Jon Stewart
Appearances
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 164
Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews, and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Listen to The Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Catch Jon Stewart back in action on The Daily Show and in your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in-depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews, and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Listen to The Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
Jon Stewart is back at The Daily Show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into Jon's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondents and contributors.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 167
And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
All right. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
All right. We are back. You know, we sort of have two tranches there. One is the wildfire and the other is kind of the day-to-day. Jesus, when I want to apply for something, I have to go through 10 pages. And by the way, you know, if we were to have a moonshot, rather than going to Mars, I would like to see all of our best engineers and technicians on a bureaucratic moonshot.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
to try and do a manhattan project of ridiculous fucking paperwork and and how you you simplify that in a way that that makes sense so i have i have great sympathy for that the wildfire thing is slightly different in my mind because that also speaks to a larger you know everybody wants to stop these things uh and react to them like los angeles and climate change and no water.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I guess the most recent shock and awe is all the money. Let's just stop the money, just real quick. I'm just going to... You know what? What are we doing there? What are we paying for? Let's just... let's just stop the money real quick and just take a,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
There's a lot of factors that when a tornado comes and there's a fire, I don't know how many trucks you could park near the area and how much water you could have that would have stopped what was something that from a lot of the firefighters I talked to out there, they thought was inevitable. That when you put that many houses in that dry a place, With those high winds, this is going to happen.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
We're willing to scream at Los Angeles because they hired a lesbian fire chief and a black mayor, but nobody wants to talk about the way that these disasters have been exacerbated by climate and all kinds of other things.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But it's still hubris. I mean, there is still a certain extent like, okay, Sandy hit, so we learned our lesson. Everybody eight feet up on stilts and let's put a berm up. But like God is going to come in and go like, really? Stilts? You think stilts? Like we have to have a certain acceptance of our vulnerability on this. I think we can always do a better job. There is no question in my mind.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
that there were things that could be done. But when we focus so much on DEI and all this other dumb shit that they think is determinative, like they built...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
take a look at it i imagine you could just keep paying the money and take a look at it while it's happening but but i guess they wanted to stop it they don't see it in motion apparently now they've rolled back they're putting back in i guess meals on wheels and a couple other things that but you know they don't want to kill old people but the rest of us anyway this is it's it's it's a lot it's a fucking lot and uh to help us uh get through it you know uh i can talk
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
um it makes it creates an easy straw man john for for folks who are looking for someone to something to blame right i understand but so so let's let's break that down a little bit because i think that's that is a an incredibly powerful thread that's been going through our society for a long time that this idea of dei is anti-merit you know it takes our meritocracy that we've
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
worked so hard to fix, which says, when were we a meritocracy? At what point is diversity less competitive? Introducing more people into the system who have different skill sets and come from different things. Hiring is subjective. There's no objective test. It's always subjective. Let's look at the Secretary of Defense. Right? Yeah. Well, now we live in a meritocracy. We've restored it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Lloyd Austin is the DEI candidate, even though he had, I don't know, 40 years of experience running large organizations. If you got those two resumes between he and Pete Hegzeth, which one would be considered of merit?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But where is that done? I'm trying to think like my experience. You have experience hiring as well, right? I do a lot. I have experience hiring. What I found was hiring has a certain inertia to it, right? Generally, the people that kind of
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
started whatever industry or whatever office did generally hire close to people that resemble them so and i'm not even talking about white black what i'm talking about like i'll just go with late night comedy right David Letterman revolutionized late night comedy. He did it with a lot of Harvard, Lampoon, SNL, same way writers.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So the comedy writing industry was for a long time, not necessarily out of malevolence or prejudice. The inertia of it, the status quo of it was nerdy white dudes from Harvard and the other Ivy League's. Very bad to say about Conan. That's horrible to be. Terrible to say. Saying that about Conan, John.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But even when we went to like, oh, we're going to do blind submissions, what we didn't realize is all the agents are also steeped in that same status quo. So all the resumes, even when we would get them, still predominantly when we went specifically to say, now this is what you would consider DEI. Give us not that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Open it up to make sure you give us women, people of color, other writers, so that we can at least see what that is. And all of a sudden, we found these incredible writers. Now, you could say, oh, you put diversity over competence. But that's the red herring. We didn't. We opened up what were stagnant pools, pools that were incestuous. And we opened up those tributaries.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
