The Problem With Jon Stewart - The Harriswalz Are Closing In With Senator Amy Klobuchar

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In a matter of weeks, the Democrats have unveiled a new ticket – injecting fresh energy into a presidential race once considered a foregone conclusion. Who better to illuminate this shift than Senator Amy Klobuchar, who ran against Vice President Harris for President in 2020, served alongside her in the Senate, and represents Minnesota just like Governor Walz? This week, we dive into the Democratic Party's seismic change, and explore the intricacies of VP selection and vetting. Drawing from her unique experience, Senator Klobuchar offers insights into the challenges women face in high-profile campaigns, the urban-rural divide in American politics, and the art of passing crucial legislation in a gridlocked Washington. Jon and the Senator also look ahead to the Democratic National Convention, campaign season, and beyond. No denial of service attack will stop this conversation from happening! Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more:  > YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast > Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast > TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast  > X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic Video Editor & Engineer – Sam Reid Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Researcher/AP – Gillian Spear Music by Hansdle Hsu — This podcast is brought to you by: ZipRecruiter Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ziprecruiter.com/ZipWeekly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everybody, welcome to the weekly show. My name is John Stewart. We are joined, as always, by producers, Brittany Mehmedevick, Lauren Walker. Apologies for last week. We did not do a show because as a frail old man, I got COVID for the first time. And holy shit, am I not a fan? So it knocked me on my ass. Even whatever version this was, whatever Omicron adjacent type,

a thing that finally snuck through my hermit-like defenses and attacked my immune system, I was knocked out feverish for days. I am now, I've decided I am going to drink only Paxlovod smoothies forever. And by the way, I don't know if you guys tuned in at all to the Twitter spaces, the Donald Trump-Elon Musk extravaganza. Oh, did we? But holy shit, was that just like two old dudes in a basement talking about how hot each other is? Like, wow.

The one thing I didn't think I would be on it was bored. I was fucking bored. I thought the best point of it was the part when it wasn't working. That was the most entertaining. It was pretty entertaining. So my son was listening to it live because I was driving. home. And he was listening live. He's like, you can't even, you can't even get on it. And then came out that thing where I guess Elon had said, this is a denial of service. And so Nate

started reading me all the comments that were coming in, which were like, the deep state doesn't want this conversation to happen. Iran is stopping the only two people that can save free speech and democracy. And then like, you got down like 20 comments. And then somebody's like, you know, a denial of service doesn't just work on one space, right? That's not how it works. Yeah, that was my first thought was like, wow, one space doesn't work, but I can scroll the rest of the website. That's not. Yeah, this is not the deep state trying to restrict free speech. This is just sometimes when you fire 80% of your engineers, shit goes haywire. Yeah. Or how about when we heard Trump's like heavy breathing in the beginning? Oh, my goodness. It did make it seem like it was going to be a very

different kind of a kind of a space that was going to be kind of a hot like Elon and Donald after dark kind of a vibe where they were don't I will say this like it was and I know people have comment on it but at first I did think there was something wrong like especially as he kept talking with the way he was talking yeah I started marking down what types of words were doing it it definitely felt like because at the end it was more pronounced yes so maybe the glue was ungluing You think it was a denture situation. I'm an audio girl now. I'm like listening.

I'm like, what is that? I was studying it. I probably didn't even hear what they were talking about because I was studying the sound. Right. Yeah. See, at first, I thought maybe he had a tooth removed. Do you know how sometimes you get a tooth removed and it creates that one little space with the whistle? And I thought, oh, maybe this is a tooth situation.

But why would it grow more pronounced as the talking went on? You know, Lauren, that's a great question. That's one that as a as a non-dentist and a non-audione and a non-gerontologist, I'll tell you what I think is happening, to be perfectly honest. I think he is before our eyes becoming Biden in this race. Like the whole idea was that performance by Biden in the debate

was so shocking to the system of functionality where you watched a guy and you go like, oh shit. Like this is a real. real decline in a way that we had not anticipated, but it obscured what is clearly going on with Trump as well. And so when you remove that from the equation, you're just left with a much more stark focus on what his decline is. And then you listen to those Twitter spaces. And again, like he's always been a bit rambly, but holy fuck. Yeah. Actually, yeah, a journalist emailed his campaign asking, why is he speaking so weirdly?

What's going on? Parapraising. And they said, you need to get your ears checked. Your hearing is shitty or something along those lines. It's their campaign of kindness as they continue to go through with any query that comes their way. Oh, how about this? Go fuck yourself.

Hey, oh, hey, I got an idea. Why don't you take this shit out of your ears and listen, because Donald Trump is articulating and elucinating better than any human being has ever done it in the past. So very clearly, you got shit for brains and fungus in your ears. John, I like your campaign manager. Thank you. That's my campaign manager. And speaking of which, by the way, we are going to be talking to as everything, you know,

in the political landscape is changing with a speed that I don't. think I've ever seen. But Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota, she is at the nexus of she was vetted to be a vice president. She ran for president. She's from Minnesota where Governor Walls is from. She knows Governor Walls. She knows VP Harris. She served in the Senate with her. You know, she's kind of this, you know, at the nexus of all these different angles on the campaign. So we're going to get a chance to speak with her about it. And then, of course, afterwards, we will take our questions from our, listener questions.

