The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Charlamagne Tha God On Why Biden is Losing to Trump | Doug Melville
Episode Date: December 21, 2023Charlamagne Tha God breaks down why America isn’t backing Biden in the polls for president in the latest Long Story Short. Plus, Author Doug Melville chats with Charlamagne Tha God about what inspir...ed him to write “Invisible Generals” about the untold story of America’s first Black generals, why he encourages others to go out and get their own family stories to take control of the narrative, and how Americans can help better honor their veterans without glorifying war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Survivor 47 is here which means we're bringing you a brand new season of the only official survivor podcast on fire.
And this season we are joined by fan favorite and survivor 46 runner-up Charlie, Charlie, I'm,
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You're listening to Comedy Central.
I want you to imagine the future.
The year is 2024. Taylor Swift is head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Mitch McConnell has been frozen for 487 consecutive days.
And Joe Biden is up for re-election against a twice-impeached convicted felon.
And even though the polls show a dead heat right now,
Vice President Kamala Harris is feeling pretty confident.
The Biden-Harris ticket is running neck and neck with Donald Trump.
Why are you not 30 points ahead?
When the American people are able to take a close look at election time on their options,
I think the choice is going to be clear. Bill, we're going to win.
Let me just tell you that. We're going to win. Will you, Kamala?
Will you? Because I just took a poll of that man's face.
And it's not looking good.
Regardless of what Kamala says, Democrats are clearly nervous about this election and they should be.
Because yeah, Biden has accomplished a lot.
Historic Investments in Green Energy, record-breaking job growth, and he even got a black woman on the Supreme Court.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, with a 6-3 conservative majority, she's powerless there,
but she at least got a free road.
But despite Biden's record as president, it's still close, which is a hell of a thing.
You think running against someone who has 91 felony charges against him,
who you already beat would be a pretty easy victory.
So the question is, how the actual f-
is Joe Biden losing to Donald Trump?
I have a theory, and it's something I want to discuss more in tonight's long story.
to short. Now, when Joe Biden first ran for president in 2020, it was a lot simpler.
Campaigning is easy.
Just make a bunch of promises.
It's like when you're about to move into a new building and the landlord is all nice, promising
he'll fix this, paint that, but then you move in and he goes missing like black news
anchors on CNN.
Yeah.
I mean, they're basically gone. The point is once you get the job, you actually thia to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the to the gone, but the point is,
once you get the job, you actually have to follow through
on those promises and whatever the reasons,
out of the 99 biggest promises Biden made to people,
he's only following through on about 30% of them.
That's a 70% rate of letting you down.
You can't spit any game with those numbers.
Hey, girl, you want to come over?
I promise that only 7 thi thi thi thi thi thi tho tho the other tho tho the other tho the other tho tho tho tho the other the other tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho. tho. tho. tho. tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th numbers. Hey girl, you want to come over? I promise that only seven times out of ten
you'll leave unsatisfied.
But the other three, ooh, it's on.
There's some ladies that will take that deal right now.
But yeah, Biden has let people down.
He promised not to drill for oil in Alaska.
Now he's doing it. He said he would never build border wall, but that's exactly what he's doing. And again, all presidents break promises. George H.W. Bush said no new taxes. Obama said he closed Guantanamo. FDR said he take a stand
for the working man. But he was in a wheelchair the whole time. America can forgive all that.
But one thing America doesn't forgive is weakness. They want to see you fighting for your goals.
And on some key issues, Biden seems to be waving the white flag. President Biden today is
explaining why he thinks he had no choice but to approve new oil drilling in
Alaska. My strong inclination was to disapprove of it across the board.
But the advice I got from counsel was that if that were the case, I may very well
lose that case in court to the oil company.
I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do on my own anything about guns.
So what can you do? So I can't do anything except please with the Congress to act reasonably.
Mr. President, specific about what you did to try to reappropriate those border funds, especially
when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
I was told that I had no choice.
I was told I had no choice.
I was told I have no choice.
I was told I have no choice.
By who?
Aren't you the president?
If someone tells you no, just show them a picture of a drone.
End the conversation! But see, that's why I think Biden loses so many people. He just looks weak.
And I'm not talking about physically. People want to see that president going to
the mat to get what he wants. And it doesn't help that any time thine strong stand on something, his staff comes out to say he didn't mean it.
