The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Jon Stewart on Israel, Lebanon & The Widening Mideast War | Christine Lagarde

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Jon Stewart tackles the growing war in the Middle East, from the recent Hezbollah pager attacks in Lebanon, to Israel’s plan of de-escalation through escalation, to the Biden administration's futile efforts to contain the conflict, while looking at criticism of Netanyahu from Americans and Israelis. Then, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde talks to Jon Stewart about the global economy, inflation, and Artificial Intelligence. They discuss how factors like the pandemic and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine led to high inflation rates, what stable inflation should look like, and how people feel the effects of inflation more dramatically because price increases far outpace wage increases. With the UN General Assembly happening this week, Lagarde also stresses the need for global governance of AI to ensure that it enhances workers and their role in the economy, rather than replacing them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free starting September 26th with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple podcasts.

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, Sean Stewart! We have a fabulous show for tonight. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, is going to be here. We'll be talking about her new movie, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Three Sisters. By the way, speaking of Europe, let's talk about the Middle

East. As you know, October 7 marks the one-year anniversary of the horrific attack against Israeli citizens, the kidnapping of hostages, many of whom have died, many of whom are still being held. Since then, there's also been a horrific war in Gaza, which doesn't seem to have gotten us any closer to getting those hostages released. But luckily for both sides, the United States has been working tirelessly since then towards, well I'll let our former

president explain. For weeks I've been advocating to pause in the fighting. You know I've been working tirelessly. Relentlessly focused. I've been working nonstop. I'm engaged in this day and night. We're working around the clock. We are closer than we've ever been.

We're very close. We're close. We're close. We were so good. He stopped to get ice cream once. But other than that, it was all ceasefire all the time. Now, if you don't mind, I'm seeing what's going on over there

and it's making me a little bit hungry hungry I think I'm gonna grab myself a little something myself. I'm gonna take a little... I just shot ice cream into my eye. Ice cream is I give the president credit very dangerous treat. I going to take a big bite of my ice cream cone as I find out how our ceasefire efforts are paying off. Israel launching an all out assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon over the weekend. What?

What? So worth it. Wait, we've been working tirelessly for a ceasefire in Gaza and then f***ing Lebanon? The whole point was we're going to downgrade Hamas, we're going to attack the terrorists there, we're going to get the hostages home. What did Laminan do? No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities. We can't accept it either. But you've also been wanton rocketing.

What kind of rocketing are you doing in Gaza if not wanton. And by the way, that's how little criticism they've faced. By the way, Lebanon is also a country. What makes you think they're going to accept your rocketing or whatever other James Bond shit you've been up to? Thousands of wireless pagers simultaneously exploding across Lebanon. Exploding pagers. Ah, Lebanon expected Israel to attack from the south, but instead they attacked from the 1980s. What? Oh, you know what Lebanon should do? Yeah!

You know what Lebanon should do? Yeah! Well Israel, got any quarters? By the way, quick message for our viewers who are under, let's say, 45. This is a pager. Let me come over here. This is a pager. This is a pager. This is a pager. I'm going to put it over here.

Not really sure where we bought those from, so. You see, there was a time back in the olden days when we didn't have cell phones, but still wanted to buy drugs. You would... You would ping your local neighborhood dealer on his pager. What? And then he would come over and say something like, are you going to smoke all of this yourself? And then you would say, do you want to come in?

And the next thing you know, you're driving him disconnected. The point is, stay in school. But yes, Israel, Israel, Israel. Israel remotely exploded all of Hezbollah's pagers in walkie-talkies, which is why going forward Hezbollah will limit its communications to the message boards on nudeafrica.com. Because no one will ever find out the things that you post on nudeafrica.com under the user name, I am Mark Robertson, candidate for North Carolina, Governor 836.

No one will find out. Nope. Now we know the Americans have been working tirelessly on a ceasefire in Gaza through countless hours and all 31 Baskin-Robbins flavors, apparently. But this new conflagration points to another outcome the United States has been very much trying to avoid. From day one since October 7th, it's been one of our primary objectives to prevent the conflict from escalating, from spreading in other places. Prevent an escalation or widening or deepening of this conflict.

