The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Jon Stewart Examines Biden’s Future Amidst Calls For Him to Drop Out | A.J. Jacobs

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Jon Stewart digs into the backlash to America’s bed-wetting panic over Biden’s incoherence, some of the president’s recent slip-ups, the future of the Democratic candidate, and Biden’s promise in an ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos to give “fighting fascism” his all. Also, journalist and best-selling author A.J. Jacobs joins Jon to discuss his new book “The Year of Living Constitutionally,” which addresses a timely question: What does the Constitution actually say?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news.

This is the Daily Show with your host, John Stewart. Hello everybody welcome to the Daily Show. My name is John Stewart and we are back. Baby. By the way, I want to start up very quickly and we are back. Baby. By the way, I want to start off very quickly and mention a very quick congratulations to England and France who held their elections to great success. We would talk about them tonight, but we're in America.

So... So... So, last week we did a live show after the debate. Wait, where did we, where did we leave off? This cannot be real life. It just can't. Feeck. We're America. God. Yes. God.

the trips. the the the the the . .

. . . .. It's in no way weak fingers. Now since the debate it's been quite interesting actually. Many Democrats have expressed concern that the president has a hard time, expressing thoughts, and then there is this other camp who thinks, expressing thoughts. And then there is this other camp who thinks that those people should shut the fuck up. Stop this whining, stop the complaining, stop

trying to be the cool cynical kids. I would not want to be in a fox-soul with any of the fuck up. Stop this whining, stop the complaining, stop trying to be the cool cynical kids. I would not want to be in a foxhole with any of the people who, you know, were clutching their pearls all of a sudden. Pearl clutching and hand-wringing. We're bedwetting and soaking all the way through the mattress. We panic and piss our pants. First of all, I'm not sure incontinence is the metaphor you want to go with. And second of all, when are we going to free Senator Fetterman from the Turkish prison he's being held in?

That's, I don't know, kiss his hands. But, to those of you who say these concerns are simple pearl wedding and bed-clutching, we all make mistakes, I thought I would take a moment to explain where the concern about Biden's performance might be coming from, and why these concerns may be seen as a more foundational issue. You see, even before the debate, there had been some troubling moments of disconnect from the president. You know, perhaps this chart could, if I may, sorry, the pencaps are made of Kevlar. Could, if I may, sorry, the pencaps are made of Kevlar. Very difficult to. Perhaps this chart will illustrate and illuminate the point more clearly. For instance, in 2022, when we saw Biden give a shout out to Representative Jackie.

Representative, Jackie, you here? Where's Jackie? I didn't think she was going to be here. Unfortunately, Jackie was dead. It's something that the president seemed to have known six weeks earlier when he released a condolence statement about her death. So, huh. So, huh? Then there was the recounting of a recent conversation that the president had had with his counterpart, the president of France. I made Iran from Germany, I mean from France, looked at me and said, you know, why, how long you back for it? Unfortunately, Midoran is also dead.

For longer even than that first lady, so, huh. And even on teleprompter, things continue to, huh. And even on teleprompter, things continue to, huh. Like the reading of the instructions people sometimes add to teleprompter things continue to, huh? Like the reading of the instructions people sometimes add to teleprompter scripts. The percentage of women who registered to vote and cast a ballot is consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so, end of quote. Repeat the line. At the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Riley last name. Four more years. Paul.

More more years. Oh. Then of course to be fair, state of the union. Then of course to be fair, state of the union. Concern dropped a little bit of the state of the union. He kind of nailed it. But then the debate happened and we kind of, what the f-what? What is, what? Now to my mind, the debate was a shocking display of cognitive difficulty. Recognizable to unfortunately anybody who's dealt with aging parents and it's a hard watch.

But there were many viewers who felt it was not as noteworthy as Biden's opponent in the debate. It's pretty amazing that 90% of the conversation is around Joe Biden's style, when up on that stage Donald Trump was engaged in a level of pathological lying that we've never seen. Shouldn't the discussions also be about Trump's fitness to serve. on that stage, Donald Trump was engaged in a level of pathological lying that we've never seen. Shouldn't the discussions also be about Trump's fitness to serve? Every time he opened his mouth, he said something insane or that was a lie? Why aren't there calls for Trump to drop out? Where are they?