The White House was back in cleanup mode over another round of confusing comments made by
the president. Is the pandemic over? The pandemic is over. The White House rushed out
to walk it back, saying the president's comments do not mark a change in policy toward
the administration's handling of the virus.
President Biden delivered a fiery speech in Warsaw, perhaps carried away by the moment.
Biden seemed to call for an end to Vladimir Putin's rule.
For God's sake, this man cannot remain power.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken quickly walked back Biden's words.
We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.
President Biden stirring controversy over comments that he made about defending Taiwan.
To be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women, would defend Taiwan in the event
of a Chinese invasion.
Yes.
The White House walked that back almost immediately immediately saying our policy hasn't changed on Taiwan.
Goddain.
It's amazing how often Joe Biden has to walk things back considering he can barely walk
forwards.
So voters, especially progressive voters, have seen Biden give up or get overruled.
To be fair to Biden, not on, though, like student loan relief.
The Supreme Court said he couldn't do it,
but Biden's been finding ways
because that's how much he cares
about bribing young people to vote for him.
But on too many issues, he's rolling over.
Now, say what you will about Trump.
You might not agree with any of his policies,
but you've probably noticed he fights. He fights he fights he fights he fights he fights th f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f fights them. He even fights for the ones that are stupid as hell. Sinks, toilets, and showers. You don't get any water.
I call my people, environmental people, why are we doing this?
Because when you wash your hands, it takes you five times longer.
You know, the water's not coming. You got soap, you can't get it off.
You go into the shower, right? You turn in the water, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, dri dri dri dri dri- to dr dr dr dr dr dr d, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're, you're to to to to to to to to, to, to, to turn on the water, drip, drip, drip.
People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times.
10 times, right?
10 times.
Bah, not me, of course, not me.
But you, him.
He's so dangerous, but so entertaining.
Trump's the only president to get his daily intelligence briefing from everyone poops. Okay
The point is that's why many people like Trump he fights. He's not gonna let something like congressional red tape or judicial rulings or even the Constitution itself stop him from getting what he wants.
The man fought to stay in power after he lost the election. Who does that?
Gangsters and America's got a. Who does that? Gangsters.
And America's got a thing for that gangster shit.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I don't want the president to break the law,
a stage of cool to get what he wants,
but voters are attracted to scrimf.
So long story short.
If Biden and the Democrats want to retain power in the next election, stop telling us how much you are not like Trump.
And maybe, in this one way, just one way, start acting like gangsters.
Fight like hell on the things you care about instead of rolling over and throwing up your
hands.
America wants the president to fight for them the same way to Alabama Riverboat crew fights
for each other. And if you don't understand that, to quote President Biden, you ain't black.
All right?
When we come back, Arthur Doug Melville will be joining me on the show to don't go anywhere.
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Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday.
We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls.
What are they talking about on these earnings calls?
We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.
I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday?
Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart wherever you get your podcast.
Welcome back to the Daily Show. My guest tonight is an author whose new book is called Invisible
Generals, Rediscovering Family Legacy and a quest to honor America's first Black Generals.
Please welcome Doug Melville.
Doug, my guy.
How are we doing tonight?
How's everything?
Man, bless black and highly favorite.
How you feeling, brother?
I'm feeling just the same.
Now, Invisible Generals, this book was partially inspired by you going to see
Red Tales. And you hated it. Well, when I went to go see a screening for Red Tales,
the main character in the movie who was played by Terrence Howard
is actually like the patriarch in center of our family.
So when he came out and his name was changed,
I got really upset about it.
I went home and I talked to my dad about it,
and he said, Doug, if you think changing a name in a movie is bad, let me tell you the family story to let you know how I lived and then maybe you could see why that doesn't mean as much to me
as it means to you and he shared with me the family story of the Invisible Generals and that's
what was the impetus for me to write my book.
Tell us, tell us who the Invisible Generals the Invisible Generals of the Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible Invisible the Invisible Invisible the Invisible General the Invisible General the invisible invisible invisible invisible invisible invisible invisible invisible their is is the America their is the Invisible General the invisible General the invisible General their is the invisible General the invisible their is.. the invisible their is. their is the invisible generals, a father and a son,
General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
And these two men at the start of World War II were the only two black officers
in the whole United States military out of 335,000 people.