From our, from our fabulous listeners who hopefully their questions would be, why is John talking so funny? And then Lauren, you can call them back and go, take the shit out of your ears, you dumb prick. He's totally normal. I'm totally normal. All right. Let's join in with Senator Klobuchar and then I'll see you guys a little bit.

Boy, we're joined today. Very exciting. Senator Amy Globuchar, Minnesota, senior senator from Minnesota, chair of the Rules Committee. Oh, yes. Judiciary Subcommittee on policies. You're, you're, you're known as bipartisan, for God sakes, the most bipartisan bills. Number one for bipartisan bills. For God's sense.

But you're here. Let me tell you something. So you were at the nexus of this unbelievable moment in political. You are someone, you've run for president. Yeah. You were vetted to be the vice president under Joe Biden. You're from Minnesota where the current vice presidential candidate, Governor Walls, it is from.

The nexus with your career is running everywhere through this. You are at the, you're the hub. You are the Joe Bon Jovi rest area. Totally. All things that are happening in that area. What have these last, I'm going to say three weeks, been like for you, as I'm sure a central figure in the vetting of governor walls in knowing Vice President Harris in the way that you do. What's it been like for you?

Well, yeah, the most important question that's on everyone's mind. But I think what I went through is what everyone went through is just I have such deep respect for Joe Biden. That was a really hard decision he made. And he put the country first. And he passed a torch to the next generation. And the way that Kamala Harris, so you think about what she's done in 21 days, maybe 22 days now, extraordinary. I mean, she united our party. She cinched the nomination.

She, you know, raised the over $200 million. She has picked an excellent vice president. She's filled arenas with 15,000 people and she's really pissed off Donald Trump. So for me, when she, we got to be friends when we ran against each other, usually people don't get to be friends. to be closer friends. I have a lot of respect for her, believe she brings the receipts to this election in a big way for leadership on domestic and international issues. And then she had a pick of vice president and it was like speed dating. And she had so many good choices, many of them, my friends and colleagues. That was the moment where I think she made a decision that at first

seemed counterintuitive to a lot of people. They, you know, they did not know Tim Walz because he's just been doing his work, signing up to serve at age 17, growing up in a small town. And you could just see the reaction from my state is almost as good as Sunni Lee of Minnesota winning the gold medal. Oh, really? Yeah, they are, they are, I just greeted her at the airport. She came back. That was super fun.

Is that what the senators do out there? Is it, you just wait at the airport for the Olympians to come back? Yeah, well, she is a hometown girl. Like, we all know her. So it's a little different situation. and her parents, of course, part of our Hmong community. And it was just really exciting. But next to Sunni Lee, winning the gold for Minnesota, not to mention a few others.

I mean, people have really been excited about this because- It's a big month for Minnesota. Minnesota is on the map. Were you surprised knowing Vice President Harris that her and Governor Walls are a match? What is it about him that you think lines up well with her? and why do you think they're a fine team? Okay, so here's no one never really got into this, but he is really good working with strong women.

He is used to it. He is with both our senators, myself and Senator Smith, women, one of only four states in the country. His wife, Gwen, which people are going to get to know, teacher herself, incredibly strong person. His lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, is really strong. And I think that that chemistry that he's had with us, you see on the national stage with Kamla Harris. And at the same other point, you see, you know, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and they look like they almost need to go into couples counseling already.

Okay. Oh, I don't think he's left J.D. Vance on red. Like, I think it's over. I don't think they have any relationship. They asked him at the National Association of Black Journalists about the Vice President. He's like, Vice President doesn't, hey, that doesn't mean anything. matter. That's not even a real job. J.D. Van said it himself. It's not a job. He said, well, you know, it doesn't. Okay. So, of course, it does matter because they're next in line if something

happens to the president. It matters a lot. Right. And I do think that the way that Kamala Harris has handled this and pick someone that literally won the sharpshooting contest in Congress, someone who stood in a deer stand in 10 degree weather in Minnesota. Now, is that, was that an important balancing sort of this idea, well, she's a California liberal. So she's got to take someone who looks comfortable and flannel. Is that sort of the general idea of how you balance these things? Well, very good questions. She might have some flannel.

She may. And is that an actual consideration? Do they really talk about that? Like, when they're talking about it, do they really say, well, Shapiro is, it's Pennsylvania, it's the Northeast. He's a Jewish guy. But this guy goes hunting. Is that really something?

that's explicitly talked about? I think what they do, they vet people and they think, are they okay? And a number of those candidates were well vetted going into this thing. That really wasn't the issue. She's got to decide three things. One is it someone that I can trust. And by the way, I know a lot about this because Minnesota is the land of vice presidents, right? Well, you've had two.

Humphrey, Mondale. Yeah, so moms bounce their babies on their knees and say one day you can grow up to be vice president. Well, anyway, so one. And then run against Reagan and lose every statement. Minnesota. No, we're not going there. So trust matters. Fair enough. The second thing that matters is someone who's smart, who can take over, who can govern. And the third thing that matters is that kind of chemistry and also does this person add to your strength. I mean, Donald Trump doubled

down with J.D. Vance and Hulk Hogan at that convention. Okay, that was like, whoa. And in this thing, she's picking someone that, you know, grew up in a small rural town, signed up to serve when he was 17, who then became a geography teacher and took a winless high school football team and turned him into a state champion. There's a humbleness to this pick. You know, I wonder, when you talk about J.D. Vance and Donald Trump, it was very clear that there was a kind of the more tech-oriented, you know, the Peter Thiel wing of that more libertarian group was really pushing hard for somebody like J.D. Vance. I was surprised when Governor Walls came out that from AOC to Senator Manchin, I mean, you couldn't find the larger spectrum of Manchin to the point where he left the Democratic Party and he became an independent. They both expressed a real positive response to Governor Walls, which was that surprising to you? No, because people have gotten to know him. He served. He won his very red congressional seat five times.