Yeah. Yeah. Why doesn't anyone ever speak out about Donald Trump? Or let's say every night for 10 fucking years. But you know what? Fair point. I take your point. Not me, because I wasn't here, but other people.

Fair point. And let's take a look at Trump's chart. It's all bad. The whole thing is bad. It's been bad since he started, he started, and grab him by the pussy. I mean, what are you gonna do? The whole thing's been bad. The whole thing. The difference is this. I will tell you the difference. I will tell you the difference. I will tell you the difference. I will tell you the difference. The difference is Trump delivered at the debate to expectation. We expect him to be fucking crazy.

But Biden's performance and inability to articulate at times was stunning. Like, I could not believe what I was watching. Just thinking about it again just makes me want to rip up my... Why do we make this out of such strong material? But then it got worse. Rather than respecting the American people and having an honest, at least partial conversation about what we had all seen, we were told immediately, these are not the droids you're looking for.

He has a stutter. He hasn't debated in four years. He was almost over-prepared. He had an off-night. You know, the president traveled six time zones forward to G7 and he was also doing, continue to do his presidential duties. And also he had a cold. He was jet lagged.

He'd been home for almost two weeks. He was jet. How big is that fucking jet? The point is, for a campaign based on honesty and decen He was jet-lagged? How big is that fucking jet? The point is, for a campaign based on honesty and decency, the spin about the debate appears to be blatant bullshit. And the redemption tour hasn't gone that much better, whether it's been on the radio.

Well, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, served with a black president. Yes, Queen. Or whether the president is on prompter and fired up. Let me say as clear as I can. I'm staying in a race. I'll beat Donald Trump. I will beat him again in 2020. I gotta tell you.

Somehow, confusion with confidence is even more unsettling. Or, when the president sat down with George Stephanopoulos to prove once and for all how cogent he is and to film a bronzer ad. Orange man, good? None of this was reassuring. And we're told that the threat of Trump is so great and the stakes are so high that even bringing up these absolutely legitimate concerns about the president's ability to do the most vigorous job in the world for the next four years

is enabling fascism. Yet even the president doesn't seem particularly alarmed. If you stay in and Trump is elected, and everything you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January? I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do. That's what this is about. That's not what this is about! There are no participation trophies in end game democracy. Oh yes, I remember FDR saying, well,

if the Nazis take over Europe, at least both teams had fun. And it's really troubling as this new information has been introduced. We just learned about this and now we're all being told, well, you should have thought of that before you knew it. We can't go against the will of the voters. Democrats who voted in all 50 states in the primary. That is who they want to be their nominee. He's the nominee because millions and millions of people voted for him to be our nominee.

And he will be our nominee. End of story. There was no real primary. Biden ran against Dean Phillips. That's not even a real person. That's a stock a real person. That's a stock photo on the package for a garden owner. It's not a person.

It's AI. And let me say this, authoritarianism and Donald Trump aren't the only threats our democracy faces. And our threatic status quo, unable or unwilling to respond in any way to the concerns of voters who just received new and urgent information about their candidate also erodes confidence and faith in the system of government. Get on board or shut the fuck up. Is not. Is not. Yeah. or shut the fuck up is not, is not, yeah.

Honestly though, get on board or shut the fuck up. Honestly though, get on board or shut the fuck up is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker, nor is what are you going to do? I've gotten a lot of text today from folks who watched a lot of West Wing episodes and imagine a very complex path through which we might have a robust primary process. But Wolf, you know the reality. There's four months left to the presidential election. Four months is for F. Ever. Britain, Britain just held an election in two months. France had two in one month, defeated

fascism and still had time to have an affair with Denmark. Are you telling me, still had time to have an affair with Denmark. Are you telling me, you sons of bitches, are you coming to my house and say to my face that the United States of Bruce Springsteen's America can't hold an election better than a F. French? Is that what you're telling me? It's four months. It's a hundred and nineteen days. There are contestants on The Bachelor who haven't even met yet that will get married and divorced between now and the election. We have nothing but kind.