with the home team as much as we want. I want to get some insight on somebody who really knows Donald Trump, has spoken out against Donald Trump, has also collaborated. He's done the collabs and spoken out. But let's get to him right now to hopefully get a sense of where this thing may in fact be going and what are some of the darker undertones that are behind it. So without further ado...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And isn't that what increases competition, not decreases it? Here's another example. All this talk about meritocracy. Vivek Ramaswamy comes out and says, all right, well, we need these engineers on H-1B visas, right? They're very talented. And everybody freaks the fuck out. How dare you prioritize these, what, better engineers? Like, what are we actually talking about?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But that's the point of DEI is not there to just change the color scheme and the palette. It's to look at a broader. And by the way, it includes hiring veterans, people of different socioeconomic status. Like it's not just race. or gender, diversity brings a resilience to your organizations that it might not have otherwise.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But without that, when has merit ever been implemented in that way. Legacy admissions to colleges, legacy admissions to the big firms. Why do we assume that the so-called meritocracy, the way that things were done in the past when America was great, was an objectively meritocratic system? It wasn't. It's rigged. It's always been rigged.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It's more rigged by that than any measure of bringing on somebody whose experience for the position may be slightly more unorthodox.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But that's where we disagree. All right, a little quick break, and then we're coming right back.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Governor Chris Christie, 55th governor. 55th? Yeah. Of New Jersey. Obviously ran for president 2016, 2024.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But you just told me that's what you did in the prosecutor's office.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
No, I know, but that's because there's been a purposeful dismantling of anything that looks to repair the damage done by what were the legacy and the exclusionary practices of
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
of the past that's purposeful the the the backlash against dei is not uh a populist uprising against hiring it's the purposeful uh framing of that through political actors that's i mean that's what christopher ruffo that's what descent is like that's what these guys are doing intentionally this isn't the world suddenly saying oh my god what happened to our competence like
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
there was something about they wanted a diversity program in hiring pilots. And everybody was like, why don't they just hire the best pilots? And the idea is like, you really think they're out there just going, give me a black guy that doesn't know anything about the qualifications needed to become a pilot or won't study to become a pilot.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It's just another way to retreat from, I think, the added competition of diverse populations.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But you saw that was a huge story on the right.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But they're getting blamed for the government's lack of agility and responsiveness. So where I object to is now suddenly we go, I appreciate the diagnosis, right? Government not responding to the discomfort of the people in an agile way. Right. What I don't appreciate is that that is being blamed on DEI and illegal immigration.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Listen, the best example of that was after George Floyd died.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
when the democrats gathered i can't remember where it was in the rotunda like in kente cloth yeah you know it's nancy pelosi standing and i agree with you a lot of it can be performative right yes in gucci shoes and kente cloth you know i mean it's good exactly it's it's it's a little bit it's distasteful doesn't mean that it's it's it's not necessary and i think and this ties back in let's and this will bring it back around maybe to to
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Donald Trump and sort of how this is going. Make America great again. You're not quite sure what they mean. Do they mean return it to the default setting, which is, I guess, as you said, white male and competent? Is that the idea behind this? And is that what people are voting for? And in your mind, is that Donald Trump's vision of this?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You don't think it's more purposeful than that? I mean, the co-opting of the language of like America first. I mean, it's got so many... Look. Well, those are two different things. But they've really... put them together. What did he say in his inaugural speech? I will always put America first. He must be very aware of the evocation of that, no?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Years. I believe years.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So then let's talk about then the people around him. I definitely view the way he runs this country as, look, he has run the Trump organization. It's not a publicly traded company. He runs it. He is the emperor of that empire. He is the king of it all. And I think that's where he's most comfortable being, obviously.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And he is looking at the federal government to reflect that ethos, that he is steeped in that kind of imperious way. What I am seeing is our system is not very well prepared to handle somebody who's going to push it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
There's enough cracks and air and loopholes and things within our system that if you want to push it, and by the way, he's nullified Congress because now he's got the House and the Senate and he's got the judiciary. Like everybody wants to say, okay, this is, he's a fascist. What I'm looking at it as, haven't we handed him the keys to that type of ruler? He's been handed it democratically.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Like that's what's most frightening to me is you always think of the last bulwark is the consent of the governed, right? He has that. And the Democrats are in utter disarray. So how do you realistically stand up to a person that is very comfortable operating at that imperial level of our government at its kind of The founders didn't think of it that way.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They thought it would be a check and balance between judiciary and legislative and executive. I don't think they viewed it as two parties fighting each other and a president that's going to push the shit out of this. Unitary executive. I mean, they almost made it that the president was like an eight-person board. So I've yet to see what is the effective response to...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So why, you know... You've known this about him. How long have you known him for? Many, many years. 23 years. 23 years. Okay. I don't imagine that the pettiness, vindictiveness and anger and those various things that you talk about in terms of character just recently surfaced. That he went through some sort of midlife crisis and ended up With some personality tics that old people get.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So, and this is the question that gets back to what we talked about originally. And it's not a gotcha, it's not meant to the thing. You were one of those people. You knew. In 2016, you knew what this guy was. You knew all those things. You had rationalizations for why you didn't act upon that and call it out earlier. It's not even that you stepped back. You actively participated in there.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So you, I think, rightly have identified something. But very clearly, it's... It's something you yourself, I think, fell victim to. And you can say, well, in 2020 when he finally wouldn't concede, that's when I knew. But you did know. And these people know and they don't do it. So what do you say to them and what do you say to yourself?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Wait, when do I have to be?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