He is someone that was in the top 10 of that entire House of Representatives for being bipartisan, right? In terms of bills, he introduced what he did. He is someone that has this, even if you don't agree with him. And of course, there's people don't agree with them all the time on things. He just does this with this happy warrior philosophy and brings people with him instead of cutting them down if they don't agree with them. Total opposite of, say, Donald Trump. And I think that has allowed people of different ideological views, including moderate Republicans and independents to support him over the years.

And, you know, Dean Phillips in our state immediately said nice things about him. You know, he'd run against Joe Biden. So it is, yeah, I think we saw that immediately. And then you see people who have served with him, high school students he taught, just this whole philosophy of the people that he brought with him. How long have you been? So I'm the only one that can say this. My mother-in-law, my husband grew up in the same town as Tim Walts, where he talked.

school, Mancato, Minnesota. My mother-in-law... Mancato's where, isn't that where the Vikings do their... They used to have, yes, they used to have their practice. Now they're in the Twin Cities. But you're right, that's right. My dad used to cover him. My dad was the sports writer for the Vikings.

Oh, wonderful. Little fact, he wrote a book called Will the Vikings ever win the Super Bowl, which is sadly still relevant today. That is a true story. So you spent your summers with Fran Tarkington and Purple People Readers. Yes. My dad wrote the authorized bio of Fran Tarkington, who I just talked to last year.

True story. That's incredible. Okay. So back to, back to Mankato, so they grow up. My husband, my mother-in-law and father-in-law have six boys in a trailer home. And one of the things that happened was that when she would have her kids, people would bring chicken, parmesan dinners and other things to her. And so she gave back through the years.

And she's done that with hundreds of people. and she serves cookies at the funerals. So when the Walzes had their child, Gus, it was my mother-in-law that went over there with a chicken parmesan dinner and decorated the place in balloons because he was at that point the, you know, no one thought he could win candidate for Congress. So now you're going back to 05-06 time. Right. So Tim and I got to knew each other.

Then we came into Congress together. literally I, you know, campaigned with him all the time. And then we governed together for years and did a lot for rural Minnesota, rural America. We both serve on the Ag Committee. And then we also worked on a lot of manufacturing issues, things like that. So it was we were, we've been good friends. Well, let's talk about that for a minute. Because I think that's a really interesting place to land in this.

You know, in this country, there's so many different divides. and we talk about race and gender and all those things. But I think the rural urban divide is one of the least talked about, but most impactful. And it really is a different economic environment. All right, we'll be right back. We're back. Rural America has struggled to keep its, you know, younger people staying in that area, the manufacturing base.

I don't think people talk enough about how even something as small as Amazon coming into places knocked out so many support businesses for whether it were farms or local businesses, the centralizing of goods and services has been really difficult on rural America. What are the challenges out there, especially economically, and how does that fit into what this new ticket is going to be running on? Exactly. And this is Tim Walls, and I know Kamala gets this, but poverty is not exclusive to urban areas. In fact, you'll have rural areas where it's higher. You looked, you know, in the pandemic when kids were trying to do their homework at home before the vaccine was out, 10, 20 percent of the kids in our rural counties couldn't even access the internet because they didn't have broadband. We have all kinds of towns that are child care deserts, housing deserts around our country. And so what many people, and you ask about these people like Joe Manchin and others that have a state like West Virginia, are excited about Tim that he brings to this ticket is just that understanding of rural areas and that a manufacturing company, even a 25-person business, leaving a smaller town can be devastating for that town. Or if you have, you know, people are messing around on the farm bill and we don't have that safety net in place.

or avian flu hits a farmer's chickens. You can literally have someone lose their business. So that's why I think you're going to have an injury. There's a real fragility in rural America that makes it difficult. And there's a pride. We have, as you know, from all the work you've done with veterans and military. You have an over number of people that sign up to serve. That's the Tim Wall story at age 17.

Most people would weigh what? And a lot of people going into the National Guard to serve. so there's a sense of patriotism, but then there's also a sense of things could go bad at any moment. And I've always believed that kids that grow up in rural America should be able to live in rural America. And that's just driven a lot of my work to go not just where it's comfortable to campaign and to talk to people and have town halls, but also where it's uncomfortable. And that means just hearing them out, you don't agree with them on everything, but you have common ground. And that's what Tim Walls brings to the ticket.

