Hindsight.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.