And by the way, I am in no way saying Biden's got to drop out. But can't we stress test this candidacy? Can't we open up the conversation? Do you understand the opportunity here? Do you have any idea how thirsty Americans are for any hint of inspiration or leadership and a release from this choice of a megalomaniac and a suffocating gerontocracy. It is crushing our f-spiritic spirits. Do you have any idea what could be ahead of you?

All we want is for someone to keep it 100. The percentage, not the age. That's all we want. Here's an idea. I'll spitball it. It's last minute. But why don't we try and get all the Democrats together in, I don't know, six weeks time. We could get everybody to fly into some Midwestern town. Maybe like one adjacent to important swing states. Let's call it Chicago. And they could spend, I don't know, four days there because nobody works Fridays anymore. And on Monday, anybody who wants to gives their sales pitch of how they can make democracy more responsive to the people it is supposed to serve. You could bang it out. On Tuesday, the winners could

move on to the next round and then face Biden. They could face Biden. Biden had a buy. Wednesday would be an off-day bus tour to find the restaurant from the bear. Thursday, the party emerges, energized, unified, sanctified. You could televise the entire proceeding for four days. You could call it, I don't know, the apprentice. So, feel free to ignore any obvious weaknesses in your team's existential fight for freedom and democracy.

And then just white knuckle this thing till November. Or take the advice of your own candidate. Do you think there is any Democrat who could to beat Donald Trump other than you? Probably 50. 50. 50? I gotta say. I like the cut of that fella's jib.

I like the cut of that fella's jib. When we come back, more on the election. Stay the election. Stay tuned. The Weekly Show. We're going to be talking about the election, economics, ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. Listen to the Weekly Show with Now, we've always been talking about the big news from the debates, Joe Biden's recent campaign to stay in the campaign, and it turns out Biden's got a pretty high bar for dropping out. If you can be convinced that you cannot defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down? If the Lord Almighty comes down, tells me that I might do that.

If the Lord Almighty comes down, he might do that. For more we go to Biden headquarters with Desi Lydic. Desi! How are you? Good to see it. Dessie. So, obviously, this story is dominating the news cycle. Desi, what's the latest? Well, John, like a pressure cooker turned on, the pressure is on. Biden told George Stephanopoulos that unless the Lord Almighty himself comes down, he's not getting out of the race.

And you'll never believe thisthis but I have a very special someone right here. Oh boy. Wow, it's oh, oh, oh, God, that's... Oh, boy. Oh, boy. It's me, John. I am the Lord thy God. Creature of the Universe, co-star the Sistine Chapel, author of the New York bestseller,

The Bible. And I have a message for the President, as Corinthians says, To everything, there is a season turn, turn, turn, turn. Des-Desi and Jordan, or Gandalf or whoever you are. I see what you guys are doing. What? No, no, it's a gunman! He got a god! It's not going to fall for this.

Have you seen them lately? No, but there's a, there's a decent chance, John, but maybe Biden's more of a New Testament guy. Son? Oh, Jesus Christ. Yes. This is unbelievable. Yes, it is I. Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Freelance Carpenter. Co-author of the New York Times bestseller, the Bible. And I, too, am worried that this Biden campaign cannot be resurrected. I would know, remember, ugh. All right, that's constant. Clearly, you're not Jesus, so... Was it too classic looking? Ah, it wasn't woken up.

Don't worry, we got you covered. Yeah. Yeah. It is I. Black Jesus. It is I. Black Jesus. I'm like white Jesus. I'm like white Jesus, except I drive my donkey like this. And I too have a message for Joe Biden. Give me a beat.

Pompu. Psh. Pompu. Puh. Oh, gosh, forget it. No one is going to believe either of you or Jesus. So we're not doing this. Oh wow, not believing in Jesus. We get it, John, you're Jewish.

No, it's... No, it's... Couldn't handle the bars, John. No, that's not it. It's... John, John, if I may. Yes, Ronnie Chang. Perhaps your Western gods, uh,

Perhaps your Western gods, uh, unable to provide the answers of Biden needs. So you are... Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, I'm the source of all Instagram wisdom. Live, laugh, love, that was me, kind of. I could be mistaken here, but isn't Buddha traditionally a little more naked, a little bigger, little belly? Now that's a common misconception, okay? That's laughing Buddha. I'm Ozemic Buddha.