Senator, why has it been so difficult in your mind to get the kind of, you know, high-speed internet coverage or those types of things that, you know, if you look over in Europe, you'll find that the coverage is more widespread, it's probably more efficient. Why in America has it been difficult to wire up rural America in the way that they deserve? Because boy, does that create a gap in terms of education and progress and different things? Why is it so vulnerable to that? Because you have to make the commitment to invest. And, you know, Donald Trump may have talked a game, but that just didn't happen. And what happened just in these last few years, and you see these grants going out now, is that we passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' leadership

that included this major funding to reach every corner of our country. And why it hasn't happened is it's hard to get to rural areas. The big phone companies don't make as much money. off of that last leg. So the competition doesn't exist. No, and then they get taken advantage sometimes with when grants go out. And this, what I loved about this bill that Secretary Romando and a number of us worked on, Representative Clyburn and I actually led that piece of the legislation is there's a clawback so that if they don't actually build the internet and they get the money that we can claw that money back and give it to someone else, a rural co-op, electric company, whatever it is, to make sure it gets built.

So that legislation is really important. Are you starting to see the fruits of that? Are you starting to see it penetrate those areas that you think it really needs to go to? Yeah. I mean, in our state, we're the state where what women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the internet is above average. So we intended. New Jersey has the exact same slogan.

I can't believe this. It's kind of off of gears and killer. So exciting. Okay. So but the point is that we've been above average and I'm not kidding on internet. And so now we're just starting to get to those last miles. And it's just really important for world. It's going to be a big deal.

I think things that Walls and Harris talk about all the time. Right. Now, have you had a chance to speak with you? You know, you were one of the first people that basically endorsed Vice President Harris. I mean, almost immediately. Is that something that you had thought about previously, that you had discussed with her previously, that you were, you know, it all happened sort of lightning fast? but a lot of people were being very reticent. Yeah.

Well, so first of all, of course, she hadn't talked with anyone. She was there for Joe Biden about this until Joe Biden made that decision. Then when he made that decision, I'd been saying for weeks to people that if he did make that decision and it was his to make that we wouldn't have some fantasy football primary. I kept telling people like, you know, tough love here. Like, I know you guys have this person, this person. It's not going to happen. There's not enough time.

And we have someone that's ready to go. And so that is why. I immediately endorsed her because this is just not the time to mess around. And actually, she called me that day. I was in the airport stranded. We all remember the lovely internet breakdown there with the airlines. And I was in the airport stranded. And I saw these two guys.

They were against the wall. And they were like, hey, I'm with you, Amy. And I thought, well, here's my first focus group. So I said, so what do you think of the decision today and Vice President Harris? Because they weren't maybe the ones you'd think would immediately say this. And they're like, yeah, we're okay with it. We're okay with it. So then at this moment, the phone.

We're okay with it is in Minnesota, I believe, considered a rave. That's five stars for Minnesota. So they're younger guys. I'm holding my phone, right? And the phone goes and it's a line that it's blocked, right? And then I think, well, maybe this is her. So I go, well, maybe this is her calling. I pick it up.

It's her. I go, hey, guys, do you want to tell her right now yourselves? You just threw these two random dudes in the, airport on the phone with Vice President Harris? It could have gone real bad. Can I tell you? If that ever happened in my phone, I would assume it's Springsteen. I would always assume in New Jersey, you get that blocked line.

You just have to assume it's Springsteen. Yeah, it's almost usually a senator, but for me, but I don't know. So anyway, so I had a great talk with her. Then when the vice presidential thing started up and everyone was going on TV, I always would, you know, people would ask me. but I really believed in the end that it was her decision to make. Because unless you're in that chair and you're her, you just don't know all the factors that are going to go into that.

Sure. And there's a chemistry to it, I'm sure. Yeah. I thought, you know, she makes her own decision on this. So, yeah. What was your experience? So as somebody who had been vetted for vice president, and obviously that was not done on the sort of crush timeline that it is,

does it make you think about? And this is something that I think about a lot. one of the biggest issues we obviously have in politics is the amount of money that's pouring in, whether it was from Citizens United and these Super PACs and dark money and all these different things. It's a really difficult thing to ever get a handle on. I can't imagine that the parties and the people, the money people, the lobbyists are ever going to give that up. But couldn't we solve it by truncating our election season? if we made the election season a finite and manageable amount of time,

don't we immediately remove a ton of money from the process by just naturally shortening it? And it's pretty clear that all those things that they said couldn't happen because we didn't have enough time did happen and happen fine. Yeah, I was asked about this by BBC and I thought it was funny because a guy... Me and the BBC. Yeah. I thought it was funny because in kind of a snobby way, I won't try the accent, you can do it. But it was this question about like, well, how could you do such a short election? I said, don't you guys do that all the time?

Isn't that what you do with your prime minister? And I do think shortening this timetable might be a good idea because you're just asking people to endure months and months and months and months of this. Of course, with a democracy, you would have to somehow shorten the primary time. thing of how you do them so spread out. As they could, yeah. And you really can't stop people from getting in early. And there is a thing for candidates, you know, going way back zone like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. Sometimes if you're not the presumptive nominee, that timetable allows people to get out there and meet people and raise money and the like. So there's, I think you could argue it both ways. But it has been clearly allowed them to kind of captivate and change the trajectory of how this was going

in a big way. Because people are just now, we have changed this internet blah and negativity every time they attack her. And as a woman candidate, I remember after the election, one of the groups showed me what would happen to me and Elizabeth Warren and Kamla when we would get attacked anything they would try that would go after either you don't look good or you. you're dumb or you're mean or you're too tough any of that just goes because it just you're dumb that's that's the one you're dumb you but you're both your prosecutors you yeah i know i know but i'm just telling you they try this with women they try to get into this bad zone and do that so what happened that comla and her team has done that's been so extraordinary is these negative attacks where they go after her laugh

that's turned into a meme with biancy songs or they go after co-exam or they go after co-exam or coconut trees and we turned that into a positive. They've steered into it and made it joy. Right. And then instead, you know, they say cat lady and you're going to piss off every, not just every cat lady in America, but it just sounds ridiculous. So I think that all of this has really made a difference in terms of how we've taken some of this.