And they worked together to help desegregate the military,
create the Tuskegee Airmen, and so many more things,
but their story had never been told, and it was my passion to go out and write it.
That's right.
What?
What?
Going back to Red Tales for a second, why do you think a lot of military?
Why do you think a lot of military moves?
I thanks, the challenge with red t when people look at it, they feel that it's
true American history, but it's actually just a facade of that.
It actually is an amalgamation of the stories.
And not paying the families and using different fictional names allows you to have a little
bit more with the storytelling, but then the families feel a certain way because this
is how people recognize the story, yet the families aren't compensated and the families feel a certain way because this is how people recognize the story,
yet the families aren't compensated and the stories that are actually happening are never
really told.
So it's a way to not pay y'all basically.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a way to not pay us.
Did George Lucas or the writer interview you or other family members when crafting
the story? No, some other Tuskegee airmen were contacted, but my thamamamam... thamamamam. tham. tham. tham. tham. tham. tham. tham. tham. tham. thi. thi, thi, the thi, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, the the thus, their, but thus, thus, thus, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. But, their, thi. But their, their, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. theea. thi. th I thought you know as the commander and the creators of the
Tuskegee Airmen I thought that there would be a little bit more you know
effort to go reach out to the family but that wasn't the case in this
movie. Why do you think Hollywood likes to gloss over the real
real stories of African Americans in the military like don't get me the movie like I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the they they they they they they they they they they they they th is th is th is th is th. thi tho thi thus I thi. thi. I tho. I tho. I thi. I tho. I tho. I tho. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th is is is is is is th is th. th. th. th. I I I I I I th. I th. I th. I th. I thi is thi is thi is thi is thi is te is the is to. I teeeeeeea. I'm tea. I thus. I thus. thus. I thus. I thus. I thus. I thus. I thus. I don't get me wrong, I love movies like Major Payne, but I'm sure there's like
a real black major story that was ignored.
Yeah, I think the biggest challenge with this is I think the people that are the decision
makers have a certain narrative or a certain formula that works really well for them.
But if you ask me, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, and particularly the Invisible Generals,
is one of the greatest American stories ever told.
And I think we have to encourage people to go out
and actually get their own family stories
and talk to the individuals on the couch and say,
tell me what happened.
And then also take the effort to write the narrative because whoever writes the narrative or photographs the narrative owns the copyright. So if it's not the family learning and this is what I
want to tell all veterans and all family of veterans, your stories in the
public domain. You don't actually control it or own it. If a journalist
tells it and writes it, they take control the narrative. So it was
important for me as a family member to say I I am going to take control of this narrative,
and I am going to write it so the actual words
and history that happened can be told in an accurate way.
Wow.
Um, yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people think movies and books
like this glorify war, but how did the stories of veterans do the opposite?
Actually, the stories of veterans are really stories of leadership and stories of the United
States of America.
I think we need to look more as what defines an American.
Not always chop it up into different subsets, but actually look at these stories.
their own stories.
And then I think when we have that set, then we can look at these stories as a way to unify. I think leadership is an important quality that all veterans have. And many veterans go on to work in the
private sector, but we don't talk about their military service. You know, Coach K graduated
from West Point, but you think of him as the coach of Duke Basketball, you don't look at him as a veteran. Oh, that's probably why he learned how to be such a veteran. And he's a veteran. And, the the the thiiiii. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and th. And, and, and, and th. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, th. And, and, and, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thin, thin, thin, thin, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And a disciplinarian. Exactly, and that's why his leadership was taken from what he learned at the academy.
So it's important to realize a lot of veterans
aren't walking around and fatigues.
They're actually everyday people, CEOs,
people that spent time supporting their country,
and now is their opportunity to do it in the private sector. In the book, you tell the story of you you you you to their to to to their their to to their their their their to tell their their their to their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, toldoomorrow., their, to to to to to to to to their, their, to their, to to their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiweree, thiwaa, thiwa, thiwa, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, tea.oomorrow........... tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, too getting West Point to name their new barracks after your great uncle, Ben. And that happened around the same time, people started tearing down Confederate statues.
Do you think that movement had an impact on getting the military to honor, Ben?