All right, fair enough.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But you weren't running against him. You were running for president.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You really, you really think it's going there. You think it, Do you think the chaos is purposeful to start invoking some of those more emergency type powers? Is that where this is going?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
We've known this for a very long time. And by the way, you were one of his. Boy, he enjoyed making fun of you, right? Oh, yeah. Still does. But in 2016, you helped him. You helped him in the debates and all that. What is it? That keeps people in the orbit. Is it a fear that you will lose your political career if you go against him? Is it a close to power? He makes people supplicants.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense is going to be like Meatloaf and Gary Busey arguing in the boardroom?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Yeah, he sees them on TV.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
He will always take the cruelest option he can possibly come up with. Absolutely right. So that brings us to, and I'm cognizant of your time, and I really do appreciate you being here, and this will sort of bring us back around to the end. When I look at that, his pettiness or his cruelty or his... his comfort in chaos.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I feel like the arguments against him have been litigated now for 10 years through the public and through the courts. We've gone through 10, 12 years of, he's terrible. He's a threat to democracy. He's an autocrat. And Americans saw that. They saw January 6th. They saw everything. They saw the convictions, the felonies. And they went, yeah, we're good with that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Not only are we good with that, we're better with that than we were the last time. And we've talked a little bit about you know, your idea that Republicans have shown their character by not in any way standing up to that aspect of it, even if they might agree with them philosophically on certain areas.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So now let's talk about the Democrats because this is the team I consider my team and I feel they are utterly rudderless. They've litigated the he's an autocrat and he's a dick argument. It hasn't gone anywhere. And it seems like they are utterly unprepared for this onslaught and are still just shouting autocracy rather than, look, this guy walked into office with a Project 2025 book.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
This is a 50 to 60 year project they've been working on. How is it that the Democrats are so flat footed here? And where is their counter to this? That idea that Americans feel left out of the government. Why are they just status quo-ing it?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Why are they just sending out Chuck Schumer to put his glasses down by his nose to look down and read a statement in as flat a monotone as you could possibly muster about the existential danger we face of this autocrat and then like take a quick call from his kid and laugh about, my grandson lost a tooth. And then he goes back to like,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Why is Obama shit, you know, laughing with him at a thing is it all feels performative. And, and what is the actual, where's the book that says, this is what the relationship with the government is. And here's how we're going to fix it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But the Republicans are very good at – they've lined up a lot of their think tanks with their media, with their –
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
uh political arms they have fights too they've got a freedom caucus like right now the democratic strategy appears to be let's hope chip roy is so fucking crazy that he'll just stand up and make it impossible for the house to pass anything rather than you can't just tell people to steer away from that crash you have to give them a direction to drive into and i know that's being reductive
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But they don't seem to have that same infrastructure or leadership.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Oh, I don't. I mean, if your idea is like the Democrats lost because Biden was too progressive, I would. No, no.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Which is entirely the opposite of what reality is. He's a guy who says, I'm the free, free speech is back. And by the way, somebody should remove MSNBC from the air and CBS, and I'm going to sue everybody. Like there's, it's incoherent.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But don't you think reconciliation allows him much more leeway through the Senate? I mean, he's going to push everything to reconciliation.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
See, here's where I think he's going to get around that, and I truly believe this. I think they're being really shrewd about this. I think they actually are going to be ruthless in –
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
cutting spending and i think you're seeing that now with the freeze on everything else like i think he's i think he's calculated that into their project i think these guys again they've thought this through they have a game plan in my mind this really is and maybe it's just because it's my team i'm so frustrated with their inability to mount any coherent opposition
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
other than I'm telling my lawyer, we're telling our lawyers to file an injunction. And I mean, come on, guys, this is autocracy. And it goes back to the only path I see out of this really dark tunnel that we're in, and I do feel like it's dark and going to get darker, is they have to have at least one of the handles of power.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And to get that, they have to present a convincing, authentic, coherent, and directed and led vision, not of I'm a progressive, I'm a conservative, I'm a thing, I'm a that, of how to make this thing work, how to make it work for people to agilely respond to They're paying money in. What are they getting back? And what does that mean to their lives? And if they can't do that, we're royally fucked.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