And instead of just getting pissed off as much as you want to, it's been turned into, which I always think it should when it's appropriate. You've got to always make a decision. You're going to ignore it. Some of it's been ignored. Do you want to take it on because it's so disgusting? Or do you want to actually make a joke about them and turn it into what it is? And as an expert on humor, John Stewart, you would probably.

But I just think that- Some would disagree. I think some of this has been missing from, you know, what we're doing. Well, there's a certain judo to, you know, I think when you're caught flat-footed by attacks, it's very difficult for you to use that moment. momentum against him. I think that's been one of the biggest things. Look, you know, when you have on the right them attacking Vice President Harris as a mean boss, well, Donald Trump, I mean, people that work for him in his cabinet will no longer support him. I think what has eased some of this is they're running

a candidate that makes it very difficult for them to attack Vice President Harris because their candidate has so many of those negative qualities in such large measure that what so what are you going to say she's mean you're you're you're you're running a guy that calls people horse face like what are you talking about veterans suckers and losers and goes after john mccain for being a POW but listen that's always been on the right they have always you know that paper patriotism i support the troops unless god forbid one of the troops is running against us and then we're going to run a swift boat campaign or even with McCain, who was a war hero that you can't argue, they even went after him.

I didn't want to mention this because of the fact that they were attacking Tim Walls. This guy served 24 years in the National Guard, first in Nebraska, then in Minnesota. And as you know, according to Republicans, it's not he had to serve 30 or 25. It wasn't long enough. So the retirement time where, you know, you've kind of vassad. it's retired as 20 years. So he decides to take four more years with the guard. And while he did not serve in combat, he's been very clear on that. It's because his unit was deployed to be in Europe after 9-11, right? So that's where they get deployed to protect our assets there and get the

supply chain. But I assume you still carry a weapon, don't you? Even when you're... Exactly. And he trained people. But the one way I want to look at this is instead of, and I respect J.D. Vance's four years in the Marines. Of course we do. But the thing here is that the National Guard is a very amazing concept that people in states love. Why? It has two purposes. One is they can be activated to serve, and they have been and served alongside active duty. But they also protect the homeland. So when there's tornadoes and fires and floods and all kinds of things, the National Guard hurricanes come and help the state. And Tim Walts has done that over and over again as part of National Guard duty.

So I just think that the attack... It's a tried and true methodology from Republicans. They support the troops, they support patriotism, unless you're going to run against them, and then they will try and pick your service apart. It almost bears a ridiculous idea, even to answer to them, because it's such a very clear strategy.

I will say, though, it pivots into, And these are, I know, issues that you've worked on. You did great work with toxic exposure stuff. You're doing great work with the Afghan Adjustment Act. You know, the National Guard really did bear a tremendous burden during the global war on terror in a way that was really different than things had been. So you had people who were, they worked in accounting offices, and then the next day they were in Balad. And then they were there for 16 months. And then they were just back in their accounting office.

The real kind of whiplash that occurred for so many National Guard troops, I think, has led to a lot of the PTSD that you've seen, a lot of those mental health issues. This was a really rough ride for so many National Guards. And hard for the communities and their families. We lost a number of them in service. So one of the things that came out of that in addition to the work that actually when Tim Walls and I arrived in Congress, what we worked on was after the fiasco at Walter Reed was upping the health care, right, upping the health care in terms of what they got for everyone, active duty and National Guard. Then the second thing was making sure that National Guard got some of the same benefits when they were serving in active duty because they were literally doing the same thing. And I'll never forget visiting Iraq.

went there. It was Lisa Murkowski and Sheldon and then Senator Sununu and myself. And we were at the airport and the National Guard from Minnesota, there were Duluth firefighters that came over and introduced themselves. I've since gotten to know them when they back here years and years later. And their job at that airport was to stand and salute when the caskets were loaded on the planes. Oh, boy. And that's how I met them. And I will never, ever forget that moment. because this is the example. I mean, they were serving in, of course, dangerous places, but then they were also performing those kinds of duties.

So that's why we upped it. That's why we involved the National Guard with the Joint Chiefs. A lot of things changed as a result of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan with our guard and the benefits. And that's why I think they're the pride in the guard. A lot of them are firefighters and cops. We had a contingent out here out of New York that lost members in a helicopter. after crash in Iraq. And I remember seeing them there afterwards. Like, it's, it's devastating.

And as you say, to the communities back home and all those things. But tell me a little bit about, you know, this Afghan Adjustment Act, this is something that's been worked on. There were so many people, Afghans, that worked on behalf of U.S. troops. And I don't know if people are aware of the kinds of risks that they had put themselves into. The Taliban would say to them, I will kill your whole family unless you attack, you know, a blue on green, you go after American troops or as soon as the Americans leave, a lot of these folks have had to go into hiding. And we've gotten a lot out, but we've had a real hard time. Why has it been so difficult? It's one of the only bipartisan bills I can think of that's going out there. It's you and Senator Graham. Why is it so difficult

to get that through, to get these folks that did so much for us during that time of global war on terror to get them to safety. I think anything that has to do with immigration, sometimes just people are going to know. In this case, these are 80,000 people that are already in our country. And just like the Hmong people came after Vietnam, we made sure that those who had stood at our side didn't have to be forced back. In this case, they'd be forced back to the Taliban. And we gave them, after they were vetted, we gave them permanent status.