We have been laser focused on trying to prevent that wider war since October 7th. I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for. Why would you be looking for that? You know what I'd love? A wider war in the Middle East. Well, now that a wider war has broken out in the Middle East, this is President Biden yesterday talking about what we're going to do about it.

We're going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. How f***ing wide does this war have to be about it. We're going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. How f***ing wide does this war have to be before we call it a wider war? Without Turkey, it's still technically in the margins. Look. As far as I'm concerned, it's not a wide war until it includes Mongolian archers. Come on! What are we doing?

And by the way, if this isn't the wider war, then what is this? It continues to be a very dangerous situation, a very difficult situation, a very difficult volatile situation, and the situation could escalate at any moment. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So it's not a war. and the situation could escalate at any moment. Oh, I'm sorry, okay, so it's not a war, it's a volatile situationship. A friends with bombafits, if you will. But what, what if,

what if you really want to experience What if you really want to experience the full cognitive dissonance and language calisthenics that have to be deployed to describe the Middle East over the last, I don't know, four, five, six, 10,000 years? How we're describing what's, I give you the golden sound bite brought down from Sinai to explain how convoluted this has to be. What the Israeli government is saying and the Biden administration is in many ways subscribed to this idea is de-escalation through escalation. Or as that is sometimes called, war!

That is World War II! Look at the subhead! De-escalation through escalation! I mean, do you even hear yourself? My God, the de-escalation through escalation? That phrase is, where have I heard it? It's right out of, hold on a second, let me see if I can find. Hold on, no, it's not in there. Hold on, let me see if I can find.

No, it's not in there. Let me see if I can find... No, it's not in there. Let me see if I can find... Oh, my God. John, that cat has wrecked havoc on your bachelor lifestyle. Cat has wrecked havoc on your bachelor lifestyle. Although I do take issue with one of Garfield's bromides, I happen to love Mondays. It's the start and end of every work week. Though I hear Fridays are nice.

But here's the worst part. The country that's providing all the bombs to the Middle East, or I guess now we have to call the bombs escalators. Seems to have no idea when these bombs are going to be used. We were not notified by the Israelis about their strike or the intended target of their strike. First, this is something we were not aware of or involved in. The United States did not know about nor was it involved in these incidents. Oh, they're not telling you anything, huh?

Have you checked your pager? I mean, my God, there have to be other ways of achieving de-escalation without all this respectful exchange of missiles. Historically, that part is generally followed by years of sorrow and bloodshed. And we know there have been opportunities for de-escalation, but Netanyahu did not seem particularly interested in it. Oh my God, I've criticized Netanyahu. What have I done?

Go ahead. The people who are criticizing the Prime Minister, it is shameful, it is pathetic. We should be standing shoulder to shoulder with our strongest ally in the Middle East instead of launching this criticism. They criticize them for going too far constantly, and that gives Hamas comfort.

I'm sorry. Criticism of the war is shameful and it gives comfort to Hamas. You know who might be surprised to hear that? The Israelis, who are unbelievably critical of the war and Netanyahu. The Prime Minister did not leave the public's Get off my back. You heard what he said. He said, ah. Does anyone have a Google translate on what he said? The prime minister did not look the public in the eye and tell the truth that he won't bring the hostages alive. It's a total failure.

The Israeli government. No strategy. no vision. He is trying to do everything to prevent a deal. He don't have any intent to end this war. Netanyahu is lying as he believes. What anti-Semites the former prime minister of Israel and Defense Minister are. But still, people are going to see this segment and go, all right, maybe Israel isn't perfect.

But criticizing them feeds the fire. Don't you worry about anti-Semitism? And to that I say no. I believe anti-Semitism will be fine. I got to say, not for nothing, but from what I've experienced, it's very resilient. And it's not really tied to any event or war or activity or reality. For God's sake, Kanye thought we ruined his Adidas deal. We just need orthotics, that's all.