That is the premise.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Now you're talking my life. Now this is all bringing it back to sports radio, baby. Let's go. Offense and defense.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And look, and I think ultimately, you know, you as a governor, I think ultimately what's going to happen is the states are going to have to the system is still federalist. And I think we're going to see power returning to some of the states. And I think you're going to see governors profiles. raised within that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I think they're going to come up with really creative solutions to protect the people most vulnerable to a lot of the shit that's going down. And someone, I have faith that someone may not rise out of the legislative arms of the party, but out of the executive arms of the party, you may start to see some changes made and some things come up.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Even in that moment, when he's doing things like, you know, he makes the whatever it was, the Oreo joke, or he makes you a supplicant. And this is 2016. And then you watched him as president. You know, you were part of his transition team. You know, he went out of his way to kind of shame you, right? Mm-hmm. Why go back in 2020?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But ultimately, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today and giving the insights into what you were given. So thank you for being here.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey. Thank you so much, presidential candidate. And we really do appreciate you coming on today.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Chris Christie. I want to thank him very much for the conversation. For those of you who didn't, See, before we got started in the conversation, we talked about Mets, and I don't think I've ever seen him as animated. I think that's the key, is you bring up the Mets, and Chris Christie goes. So I want to also point a quick note.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
We taped a separate little piece talking about an Afghan resettlement program for allies of the United States. who had been in Afghanistan, who are having trouble now with the program that was set up to get them into the United States safely. And we talked to Sean Van Diver, who is heading up a program called Afghan EVAC, about the status of that program. You can check that out as well.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I think we're going to put that out as a separate piece, so as rather not to make your podcast listen as long as possible. I don't know how far your car ride is, is what I'm trying to say to you. I don't know how this goes. So anyway, we appreciate you sticking with the program, listening to it. Please keep sending all your suggestions and such. And we'll check you out next week.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Like, what was it that made you still stick with, you know, it's one thing to say, okay, well, that I didn't really know in 2016. In 2020, you clearly knew. So what is it then?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
As always, lead producer Lauren Walker, producer Brittany Mamedovic, video editor and engineer Rob Vitolo, audio editor and engineer Nicole Boyce. researcher and associate producer, Jillian Spear, and our executive producers, Chris McShane and Katie Gray. Thank you guys so much. Could not, could not do this thing without all their hard work. Really appreciate it. And we'll see you next week. Boy.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast. It's produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You went with the one that was fatally flawed character-wise.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Had you had dealings with Biden at that time and that's where you drew that conclusion?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I wouldn't not at the same time. No, but fair enough.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Not to use the bridge, by the way, sensitive topic. I don't want to go bridge.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Yeah, you got to really reach for metaphors when I'm talking to ex-politicians here.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Look, this is, it's, I feel it in my bones, a certain fright about where this thing is going to go. And The most difficult thing for me to reckon is that moment that you speak about, that from November to January, that inability to concede the election results without any shred of legitimate court-tested proof, anything that has evidentiary standards.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
As you know, the court system was really the only thing that held up. the fact that January 6th happened, not as a moment of, you know, a crime of passion, but as the result of careful weeks and months of planning by his legal team as to which obstacle he next had to reach. Like, I think what they said was, this is your final shot. If we can't stop this electoral count, it's over.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Hey, everybody. Welcome once again to The Weekly Show. My name is Jon Stewart. It is end of January, I'm going to say, 2025. President Trump has been president forever or an hour. The confusion, the chaos, which I'm assuming is the point, has been stunning. Even for those expecting there to be this kind of, I mean, they said shock and awe.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
If we can't somehow make it chaotic and get it thrown into the house, right? The most anti-democratic thing you could possibly achieve, at least in my mind, in an election in America. He was not punished for that. He was rewarded for that with not just an electoral college win, but a popular vote win. So what are we now to make of this?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
We've all got in our minds that Chris Christie moment, a bridge too far, even for someone that I had doubts about, character flaws, all these different things. He finally crossed for you the Rubicon. And America is unmoved by the character argument and the autocrat argument. So what are you left with?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But let's go, you know, it's interesting because you talk about it in terms of the people, right? And you say, well, it's a binary choice, this person versus...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
this person but i think there's something uh deeper here about a system of government that people no longer feel is responsive enough for them that democracy in and of itself has gotten sort of sclerotic and and is not is not agile in the way that it needs to be and Is it that, you know, I don't necessarily disagree with Donald Trump's diagnoses. The system is rigged against people.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Powerful interests have the ear of our politicians. The government is not responding necessarily to the discomfort of its, let's call them customers, right? I think it's a Trojan horse. it seems like what the Republicans have in mind is kind of an undoing of the relationship that we have established between the people and the government since the New Deal.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And further than that, the Immigration Act of the 60s and the Civil Rights Act of the 60s. These are the things that this Project 2025 wants to disassemble. It's sort of like Project 1929. Is that their aim? And all... Everything else is sort of noise. Is the signal here a refashioning of the relationship between the government and the people?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They were coming in with shock and awe, which really is not a phrase that you expect to be deployed on your own country. I was under the impression that it was the kind of thing we would deploy on countries we had hostilities with. But it turns out the hostility is with us. It's the people, the American people that are going to get the shock and awe.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