What this bill does is it says when you're here, and there's a few others that are assets that are in other parts of the world, of course, that we'd like to bring over. Because they literally were translators for our troops. They stood with our troops. There's a movie called The Covenant that is about an Afghan translator that saved the life of a soldier that I suggest people watch because we made a covenant with them that we were going to stand with them and their families. So now that they're here, they are allowed to work some, but they don't have any kind of status. It's like there's a trapdoor under them. So the biggest, loudest voices to get this done are our own American troops who know that they thank their safety and their lives to these Afghans that stood with them. And the American Legion, the VFW, the Iraq and Afghan veterans, they've all made this a big priority.

No one left behind, I think, is a huge organization that also works towards us. Exactly. We've got Stanley McChrystal. We've had all the generals that are standing there supporting this bill. So where is the friction? Where is the difficulty and pushing that? There really isn't except no one likes to vote on stuff like this. So I've gotten, I've gotten literally Roger Wickers on the bill. No, people have put their names on the bill, right? He is the ranking on armed services, very conservative. I've got Mullen, the guy that, you know, challenged the teamster to the cage match, that guy. He's on the bill. He's a veteran. I've got the support of. of Senator Rish on the bill, the ranking on this, Graham Moran, the head of veterans on the Republican side. He was actually quite helpful on Pact Act, Moran of Kansas. Yeah, he's very. Boseman as well. Like they were quite helpful.

Exactly. So my hope, I know I have the votes to get this, you know, how that magic number of 60 to break the filibuster. I have those votes for sure and more. Fantastic. But we just have to have it as a vote to get on. And, of course, the House then. And we've got bipartisan support there too, but we need to get it on a major bill and then it goes through.

Could be the Defense Act, could be a budget bill at the end of the year. But it has been just gut wrenching to talk to some of these soldiers and they can't believe it didn't pass yet because we stand with those that stood with us. And that is how it is. Otherwise, no one's going to want to join us in other battlefields or other situations across the country. You know, our soldiers talk about the kinds of moral injuries. that that does to them, you know, in terms of, look, they're already, I think, have really ambivalent feelings about what happened in Afghanistan and the way that we left and how it has since turned out. And there, I think, a lot of really ambiguous feelings about that and

ambivalent feelings about that. But I think this issue in particular, where they felt so invested and so personally indebted to some of these folks, the Afghan translators and the other people who worked in support capacity to not be able to have that codified, I think has been really difficult for people.

It is. And it's just, I think I'm going to get it done. I almost be sure I am. I never get up. I've number three for passing bills last Congress. I will get this done. Do they write that? Is it like Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross? Yeah, there's like little grass. You get a set of steak knives because you yeah yeah but i never say it with other senators oh all right yeah it's like brassley's ahead of me i i'm aiming for number one grassley's ahead of you that i would not might have

happened mine to happen all right fair enough and then when that's done we're still trying to get there's some loopholes in pact act that we're still trying to close down including uh the k2 veterans who had deployed uh to that base in Uzbekistan who've suffered greatly from uh radiation exposure and nerve gas exposure. We're just trying to tie those up, yeah. And then also we've had over a million, now a million of those that serve that have made claims. It's unbelievable. And by the way, Tim Walls, not to keep going back there, but he actually did early on before it was cool to before the PACT Act worked with me. We did a number of things on disability claims, on mental health claims, and the like that are right there in his record. He led a number of those bills. But on the PACT Act,

I couldn't believe how many Vietnam veterans have come up and thanked us for this because they, we redefined the triggering things for Agent Orange coverage. And that's been helpful. Well, you know, the big one was hypertension. You know, people don't realize Agent Orange is, you know, in those dioxins. So you had all these Vietnam veterans who were suffering from this hypertension. Yeah. But it's a, I almost think more importantly, it's a recognition.

Yeah. That you're not insane, that you were exposed to these terrible things and that it's causing you a good deal of harm. Yeah, one other thing is that our firefighters and our first responders, police officers, they also, not associated with serving overseas, they also have been exposed to toxic chemicals and get cancer at an overriding rate, as you know, from your work on 9-11. Absolutely. And so what I actually lead the bill with Senator Kramer, that covers make sure that they get

covered that it's considered a while if they get cancer while they're serving that they actually get covered as well when they leave that's not necessarily the case and their spouse doesn't get the benefits in minnesota we change that law because of one firefighter who died but that bill is gaining a lot of support as well and that's called honoring our fallen heroes act so and it's very related to the work that you did uh for the 9-11 survivor boy i by the way wind of you were incredible and you were incredible on the PACT Act. Just so your listeners know that thing was going down. It was going in flames.

It was going in flames because a partisan crap from the Republican side. And after they had voted for it once, and the veterans, including a Minnesota veteran named Amanda Barbosa, decided to, yeah, she's cool. And her husband got very sick from being next to a burn pet. Well, he got, I think he got colon cancer. I think it was. Yeah. I think it was colon cancer.