Anti-Semitism will survive this war like it survived all wars, going back to the brave Hebrews at Masada. Do you see, Rabbi? I was paying attention in Egypt. But you know what? You know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the blame the Jews from the Black Death, the Spanish Inquisition, to the space lasers

will all go away if Israel does right and peace will reign. And people will no longer baselessly and conveniently blame the Jews when things don't work out exactly the way they want them to. This is the most important election in the history of the United States. I'm not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I'm at 40%. Son of a bitch!

We come back, French Money lady, Christine Lagarde will be here. Don't go away. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear.

But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there there and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created, literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, starting October 3rd, wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, welcome back to the Daily Show. My guest tonight, the president of the European Central Bank.

Please welcome back Christine Lagarde. We were just talking last time that I saw you, you were the French Minister of Finance. And then you moved on IMF. And I came back. And you came back. And then now you are the head of the ECB, which is, for context, similar to what the Fed would be, I assume, for the United States. That's right. And you lowered interest rates as well.

Yes. We started a little earlier in June. Okay, I didn't know it was going to go there right away. I didn't know we were going to do this right away. We only did 25. He did 50. You only did 25 pages. But then we did it again. So that's 50-50. Do you guys talk?

Do you say, I'm about to do 25? And he's like, well, I'm going to do 50 two months later and make you look silly. You don't coordinate? No, we talk to each other, but we don't coordinate. We don't. Now, is this the basis points? And we all now, there's a certain oracle nature to we wait to see what the central banks will do and they always talk in kind of coded mysterious language and then they say 25 basis points and we're like yes what is that?

But is it now is that the signal inflation has been defeated? It's not quite. We are getting there. We are almost at target. Our target. What are you pointing at? My target. What's?

My target is 2%. I want to get to 2%. What is it now? It's 2.2. But I want to make sure that we are at 2 and that we stay at 2%, because that's regarded as sort of stable inflation. And we are at two and that we stay at 2% because that's regarded as sort of Stable inflation and we look at that in the medium term

So we don't want to have one month and 2% and then another month at 2.6 percent We want it to be steady solid at 2 at 2 and we getting who chose who was who was the to chooser You know interestingly enough that was way back and I think New Zealand was one of those that started it. And we're all following New Zealand now. That's what this is. New Zealand one day went, you know what would be a good number? Two. Now, I think then all central bankers around the world thought, well, 2% because then that

leaves a little wiggle room to negotiate wages increases. We're not exactly sure the statistics are perfect. So there is room to maneuver on all accounts. And 2% is something that goes reasonably unnoticed, as long as wages progress as well. Right. Although, when we say 2%, we've faced kind of a pretty large inflationary spike

so it seems like these higher prices have a certain stickiness that the corporations have gotten accustomed to like well the supply chains are a little better and things have eased but $10 for a taco and people still paying it so why not? But that's a big difference between the level of prices and the increase in prices. So when you've had regular increases in prices, generally it doesn't move down. It stays at that level. And that's when you talk about a level of prices. Now why is that?

Because, so what caused the inflation in the first place? Do we have a handle on that? Yes. Okay. Shall we take the last big inflation wave that we had? No. As an example. No, no, but.

No, OK. Yes. But as an example. OK. So what caused it? You had three components. One is you had the worst pandemic ever since the 20s. Yes.

The last 20s. That's right. Then you had. So a shutdown of. Shutdown of. Now that would seem to be deflationary pandemic ever since the 20s yes the last 20s that's right then you had so a shutdown of shut down of now that would seem to be deflationary because it would seem like demand would disappear well some demand disappeared and some demand state particularly when people continue to receive you know checks in the mail The mistake was keeping people alive. No, no, no, no, no. I get it now. I get what's happening here. No, no, no, no.

Jesus. Alright. Okay, so supply chain completely disrupted. Yes. First. Second, we had at least in Europe the worst war since the 40s. Still going on in Ukraine.

Still going on in Ukraine. Still going on in Ukraine. So energy, wheat. And terrible. Energy, wheat, all sorts of commodity prices went down, especially given that dear Mr. Putin anticipated that and weighed on energy prices. So they weighed on energy supply so that prices started going up even before the war started. He had planned that all along. So energy prices were a big component in the inflation.