All right. We're going to take a quick break and be right back.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
We are back. But don't you have to know what you're up against? Don't you, you know, how do you fight an enemy that you haven't defined explicitly? And I'll give you even an example in a small thing, because I think this speaks to a larger, deeper issue that I think I want to get into with you, which is, you know, we all look at, oh, why did the Democrats fall flat?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Oh, Joe Biden got out too late or Kamala Harris didn't have a time or she, you know, whatever that was. But I think at its base level, it was a feeling that government is not being responsive to the discomfort of its people, right? Which breeds a certain feeling that there's this – this disconnect. And so we have to be able to define why.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And I would put this into kind of a unifying theme of governance, which is for the Democrats, oftentimes they're so analog, they're so tied to Robert's rules of order and they haven't realized like, oh, it's fucking UFC out there now.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And we have to switch the way, but then you also have to define what that's going to mean for how you govern and what you're going to do.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
We don't... America... has announced itself as we don't give a fuck. The mountains have different names. I don't even know what I'm looking at on a map. I feel like it's one of those, when you get one of those maps from like the 19, when England would just go in and just redraw, like, okay, that country doesn't exist anymore. I'm just going to call that, I don't know, Lebanon.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
How does that manifest? If you could give us an example of what those concessions might look like. So how in a practical way, when you're chasing a different group, because in my mind, look, one of the biggest issues in my mind is over the last 40 or 50 years, labor has been devalued and capital has been elevated. So investment and finance is king and labor is in many ways devalued.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And how do those compromises occur? Are those placed in because of who has the ear of the congressional people, the Senate? and the House, this is the effect of big money and lobbying, yes?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
They can do the appropriating or they're just as a part of it because it's not the appropriations, but it's- Yeah.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Like, hey, man, what's up? Like, what kind of, was it like, hey, what's up, Congresswoman?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Why don't we do that? Here's Syria and draw a little line. And I don't know. It's going to take weeks to just parse everything. Just what the rules are. Any more about gravity is still in effect, I believe. Or did he executive order that as well? I don't quite know. You're apparently now allowed to shit in the water. Like, I don't know. It's all a blur.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And especially in the House, it's all or nothing. I mean, even if you have a one-seat majority, you control all the business that goes through that committee.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Who gets investigated, who's allowed to call witnesses, what those witnesses are. I mean, you control the entire operation.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Right. And the people who voted for them rarely get the access. You know, I thought it was a stark moment at the inauguration yesterday. Amy Klobuchar was up and, you know, she gave that first speech and it began with this sort of, Ode to the working man. Oh, the working man. The construction workers who built this city.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
The railroad engineers who, you know, and it was this large ode to the working man. Not one of them in the room.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
But it makes it seem like a performance. This is why I think people lose that faith. And I think that ultimately this idea that, well, you know, people just need to have better unions and they do like, why do, why is it incumbent upon working people? You know, maybe this is a shift and maybe this is an interesting way to kind of talk about where do the Democrats go ideologically, right?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Because this fire hose of kind of oligarchs isn't going to be ending. And it seems like unionization, while a really powerful tool, is a slow-moving one and certainly one that's been eroded. Is maybe the new economic theory a way to tap into that firehose? That money is built by labor, but labor does not participate like a shareholder. Is there a way – and this is obviously beyond my pay grade –
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Everything that we thought we knew about the infrastructure and what to call it. America's back, baby. We're back. Not just as a country and a family of nations, but as the nation. We win, you lose. Biatch? I don't know if that's... Whatever that translates to in Latin. That is the new... motto of the United States of America.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
to start shifting the conversation beyond like, Hey man, just give us a minimum wage raise and start to think about the ways that, that the CEOs and these oligarchs are remunerated, right? It's bonuses, it's stock buybacks. It's so how do we get labor to not just live on the crumbs that they are afforded,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
But to participate in that fire hose, that $50 trillion growth in wealth over these last four years.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
to even more like more lefty even i mean it's all lefty but even like other things but why is it like even when it's called lefty like in the rest of the world it's normal it's like center right yeah like it's normal it's the idea you know when we talk about oh how about everybody like can go to a doctor and you're like, what are you, a communist? And you're like, the whole world does that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Just gave away a million dollars to individuals in Pennsylvania.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Not legal, but... Right, but isn't that the point though? They would rather ask for forgiveness than permission. And isn't a lot of this based on, you know, when we say it's the foxes now guarding the hen house, but isn't it the people in the hen house going, where are my eggs? Yeah. You promised me eggs and you guys haven't delivered.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And I am excited to talk to a person today that I think provides a modicum of hope, a level of fight and of ideology that I think, boy, needs to be injected into this moribund party more than ever. So I am just going to jump on in and introduce our guest for today's podcast. All right, so we are going to get to our guest. We're very excited. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Welcome.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