He was doing better when I talked to her last year. I hope that continues. Although last time I talked to him, he bought a motorcycle. So things are, he was still living on the edge, for God says. I can't believe we both know these people. I know. That's correct. Okay, so what happens is they're all sleeping on the steps.

And she was one of the leaders in that decision. And I went there that night, as did Senator Gillibrand. And we went there and talked to him. And then I always, the way I tell this story to veterans, I'm like, and then John Stewart showed up and it was all over. That's true. You went to those steps and we got it done. And so it was an incredible move.

So thank you. No, I was so pleased to be a part of that. All right. We'll be right back. We're back. So now you've got the convention coming up. What in particular are you looking forward to seeing kind of codified? It's all been a whirlwind.

So there hasn't been a whole lot that's come down in terms of the priorities, the platform, all those kinds of things. I imagine there'll be a lot of sort of boilerplate. Do you think it's going to be substantially different than what a Biden presidential platform would have looked like? Are they actively doing it? Do you have input into that process? What's the next step?

Well, so I think the convention is going to give this opportunity for us to really focus on some of the future. Every rally, right, we're going forward. We're not going backward. That means we're not going back to Donald Trump in the day. darkness and the, you know, the felony convictions and no one wants to deal with this. But what they're going to be focused on is what the future looks like, right? They're still like people are challenged on childcare.

They need housing, some of these things. I think that's going to be really important as well as the issue that is such a change between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, which is that he said he was probably the person responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade, his exact words on video. Right. Which, by the way, everybody's happening. about. Apparently, apparently that was a decision that everybody's happy about. They've all been clapped. Nobody's complained since that. There I know. It hasn't mattered at all. Not like not in Kansas. Meanwhile, how do you saw? There's this group of women in Texas who are suing because they were not

treated for, there was one woman I was reading the story in ectopic pregnancy that ruptured. And she's now, you know, utterly damaged because they would not treat her. They just said her home. So you have women bleeding out in parking lots of emergency rooms because of these decisions. You have Miffa Pristone still at risk. The Supreme Court gave a temporary reprieve, but still at risk because you have people racing to the state legislators to figure out how they can ban it. I mean, this is when he says.

IVF at risk. I mean, really things that people take for granted in modern reproductive health. When he says give it to the states, this is the chaos that has resulted. And I always thought they bring us back to the 1950s, but it's actually the 1850s. They are like pre-Yellowstone prequel. Like they are back at a time of, you know, pointy shoes and medieval days. So that's what's going on here, banning pointy shoes. So I am, I think this has just, people get it.

It's like the symbol of the backwardness. So this convention, yes, there'll be a lot of focus on the contrast, right? and Project 2025. No, it's not the number of felony indictments he has. But there'll be some focus on that. But it's also going to be a positive focus, as their campaign has been since it was launched three weeks ago, on what can be and how we can make things better.

And I think that's what people are thirsting for, and that's what you're going to hear at the convention. Right. Well, we'll see you there. Okay. We'll be in Chicago. Oh, you are? Oh, maybe I'll stop by.

We're coming out. We're doing shows. We're banging. things out. Okay, good. You know, when we heard they're going to do a Democratic National Convention in Chicago, well, I thought what could go wrong? I mean, that's the history there is on their side.

But I've never seen them. I mean, it was only a month ago that there was an attempt on the ex-president's life. And Biden. Last question before you go, I don't know if you've talked with President Biden, but I imagine this has been a really difficult. emotional reckoning for President Biden. Are you in contact with their folks? I know, I know he's going to, you know, be there.

He'll be at the convention. Yeah. And I think that that's going to be a really important moment for the world to see the love for President Biden, the hard decision he had to make. I mean, remember, he knows how important it is to save our democracy, as he talked about in the recent interview on CBS, how important it is save our democracy and make sure that Donald Trump is not back in that White House. And so that was a lot of what was motivating him to hang on.

And then he took the honorable path, made this difficult decision. And when you look back at his presidency, as history will tell, he is the one that saved our democracy by winning that election and stood in that inauguration after that insurrection under that blue sky and pledge that he would stand up for the soul of America. He's the one that got us out. He and Kamala Harris out of that pandemic by getting the vaccine distributed and a bit of mess, getting it distributed, brought back our economy so much faster than so many other developed nations across the world. Are you speaking at the convention? Because this is, I will be. Yes.

This is boil of play. You could jump right in with this. Oh, come on. No, what I'm saying is there is going to be something of a, I just think a big hug for Joe Biden. They're going to give him a big hug and they're going to give him a big thing. How forceful did it get? You know, was it, did people have to go and say like, look, these folks are serious. They're going to invoke real strong measures to get you out if you're not going to accept that as a reality. You know, I think that in the end he made his own decision. I really felt it was his to make.

that was my view of this whole thing. And he came to the right decision. But you can understand why he was, it was a hard decision to make in some ways because you're in the middle of an election time. You don't know what that's going to mean when you step out. So even if you look just completely rationally, even if you don't like Joe Biden, you could see when he wants to win the election and beat Donald Trump why it took a while to get to that decision. And he made the right decision and he did it, I think, in a good way as well. And the result. And the result, have shown in what a good way. But the kind of reckoning, forget about even, you know, leaving this seat of now at the Supreme Court,

almost absolute power. But the reckoning of the end of a career, the reckoning of, you know, as what age does to all of us. I imagine, you know, and you kind of, you can liken it to the wall. We had to take our, you know, we had to take a car away from my mom when she turned 90. But we also didn't have millions of people on the Internet going, let her drive. Like that, so for him to do that willingly and come to grips with all that in such a short amount of time, you know, not easy. And I also think he, remember, he's still our president and every day is doing good things. And so in keeping this together as we look at what's going on around the world and how difficult it is.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing a member. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Senator Klobuchar. We'll see you in Chicago. And thanks for all your insights. Thank you, John. Today. Great stuff. All right. See ya. Bye.