So supply chain disruption. Yeah. Energy spike. Now that's in Europe. We did not have that to the same extent, I would assume. You had some of it, but not, yeah. Yeah, right. Because you have energy on site in the country.

We don't have any energy sources. Oh, sure. You know what? Drill baby drill. That's, did you know that's our national anthem. That's what we we sing it before every ballgame. So that's true. We got to what's the what's the third. I would say three the pandemic the war and the energy prices.

So the three of them just pushed prices up in a big way and more so in Europe than in the U.S. We went up on average in the euro area, prices went up to 10.6%. You never hit the double digit. Right. I would imagine certain commodities would go up faster than others. It's not linear, I wouldn't imagine.

No. But it has a dribbling effect. So if you have oil prices going up, it's going to have an impact on pretty much all other products because you find energy everywhere. So give me a sense of oil prices go up. How long does it take for that to insinuate itself into the supply chain system and create that inflation? That inflation. It moves relatively fast. So you no matter of you know, four six months It's into the various prices where there is a lag which is much longer. It's on wages

Wages take more time to to respond to that increase in prices and it's you know I don't know if you know there's in America wages have yet to respond We're talking about from the 50s. Like it's really wages don't keep up. It brings up an interesting point. Since the 80s it feels like the economy flipped over to an investment economy. That's right. Rather than a labor. Much more capital intensive and the remuneration of capital was higher than the remuneration of labor. You're right. Correct. It's been a long time. It's not just in the last 10 years. No it seems like the 80s were really that period of deregulation and then it capital was higher than the remuneration of labor. You're right. It's been a long time. It's not just in the last 10 years.

No, it seems like the 80s were really that period of deregulation. And then it sped up there. But our tools that we use, whether it's the Fed or quantitative easing or those kinds of things, are still working at that supply side level. In other words, like in 2008, we bailed out more on the corporate side rather than the people side.

Well we we we secured the financial system to make sure that the positive for the customers around the world. Yes, we're not completely lost so that that was the key key proposal to make sure that the financial system doesn't collapse and then then you're right there was a tickling the last you know 6 years 5 five years since 2019 when we started, we had COVID, we tried to keep the economy afloat. We tried to avoid that business goes down.

With a more demand side stimulus. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Certainly in this country. Yeah. And that's where maybe the rubber meets the road. It feels like, from what I've heard of economists, they're- You want to dampen demand if you want to keep inflation down.

Right. Well, at the same time you increase demand by putting some fiscal fuel in the system. But on the flip side, we kept people alive and in their homes. Like in 2008, when they decided on the quantitative easing and to give sort of that 0% interest window and people were able to come in and borrow money at quite the corporate level. At all levels, households as well. Household. There was a horrible recession, a ton of people lost their homes, you know, it was crushing.

The lesson to me is stimulating on the demand side was a more efficient use of capital and also had the moral bonus of covering like human needs. Yes. Yeah, rather than… Yes, yes, yes. So why does that seem now so controversial? It's not controversial in my books. Well, because you're human.

But these guys I'm talking to, they give me a whole like, that last trillion really screwed us for the next 10 years. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Well, everything has to be reasonable and sensible. You don't want to overdo it to a point where you then have to sort of withdraw and, you know, sponge the liquidities that are out there. And that's the reason why at some stage

you have to stop quantitative easing and you have to also stop the fiscal stimulus and support that you've given to the economy in hard times, because times are getting better. Do the central banks have mechanisms that can be more responsive on that demand side as you said rather than it having to filter through the system more on that supply side? The first tool that we use is interest rates. Okay. That's the most efficient one and it's the one that that has been traditionally used. You talked about... Certainly if you raise it will dampen the labor market.

Yeah yeah and if you tighten, which is if you reduce the interest rates, if you cut, then it should stimulate the economy and it should encourage people having lower financing cost to go out, borrow, invest and buy houses and things like that right that's what I wonder is is there any school of thought that thinks boy we've got this thing flipped on its head and we would be such a more efficient and humane society if we stimulated more like for I'm thinking about and you tell me if this is the wrong way of thinking about it. Trump came in one point seven trillion dollar tax cut.