We are back. Now you did something really interesting, I thought, after the election.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And this is, I think, why I think the right gives you respect and also I think is a little trepidatious about you in that you kind of understand these new media platforms and you went on one of them and it was either TikTok or Instagram or one after the election because you outperformed the Democrats in your district.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And there were people that voted for you and voted for Trump and you wanted to know why. And in doing that, what came back to you? Was it anything revelatory or illuminating about the process by which their frustration with people that are speaking the language of their struggle but not delivering on their struggle led them to, well, you know what? Fuck it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Let's just cut through all the red tape and go with a more executive version of all of this.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
The guy from the LA Times was like, hey, man, what do you guys want us to put in the paper?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I don't know if I, like, do I give snaps? Do I, I don't know what the kids do anymore, but like, dude.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
They sit on a committee. They get information about a drug or a contract or a thing. They immediately make a call. The stockbroker changes things. Their portfolio swells.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
You are the congresswoman for New York's 14th district. The fightin' 14th.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I really think we may have disturbingly high-fived in that moment.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Oh, but they're performing a populist dance in a lot of ways. But doesn't it though, and this is the thing where it kind of gets tricky because what the right's diagnosis is in many ways correct. What Trump is saying is the system is rigged. Well, I think that's what we're saying, which is, yeah, it's rigged. Now, I don't believe his remedy is correct. I don't believe he's honest about
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
700,000 strong. The Bronx and Queens. And I thank you so much for taking the time. How was your day yesterday? What did you do? I...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Where he's unrigging it, I think he's not draining the swamp. He's co-opting it. He wants the deed to the swamp so that he can continue to funnel. I mean, that meme coin being just the tip of the iceberg there. But isn't that what is driving them? Is that sense that? And they are, I think, not wrong. The system is rigged.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
But the question is, they're viewing it like, oh, it's the undocumented migrants that are rigging the system and not the six billionaire oligarchs that are sitting in the front row at the inauguration. To me, that's the disconnect.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
There are people here in this country who will do work for money that Americans won't do work for, who are exploited by the system.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
But how do you battle certain like the common sense? I'll give you an example. Like when they say, oh, there's an undocumented immigrant who has committed a crime. Common sense would tell you, yeah, that person has lost their ability to be here and should be sent back. And yet. You would find there are some Democrats who would disagree with that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Did you watch the proceedings? I did. Or did you try and avoid everything?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Or, you know, isn't there another form of progressivism that is more muscular, that has a certain amount of common sense, law and order aspect to it that can be fashioned as a way forward?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
That doesn't get saddled with some of these seemingly nonsensical positions.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Right. And it's not like we don't deport a lot of people, even in Democratic administrations. We deport a ton.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Carrie Underwood. I felt so bad for her. She's just standing there and they're like, we're going to be the administration of competence. We're going to make everything work again, except the PA.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
So now- No due process then for someone who is an asylum seeker.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
You could have lawful- So they take a narrow common sense issue and then what they do is they expand the margins out on it. to things that would not be common sense.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Oh, I got Delaware breathing down my neck over here. Yeah. I don't know what they're sending up my way.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
So let's take your energy. Let's take the passion that you have for these issues. And let's think about, because right now the Democrats are almost fully defined by their positions on Trump, as opposed to, you know, people are thirsty for a leadership. And the Democrats, I think, have had a really difficult time responding to that thirst, responding to that action. So what is the process then?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
of redefining what this party is, what it represents moving forward. And are there leaders there? It is sclerotic. I mean, it is a party in real confusion. And I don't know, I can't put my finger on, it reminds me of the Republicans in 2012 where there was just, when Trump came into that first 2016 primary, I mean, he just like, just like flicking his finger, not Jeb Bush. Yeah. Nice. Boom. Done.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Like, and I think the Democrats are vulnerable to that. So how, what is the process of, of redefining and recapturing what this party is?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Well, I mean, what he did on the way out, I really thought, it was incredibly disappointing on the way out. He's like, we're controlled by oligarchs. Women are people. And, uh, I'm going to make sure that my family has a life raft. And I, and I just thought, boy, what a, and, and, and I have fondness for him. And he, he was certainly
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And nothing surprising. Was it strange to you, you know, one thing that struck me was sort of this sense that the Bidens or the Democrats wanted to preserve this decorum, you know, It was such a, I have to say it was such a surreal scene to see someone who had attempted what he had attempted at the Capitol
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
incredibly important to a bill that was very important to me that went through. But I just thought, again, you just made this whole thing look like a show, like a performance, and that you've been not clear with us over four years. And on your way out, you're just going to tell the truth, which is our legal system doesn't serve anybody. And I'm just going to make sure my family's protected.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Purposeful rule. I think – I don't think we're looking for nihilists. I think we're looking for a purposeful recapturing of the thrust. Does it start, Congresswoman, with – What you did, which is kind of a customer service. I think what the Democrats have lost is the reality of people's lives.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