You know what you forget sometimes? So we had just spoken with Senator Klobuchar. The state-centric, you know, we're so used to the national conversation. And everything is national and how's it going to play out in the swing states and all these different things. But you forget, like, oh, when you're a senator from a state, like, you are state-centric. So so much of what she's like, so I've been Mancato and the Minnesota. and the pride in Sunni Lee, and you're like, oh, right, that's, that's that kind of uniquely proud homerism that is when you're coming from an individual state.

And I guess it's kind of cool to see the pride, even when she's like, yeah, I'm in an airport with these two dudes from Minnesota. And I'm like, hey, you want to get on the phone with Vice President Harris? Yeah. It's it's kind of colloquial and great. What are the commentators? What are our people saying? Let's get to listener questions.

Okay. Listener question. Let me hear it. All right. First one. Somebody's asked if you would ever host a presidential debate, but also how would you design your ideal debate format? Oh, the presidential debate format.

I would design it with the least amount of interruption. that it is so gamified now with you've got a minute and then you've got a minute and then we're going to hit a buzzer and you've got to switch over it has to be if you're going to have legitimate debates there has to be a series of them and they cannot run like a fucking episode of a game show like press your luck like it just can't be okay now we're going to go to the speed round drug policy yeah education pharma like you can't get into that you can't get into that. to. So all that happens is when it's been gamified, the candidates understand, well, I only need 30 seconds or 45 seconds of boilerplate nonsense. And then they're going to say they're 45 seconds

of boilerplate nonsense. And we're never going to have to deal with it again. Two people at a desk, what are you going to do differently to rein in drug costs and just let him fucking talk? Mm-hmm. Maybe a concession for the people who really like pizzazz. We can have cool entrants. for the candidates instead of the boring walk-on. I love it. See, I love that. Or have, you know, at the end, you can do musicals things or, you know, you get 15 minutes

of conversation and then everyone has to do a TikTok dance. Fine. That little talent portion? Swimsuit competition. I'd love to see that. Yeah. Well, Biden's already in it. He's already in Delaware in the in the Speedos.

He doesn't even give a shit anymore. I don't know if you saw the video, but he's just like filming his own Corona commercial. sitting on the beach like, life is for him. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. We've got one last question for you.

One last question. Favorite segment of the pod. Here we go. John Influencer question of the week. Oh, man. What do you look for in a pair of glasses? Oh, a magnification of around 2.75 or three. That's what I look for.

And I look for it. So I only have reading. glasses. I can see, you know, I am what they say, far-sighted. So I can see everything and all that. Only in the past few years have I not been able to see anything up close. So I'm obviously very hungry because I go to restaurants and then I just look up and say, I don't know. I can't help. They say, what do you want? I say, I don't know what this is. And I'm going to have to just go home hungry. But what I've noticed as this has gone on is so there was a time where no matter what drugstore I went to, I would buy a reader. And it started out very reasonably. You'd go in,

you'd buy a reader. And then I noticed, like, the readers that I got were no longer had any efficacy. I was starting to get worse and worse. And I started to read. And so now I'm at the point where I can almost not reach the only, the only glasses that will actually solve the problem that I have, because I've absorbed all the 1.7 fives and 2s and 225s. That doesn't do shit anymore. It has no efficacy anymore. I need that 275. I need that three.

I'll jump to a 350 if they have it. But if they do, I'm not a tall man. Generally on the stand, you have to go all the way up. So it is paradoxical to the aging process because the older I get, the worse my vision gets, but the higher up the glasses go. Yeah. So the frailer I get, they're slowly, I think this is some kind of, I think this is how most people break their hips. Oh, my God.

I believe that is how I will die. I will die reaching out over a cliff for some readers that were placed. Why would you do that to old people? As always, a lovely. Wait, wait, wait. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I interrupt? Yes, please.

I just want to ask people to keep sending in more questions because we're really enjoying this. You know what? We are enjoying this. I'm having fun. I am as well. And you guys are killing it. As always, lead producer Lauren Walker, producer Brittany Mehmedevig. By the way, filling in for Rob Betoile this week, Sam Reed on video editing engineering. But I'll be perfectly frank.

Nicole, she crushed it. She jumped in. She's normally audio editor and engineer, but she was doing video. She was crushing it this week. Gillian Spear, researcher, associate producer, executive producers, Chris McShane, Katie Gray, as always, very excited. Brittany, what are the socials that we go to? Yeah, Twitter.

We are weekly show pod, Instagram, threads, and TikTok. We are weekly show podcast. And we are weekly show with John Stewart on YouTube. All right. Great job, guys. That's all for the weekly show. We'll see you next week. The weekly show with John Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast.

It's produced by Paramount Audio and Bus Boy Productions. Podcasts.