Most of it went to rich people cut the corporate tax rate from I think 35 percent to 21 percent. So that's a 14 percent. That's a huge amount of money deregulated a lot of industries. So I would think as a package that's trillions and trillions

and trillions of dollars. A lot of it went to stock buybacks. It doesn't trickle into wages and the labor market, but it does pop up our deficit, making us less able to withstand, I don't know, a pandemic, because we feel like then we can't put that... You know, I'm a little bit scared

when you talk about pandemic, because I watched the interview that we did together in 2009. What did I say? Well, you said at the time, because we discussed the stunning of the economy, and I kind of said things are getting better. And then you closed the interview saying, unless we have a global pandemic. To the camera, I just want to address something very quickly.

When she says I said that, she is not suggesting all Jews gave us the money. What we're trying to do is demand. And I only say that because there has been some confusion here in the United States. But exactly right. I'm wondering as a central banker, is there a way to look at the economy? Less on the supply side, how do we get labor to benefit more efficiently from all that money? You have to, you know those things. You have two components. Capital, labor.

Yeah. And you bring this together and you create value. The two have to be compensated. And for decades, capital has been better remunerated than labor. Yes. And the labor share in the value production has been reduced. Then it's a matter of give and take.

So if the labor market is tight as it is now, it is for the labor to actually say, excuse me, I think that should be remunerated as well and probably better than it has for many many years. Right. So it's a question of. Is there a way to do it?

Negotiations, discussions and persistence. Right. Yep. Is there a better way? Because it seems like for corporate subsidies they don't have to fight so hard. It seems like labor has to really fight for that seat at the table, whereas the larger entities don't have... The balance of lobbying forces is obviously skewed to one side.

Right, right. In most countries as well. So you would recommend poor people get better lobbyists. That would be... what about this? How about this? Is there anything in corporate, like when you talk about buybacks, it's all in stock, what if workers were automatically invested in that?

I mean, some companies do that. I think the tech industry does a pretty good job of that. That when you get hired there, you're immediately. Before one pays, one way to deal I think the tech industry does a pretty good job of that. You know when you get hired there you're one way to deal with it. But it's a very small not very small component to be a lot bigger.

Right. Do you think when you forecast out what I worry about is labor is kind of been on the back foot and it seems like AI is going to further erode labor's position. Is that something that you guys figure in?

That is a big concern. And I think that the discussions that are taking place now, actually in New York, concerning the governance of AI around the world and how it should be enhancing workers' position, contribution to the economy, rather than replacing workers is a vital discussion to be had. Who's having that? I think it's engineered by the United Nations and there is a group of you know thinkers and philosophers and experts in AI who are saying watch out because if there is no global governance on that just as we have global governance on nuclear not

perfectly complied with but at least generally respected. At least there is... We're all still here. I'm worried about that. I happened to run into a couple of leading lights of the AI movement. And I said, globalization really hit American manufacturing, and we're still feeling it. And that's something that took decades to really play out. It also benefited the consumers.

Don't forget that. No question. When you do that, we did get much cheaper stretchy parents and everything. Yes, yes, yes. But that played out over years. And there are still areas where it's decimated and haven't been back.

It seems like AI will do the same thing to the more white collar movement. But it's going to do it much quicker. And I said, are you guys concerned about that? And the guy goes, and he's one of them big hitters in that. And he goes, no, we'll be good. And I was like, oh, we're all going to die. Like, this is crazy.

Will you adjust your pump? I don't think we're going to die. But I think completely, oh, we're all going to die. This is crazy. Will you adjust your pump? I don't think we're going to die, but I think completely. Well, we will at some stage. No, no, no, I understand. And by the way, maybe for a lot of people. But we should really be concerned about AI, because where you are totally right is that it will affect all jobs.

And those sort of white-colored jobs which were not affected will be affected. And we have to be prepared, we have to improve our skill set, we have to be able to master that tool and not be the servant and the object of that tool because it is fast and it's transformative. Do you know what they told me? It's already smarter than us because it is, what they do is. Do you know what they told me? It's already smarter than us. Because it is, what they do is it takes the 10,000 sort of years of human achievement

and it swallows it in like six hours. Well, I'll tell you something. Yeah. This morning I wanted to check the price of butter because I thought you were going to ask me, well, do you do your grocery shopping and did you notice that prices increased? What kind of an animal do you think I am?