When you think about that cradle to grave journey and where the bottleneck pressures are, that weird working class, middle class squeeze of. I've worked really hard. I've saved some money, but now I got to blow most of it on my kid's college while my parents need health care and other things. And those costs are soaring.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And that's going to put me under by the time I get up to that age when I'm 60 years old. Isn't that journey the absolute priority of any government that's going to listen to the discomfort of the way its people live?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Or even, you know, the Obamacare, which is in many ways just a giant benefit to insurance companies, which is the government just saying, we'll give you a little bit of access to this shitty system that you haven't been satisfied with. And we'll just make sure that to get an insurance company to take you on if you're considered a poor risk. We'll just pay them to do that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
It's where my parents went to City College in New York. It was free. This was the 1940s. That's right.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Now to make that argument is Democrat is job one then to be honest about the deliverables that a government can offer or about how we need to almost, you know, when they talk about moonshots, we need a bureaucratic moonshot because in truth, the way that the government operates right now is counterintuitive and counterfactual to all best practices. And, and,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
be handed the reins of power, not just in a peaceful transfer, but one that seemed to want to honor the tea ceremony and to bring them back. And is there a difference between, obviously, is there a middle ground between storming the Capitol and would you like oolong or throat coat? Like, what are we doing?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
There is such opportunity here, Congresswoman. I feel it in your voice. I feel the frustration that you feel being down there. I've experienced it myself. I have to tell you, when we were down there trying to do legislation, I was at times just stunned at what you had talked about earlier, which is that we have to go through regular order.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And it was interesting to me, what I discovered to some respect is, and this is a terrible thing to probably say, but Congress can be bullied.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
By righteousness and by doing the right thing. As long as they feel like you're not going to go away and you're going to keep that light on them, Mitch McConnell can be- It's true.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And does this system require... and entrenched underclass to work properly. The way I've always looked at it is, government can be an effective check. Capitalism is the system we've chosen, and it certainly is a wealth generation system, but it also has collateral damage along the way. It has destructive things that are built into its function.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And maybe government's there not necessarily to change that system of wealth generation, but to ameliorate the collateral damage and allow more people into that fire hose of wealth generation.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
But see, you know the promise of the possible and that's what gives you that feeling that that the fight can pay off. But I think for the most part, that fight is you have no other option. We always talk about that idea, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. But what they don't tell you is it doesn't bend by natural forces. Gravity is not what bends that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And there are people who are bending that fucker back the other way. And it is effort, it is work. And I thank you so much for spending the time with us today And it's really been a wonderfully invigorating conversation for me to hear your passion and to hear the fight that you have and the direction you're going in.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I guess the final question is, how do you feel about the confidence that the Democrats are being, A, honest with themselves about where they actually are? And B, have the vision and wherewithal to begin that process that you're talking about, about redefining it in a way that's more responsive to the people they purport to represent.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I got to tell you, there are so many metaphors. I don't even know what to do anymore. I've got a toolkit and a batting cage. I don't know what the hell's happening.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
All those different things. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York's 14th District. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today. I really appreciate it. Hope to see you again soon.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
All right. Bye-bye. Fantastic. We are back. We're joined by Lauren Walker, Jillian Speer, Brittany Mamedovic. Fantastic, I say. She's so good. I exclaim.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I really think this time, this time in Congress, she is going to get in a fistfight. And not with a Republican, with another. I think she's going to deck Steny Hoyer. I think he is going down. She's throwing a roundhouse and it is over. I love the no wallowing. There was no despair. There was no sense all is lost. There was no sense that it's Sisyphus at the bottom of a mountain.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
She was all like, let's roll up the sleeves and get in there and make this shit right. And I think that is exactly the attitude that is missing and necessary.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
First of all, I don't think Trump is a- Like this idea somehow that the media must adopt, oh, it's Trump and that's different. Like the media should have a prescribed methodology that can be applied to all who come there. And what that should be is. To litigate the boundaries of our shared reality. To stop pretending we live in separate universes. No, we don't. We live in the universe.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
We live in the world. There is reality. The media's job is to litigate the boundaries of that shared reality through a process of standards of evidentiary truth. That's fucking it. And no more like... Is that racist? Will you promise to honor the 2020, the 2020 result, like litigate the why litigate the boundaries of our shared reality. And that is how you should cover everything. Preach. Don't.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Mic drop. And I, and I ended with this. Don't. But you guys are, are doing good. I'm excited that, that we're back and we're, we're, we're,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
That was bananas. And what I love about it is like, there they go again, overreacting. You have to admit, even if it's the awkwardness and neurodivergence or a thing that always occurs, you have to admit it is worthy of people going like, what the fuck was that? especially coupled with ideological turns that you've very clearly taken on your platform. Like this all does fit together.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