I do. I actually think that was a very unique moment in time where there was a lot of statues
coming down, particularly of Lee. So that was the person who was kind of the center the center the center the center the center the center the center center center the center center center center center center center center the center center center center the center center center the center the center center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center the center to to to to the center. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. I. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the was the person who was kind of the center point of it, Robert E. Lee. And during they knew you weren't talking about Lee Daniels.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lee Daniels, yeah.
Yeah.
But Robert he lea had the statues and this was a unique opportunity because West Point
at that time it had nothing named after a black graduate. So this was a chance for them to they were building. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. to. to. to. to. to. to. their. their. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. Yeah, the. Yeah, the. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. to. the. the. to. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. th. th. the chance for them to, they were building their biggest, largest barrack,
there was three names up for consideration.
And when I went and told them the story
of the Invisible Generals as I had researched it,
they named the building after him
and it's the largest barracks on the middle center
of the West Point Temple.
Wow, wow, wow. Now, this is interesting. After your grandfather served, he worked for the Department of Transportation.
And he basically created the speed limit?
Yeah, so actually, this is a great story.
So after he left the military in 1970, he worked for the Department of Transportation.
And in that role, he created the TSA, what became the TSA airport security.
He created the United States Air Marshal Program to keep the sky safe.
And he was so successful that they asked him to do it for transportation, not aviation.
And that's where he led the creation of the 55 mile an hour speed limit, so these
were all created by one guy and we don't even know who he is is impossible for me to comprehend.
The speed limit and the TSA? Yeah. Well what is now known as the TSA? What did it call back then?
Did they even have a name for it? Security? Security.
Security? Security. Should there be more outreach to servicemen and women of color
now to encourage them and to write and tell their own stories to make sure their stories are lost? Yeah, I think every single veteran, and even if you're not a veteran, if there's a veteran
in your family, or even if you have someone in your couch who wasn't serving but lived
a really different life, we should go and ask our ancestors and our relatives, you know,
what did you go through and what are their stories?
Legacy is so important. We are driven by the generation. their. their. their. the. Te. T. T. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. I. C. I. I. I. I. I. C. I. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. I'm, th. I's, to. I. I. I's, to. I, th. I, th. We. I, th. I, th. I. I. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, th. And, th. And, their, their, their, their, We are driven by the generational collateral
that our families laid out before us but we don't even know what that is. The
greatest stories in America are sitting on our couches. The greatest stories in
America could be from families of veterans. I didn't serve but it's so
important that we take this time because we only have so much time and we
take the stories from our family, we own the stories from our family, and we put them down on paper so our legacy can be preserved
in an accurate way. Man, what's you saying is so true man? And you make me
think like, you make me think that sadly a lot of our great stories are homeless,
you know, sitting on the corner asking us for change why they're holding up a sign telling us that they fought in the war, which pisses me off.
I hate how this country treats his veterans, man.
Yeah, and we could do a lot more for the veterans and it's everyday things, you know,
going to read to veterans, donating time, but alsothen going ahead and saying how can I now take my generational collateral and add
to the narrative and help others like they helped us.
Oh, let's expound on that just a little.
Veterans Day is coming up.
Yep, Veterans Day comes from 1111, 1111 at 11.
How do you think we could best memorialize and celebrate these heroes? I think the best thing we can do for Veterans Day,
to start off, visit a museum, go support a VA,
go to a VFW, which is a veteran of foreign war outpost.
Do something that you can do to lend a helping hand.
If you don't have the money,
dedicate your time.
If you don't have the time, let your staff off so they can spend their time. But there's always something more we can do, and it's the least we can do for people
who fought for the United States of America.
That's right, man.
Man.
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Survivor 47 is here which means we're bringing you a brand new season of the only
official survivor podcast on fire and this season we are joined by
fan favorite and survivor 46 runner-up Charlie Davis to bring you even further inside the action Charlie I'm excited to do this season we are joined by fan favorite and survivor 46 runner-up Charlie
Davis to bring you even further inside the action Charlie I'm excited to do
this together. Thanks Jeff so excited to be here and I can't wait to bring you
inside the mind of a survivor player for season 47.
Listen to on fire the official survivor podcast starting September 18th wherever you get your podcast.