Christine Lagarde, how dare you? Did you notice that prices increased? What kind of an animal do you think I am? Christine Lagarde, how dare you, if I may say so. I know your butler does the shopping. So I check, and I check with one of those terribly smart AI engine. I say, what was the price in 2019? What was the price in 2024? I get the answer and it's totally skewed. I mean it's cheaper now than it was in 2019 and my recollection is uh-uh. So I tell

this guy, this AI engine, I said are you sure about your numbers? Can you check that? It comes back and says oh terribly sorry we made a mistake. Yes you're right it's the other way around. So that tells me one thing we have to be alert we have to check the facts we have to be to exercise judgment and we cannot be does it tell you that we can or does it tell you that AI is so far ahead of us that the plan was I'm going to give the head of the European Central Bank the wrong butter figures absolutely plummeting her career.

She's in charge of stability of Europe. Europe is then plunged into chaos, 500 years of black death. Oh, AI has got us by the. You must be behind that. I probably am. The final question. So we're coming onto a period, people weren't talking about the soft landing.

It's still been rough for consumers. Do you foresee within the next you know because I know these things take time 12 months 18 months 24 months a better stability building into this obviously got her but without some sort of terrible catastrophe. Yes I should think so. Why do I say that because I think that the tools have improved the analytical models and tools that we use to anticipate and to try to measure are better and because we've learned in the last few years more than we had in decades. And the stable 2%? And we know that uncertainty is going to be with us and we have to factor that in and make sure

that we have tools to anticipate uncertainty, which is a big, big challenge. Sure. We're anticipating uncertainty here in about eight weeks. So I feel you. I feel you. Thank you so much for joining. It's always such a pleasure to see you. Europeans, everybody.

President Christine Lagarde. We'll be right back after this. Bye for now. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in a Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who'd attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror.

Candyman. Candyman? Now we all know chanting a name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman. Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

We're gonna talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets

and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, starting September 26th with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple podcasts. ["The Daily Show Theme"] ["The Daily Show Theme"] ["The Daily Show Theme"] ["The Daily Show Theme"]

["The Daily Show Theme"] Boom. All right, that's our show for tonight. Before we go, we're gonna check in with your host for the rest of the week, Miss Desi Lydic. Desi! ["The Daily Show Theme"] Before we go, we're going to check in with your host for the rest of the week, Ms. Desi Lydic. Desi! Hi. Hi. Hi.

Desi, what are you going to bring to the people this week? Oh, so many scandals. There's RFK Jr., Matt Gaetz, Mark Robinson, which reminds me, John, I need to look through your phone. Hand it over. Yep. Why would you need to look through your phone. Hand it over. Yep. Why would you need to look through my...

Well, we got to make sure there's no scandals brewing here. Okay? Who knows which nude continent porn site you've been commenting on. Phone, now. Come on. I don't have anything to hide. Jesus, how big is your font, John? Good God.

Okay, selfie, selfie, selfie. Oh, my God. John Stewart, is this real? You post-made an entire Fudgy the Whale cake every single day? Oh, disgusting. post-mate an entire Fudgy the Whale cake every single day? Oh, disgusting, disgusting. I was hacked. I was doing research.

Oh my God, what is this? Desi Lydic everybody, we'll be right back. Here in a moment is Ed. The problem with another debate is that it's just too late. Voting has already started. She's done one debate, I've done two. It's too late to do another. I'd love to in many ways, but it's too late.

The voting is cast. 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. For a limited time, switch to Shopify point of sale and you could save up to 20% and improve your bottom line. We're so serious about savings, we've made this ad 20% shorter. That means you get 6 seconds back. Just enough time to visit Shopify.com slash POS20. Now that's an efficient ad. Eligibility requirements apply. See Shopify.com slash POS 20 for details.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, starting October 3rd, wherever you get your podcasts.