It's not like it comes out of nowhere. You know, you didn't like do this, like, and everybody's like, wow, that looked like he was doing like his own air trombone. Like it was what it was. And I think it's very reasonable for any observer to be like, huh, that was fucking weird.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Yeah. Fuck those guys anyway. Like, they're the worst. All these guys have sublimation. I mean, the best one to me is Zuckerberg. You know, for Zuckerberg to show up there and, you know, then he goes on Rogan and he's like, the Biden administration yelled at me and tried to censor me. Like, Trump threatened to put you in jail. Yeah.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
He threatened to put you in jail for doing much less than what Elon did to get Trump elected. You know, he had his democracy project, and it turned out more of the money went to Democratic states. And so he was enemy number one. He became, you know, Soros Jr. at that point. Elon just basically gave a million dollars to anybody walking by in Pennsylvania.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Everybody's like, oh, yeah, no, that's cool. That's all fine. And Zuckerberg is pretending that he had a revelation. I had a revelation that the Biden administration wanted to censor. No, you were threatened with jail. And they even asked Trump, why do you think Zuckerberg, you know, came to you hat in hand? And Trump is like, well, I threatened to put him in jail.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Fuck it all. That's all I'm saying. But I was very happy to talk to the Congresswoman. I'm always very happy to talk to you guys. How else can the people talk to us, Brittany?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
By the way, last week's episode with Jon Meacham, now my mom thinks I'm smart.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
She loves John Meacham and doesn't particularly care for what I have to say, but the fact that he was on there and didn't call me a dumbass, I have now been elevated.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Oh, thank you so much. Very, very appreciate it. Lead producer, Lauren Walker. Producer, Brittany Mamedovic. Video editor and engineer, Rob Vitola. Audio editor and engineer, Nicole Boyce. Researcher and associate producer, Jillian Spear. And of course, our executive producers, Chris McShane, Katie Gray. Thank you all so much.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And we will see you next week and continue this conversation about America. All right. Talk to you then. Bye, guys. The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart is a Comedy Central podcast. It's produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And that is in many ways kind of how you made your bones. And I think you're right. Like, even when you think about, and not to get into the weeds, but, you know, so you were on the oversight committee and I thought did really great work there. I mean, you know, good questioning, the kind of questioning that I think would get to the gist of an issue or would
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
break it down in terms of what the dynamics were. And when you wanted to be the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, the Democrats decided to hand it to, and nothing against Representative Connolly, but he's 74 years old. And it's almost as if they were saying, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is really great at this, but he's 74. So there's nothing we can do. He's a 74-year-old man.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
That's amazing. And doesn't Trump's rise and the way that he's operating make farce of that? Yeah. I mean, in some ways, he clowns them, that it doesn't look like a holding to protocol. It looks like submission. It doesn't in any way appear to be they're maintaining the thing about the party that That is ineffectual. That doesn't do anything. Yet that's the thing they seem to cling to the most.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
You're talking more on a procedural level, or do you mean also a kind of ideological level?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Hey, everybody. Welcome. I came out of my seat on that one. I was so excited to be speaking with you. Welcome to the weekly show pod. We are recording this on the Tuesday. Following the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States, also the 45th president of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, our guest today will be Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And it also, I think in some ways, in some ways it reveals some of the Democrats posturing as performative. You know, when you're, when you're creating apocalyptic messaging about a fascist.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Who is literally coming over and, and, and, and doing these things. And. Then when he wins, sitting down with watercress sandwiches and cream cheese and doing the whole nine yards, it makes you wonder, well, did you believe any of the shit you were saying before?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Or was that something, again, that was just a part of your messaging?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
Participating now in this when they wouldn't have participated in the past.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I mean, for God's sakes, they launched meme coins. I can remember in the first administration, somebody would animate something and the Democrats would scream, he violated the Hatch Act. Everybody would go crazy and then everybody would have to look up the Hatch Act. And now these guys are literally just launching meme coins before the inauguration and piling up billions of dollars in wealth. Yes.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
It's kind of an incredible transformation, but again, It feels like – let me ask you this because maybe this is a different way of looking at it because in some ways it reveals maybe to the cynical mind the way that you believe this shit always has worked in the past. The idea of – and I'll give you an example. The gentleman, Martin, who is running for Democratic National Committee chair, right?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
So he says – he comes out and he says, hey, man, we're not going to – we're going to take money from the good billionaires, not the bad billionaires. And if money corrupts – and this happened in a conversation I had with Congresswoman Pelosi as well. She said, Money corrupts the process. I said, well, you raised $35 million. And oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's it. We can't disarm.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And I said, well, how does money corrupt the Democrats? And she said, well, it doesn't. It corrupts them. Money's bad for them. But for us, it's good money. And isn't it almost better for us to now have this arrangement be explicit?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
And be out in the open so that we understand this is how the world fucking works. This is how it goes round.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
JON & AOC
I'm excited to talk to her because this is shit is changing by the millisecond. Things are executive orders are flying. Oligarchs are tweeting, it's all happening. Everything that was done in this previous administration has been repealed. The Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America. Canada is now officially classified as our hat. I don't know what's changing. We're not in the climate accord.