All right. I reached Enlightenment and my waygoes. Anyway, I agree with God and those bodycarb Jesuses, okay? If Biden needs a message from the Almighty, one of these gods has got to break through. Did someone say God? Did someone say God? I am Thor. Norse God of Lightning, son of Odeon, king of Osgard. And I'm that raccoon who hangs out with Thor sometimes.

Or maybe that's not, sorry, I watched it on a plane. I don't... Whoever Biden will listen to, that's me. Grace and Troy, if Biden isn't going to listen to the lethal weapon Jesus is, he's not going to listen, he's not going to listen to two Marvel characters. Doesn't Thor have a giant hammer? Oh, this isn't part of the costume. I'm just a lesbian. Yeah.

Home Depot had a sale. Our point is simple, Joe Biden. Sometimes you gotta just let it go. Things run out of steam. Take it from us. The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Troy and Graise Kulinschner, everybody. When we come back, AJ Jacob can be joining me. Don't go away. What?

Look at the a while! What? Look at the week. the 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. called the Year of Living Constitutionally one man's humble quest to follow the Constitution's original meaning. Please walk into the program. AJ Jacobs, sir. You won't have to run, government. So, nice to see you, AJ. Thank you. The Year of Living Constitutionally. A.J. What, so, how did the year of living constitutionally a humble quest to follow

the constitutionally? How did this come about? Why would you consider this? Well, first of all, thank you and good morrow, of course. Is that a constitutional reading? Yes, absolutely. And this came about because I wanted to figure out what is in the Constitution. What does it actually say?

And I thought it was a timely question because, as you know, our current Supreme Court thinks we should follow the original meaning from 1789. Now, I haven't been watching the news. Is anything going on? I recommend it. What a terrible thing? Yeah. So I thought I'm going to try to figure out what th. to, to, the, the, the, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, too, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the the the they.e, they.e.e, they.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.a, te.a, tterrible thing. Yeah. So I thought I'm going to try to figure out what that was by getting in the mindset of our founding fathers. Now, as you go back and you revisit sort of the mindset of the founders, are you struck by how human they were? You know, we've deified them to a large extent. But when you learn about them, do you think, oh, a the the the the their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, too, to, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, tho, to... too, tooomoomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, too, tooomorrow. tooomorrow, too, too, too, too, too,, a couple of these guys might be idiots. Like, what was the thought?

Well, yes, the Constitution is amazing because parts of it are so inspiring. The preamble, 52 of the greatest words ever written about the general welfare and blessings of liberty. But then, there are, it is a flawed document. There are actual misspellings in the Constitution. The word Pennsylvania is spelled two different ways. P-E-M-N and P-E-N. So it is not perfect. And I ran the Constitution through Grammarly and Grammarly found, it found 600 mistakes, 600 mistakes, so it is not perfect. With the grammarly

mistakes, did you correct it or did you think, oh that one, no, let's pass that one. How did you, did you dismiss the grammarly questions? Well, I couldn't go in and change it on the, uh, but-the actual document spells Pennsylvania two different ways. That's right. And it's, and the ITS, as actually should be an IT-apostrophe-as. So if Ben Franklin had invented social media, they would have gotten a lot of flack for that. But, so it is, and they knew it was flawed. That's what's amazing.

The founding fathers knew this is a flawed document. And they said... Would they be surprised at how we've deified them? I think so. I think many of them would be. Now, in their discussions, as you looked back and saw their discussions. Did you, as you looked back and and saw the discussions that they were having, my understanding is they never really thought that partisan politics would, you know, be the thing we were fighting over, they thought the branches of government would fight each

other, that the executive would fight the judicial, would fight the legislative. I don't think they thought parties would try and weaponize each department against the other party. No, they did not see this rigid two-party system coming. And James Madison, he knew there were going to be factions, but he thought there were going to be lots of factions like they're going to, maybe six or eight, more like a European Parliament. And they would have been shocked by so much of what we have now, including the president. I bring that up

because it's kind of timely. And they, they were very understated in the 1700s. It is somewhat timely. Well, they, when the idea of a single presidency came up in the convention, a lot of the delegates said, are you jesting? That is a terrible idea. Wait, they said are you jesting. I'm paraphrasing. I'm paraphrasing. Are you jesting? But they said we just fought a war to get rid of a king. Why do we want another? One of them said this is the fetus of monarchy if we do this. We should have three, three presidents, 12 presidents. Almost like the court, the presidency. It was more like the court the the presidency and and the court would be similar not a unitary executive not a single person right and and in the end it was fought for weeks in the end the unitary executive one but I have to

say that fetus of monarchy common I mean it's not a fetus anymore it's like a teenager right it is like we are two hundred and some years later right it took a while but it's here. What what what do we do the the the the the th the the the the th the th the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the te. tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. the. the. the. the. the. the. the and some years later. Right, it took a while, but it's here. What do we mistake about them? You know, now do you watch the arguments that you see about the founder's intent differently? Do you, does it make you a little crazier knowing what the actual arguments were? Oh, absolutely. I mean, it was, their mindset was so different in so many ways. It was like a foreign country. And just to give you one example, their idea of rights

were very different. Rights were not Trump cards, sorry about that. But they were, they thought. There were responsibilities with them. They, exactly. They had, they should have had a bill of responsibilities in addition to a bill of rights. But they just assumed that we were all going to be part of and contribute to the betterment of our community. And you saw this all over in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and they would be shocked by how focused we are on individual rights, which I love, I love them, but but we need the balance. Right. And that we've, which I love, I love them, but we need the balance.

Right. And that we've in some ways exploited those conversations to just get what we want or do what we want. Right, exactly. And they talked about virtue. They loved that word. And this is before it had sort of a negative change. How many of them do you think banged porn stars? How many of them do you, when they talk about virtue. Well, I talk to many constitutional scholars and I never, none of them have ever said that. But, yeah, what about the level of discourse? Because I'm always struck by, you know, even in this situation that we face now with the debate and all that, the gaslighting that occurs, the lack of trust in Americans' instincts or ability to take

complex issues and hear about them honestly. But I imagine their conversations were very frank and very direct but also sophisticated. Absolutely. I think it was a genuine difference. I wrote this book, a lot of it, with a quill pen. And I'm not saying everyone needs to go back to a quill pen. You wrote the book with a quill pen? Yeah, because I was trying to live the Constitution. I had my musket, I carried it around New York.

I wrote a quill or the quill pen. There's a curiosity. Do you consider yourself a method writer? Is that what this is? That's exactly it. I love that phrase. Thank you. So you did. So it was a quill pen.

And is there something about using the quill that is more deliberate and allows you to think different? I really believe that. There were no dings and chimesimeschimeschimes chimesch There were no dings and chimes from the internet. I could actually focus and maybe come up with some subtle thoughts and I can if the Constitution were written on an iPhone with with emogees that would not be good. Can you imagine with a you know all men are created equal, L-O-L like it would have been a nightmare.

Nightmare. They loved cold takes, not hot takes. They were all about, let's take a look at the pros and cons. And one of my favorite founding father, Ben Franklin, said, at the constitutional convention, he said, the older I get, the less certain I am of my own opinions, which I love, I mean, exactly. And they even, they baked it into the cake as far as they really thought amendments will be necessary. This has to be a document that can change with the

consent of the governed. Exactly. They knew it was imperfect. They said let's figure out ways to change it, but as you say, they didn't see this rigid two-party system. Now, last amendment we had was 1992, and I mean, you had to get two-thirds of Congress to agree. You can't get two-thirds of Congress to agree on the color of a green pepper. You know, you just can't, it's impossible. Because they are reddish. It's a good point. Thank you very much for being.

The Year of Living Constitutionally is available now. Adrian Jacobs. Good break around for this. 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.

The 46th President of the United, Desi Ryddez and Jordan Clepper. They'll be hosting the rest of the week. Here it is your moment of day. The 46th President of the United States and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, calling in to Morning Joe right now. Good morning, sir. Hey, Meek, I'm more than presumption. I'm going to be the Democratic nominee.

Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. Paramount Podcasts. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting, you'll be saying to yourself, TGID, thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same

way that they obsess me. The election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative.

Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast.