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Very quickly, I mentioned 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... Last week, we did a live show after the debate. Wait, wait. Where did we leave off? This...
be real life. It just can't. We're America. Ah yes, anger and despair. By the way, for those of you at home, the scripts are printed on Kevlar, which is why I had trouble. It's 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 that those people should shut the f***
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. Or 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. This is fast. 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 why
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 pen caps 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, are 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 then there was the recounting of a recent conversation that the president had had with his counterpart, the president of France. A meter on from Germany, I mean, from France, looked at me and said, said, you know, what, why, how long you back for? Unfortunately,
Mitterrand is also dead. For longer even than that first lady, so... Even on teleprompter, things continue to...
Like the reading of the instructions people sometimes add to teleprompter scripts. The percentage of women who register 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, there was a guy named Riley, last name. Four more years, pause. Four more years! Four more years! Ah! Then, of course, to be fair, State of the Union...
Concern dropped a little bit at the State of the Union. He kind of nailed it. But then the debate happened and we kind of, what the f***? 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, you know, 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? 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? Why doesn't anyone ever speak out about it?
Trump. Or, let's say, every night for ten f***ing years. But you know what? Fair 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. It's been bad since he started grabbing the pussy. I mean, what are you going to 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. The difference is Trump delivered at the debate to expectation. We expect him to be f***ing 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. People have an off night. You know, the president traveled six time zones forward to G7, and he was also doing, continued 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-lagged?
How big is that 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. I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, served with the black president. LAUGHTER
Yas queen. Or whether the president is on prompter and firing. Let me say this as clearly as I can. I'm staying in the 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.
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 photo on the package for a garden home. It's not a person. And let me say this. Authoritarianism and Donald Trump aren't the only threats our democracy faces.
an arthritic 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 f*** is not, is not, honestly though, get on board or shut the f*** is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker.
Nor is, what are you going to do? I've gotten a lot of texts 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***.
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, you sons of bitches, are you coming to my house and saying to my face that the United States or Bruce Springsteen's America can't hold an election better than a French? Is that what you're telling me? It's four months.
It's 119 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 time. And by the way, I am in no way saying Biden's got to drop out. But you know what?
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...
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 bye. 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. I'm just workshopping here. 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 defeat Donald Trump other than you? Probably 50 of them. 50? I gotta say, I like the cut of that fella's jib. 50 of them.
When we come back, more on the election. Stay tuned. Now, we've obviously been talking about the big news from the debate, 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? It depends. If the Lord Almighty comes down and 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 you. Desi, 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 this, but I have a very special someone right here. Wow. It's... Oh, oh, oh. God, that's...
Oh, boy. It's me, John. I am the Lord thy God. Creator of the universe. Co-star of 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. Desi and Jordan or Gandalf or whoever you are.
I see what you guys are doing. What? No, no. The gunman! Biden is not going to fall for this. Have you seen him lately? 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. Oh!
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? All right. That's... Kosta, clearly you're not Jesus, so... Was it too classic looking? Ah, it wasn't woken up. Don't worry. We got you covered. We got you covered. We got you covered. Yeah, yeah.
It is I, Black 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. Oh, guys, forget it. No one is going to believe the reviewer Jesus, so we're not doing this. Oh, wow. Not believing in Jesus. We get it, John. You're Jewish. No, it's...
Couldn't handle the bars, John. No, that's not it. John, John, John, if I may. Yes, Ronny Chieng, Ronny Chieng. Perhaps your Western gods are unable to provide the answers that Biden needs. So you are? Buddha, I'm 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, a little better? No, that's a common misconception, okay? That's laughing Buddha. I'm Ozempic Buddha. I reached enlightenment and my way gold. Anyway...
I agree with God and those buddy cop Jesuses, okay? If Biden needs a message from the Almighty, one of these gods has got to break through. Did someone say God? Norse god of lightning, son of Odeon, king of Asgard.
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 is important.
costume. I'm just a lesbian. 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. Sarah Iwata and Grace Kuhlenschmidt, everybody. When we come back, A.J. Jacobs will be joining me. Don't go away. We're back in the Daily Show. My guest tonight, a journalist and an author.
His latest book is called The Year of Living Constitutionally, One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning. Please welcome to the program, A.J. Jacobs. You are not the one. Thank you, thank you. The Year of Living Constitutionally. A.J., what... So...
How did the year of living constitutionally, a humble quest to follow the constitutionalism, 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 greeting? Yes, absolutely. All right, fair enough. 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 that was by getting in the mindset of our founding father 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 to a large extent, but when you you learn about him do you think like oh couple these guys might be idiots.
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-N-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 through? How did you, did you dismiss the Grammarly questions? Well, I couldn't go in and change it on the... The actual document spells Pennsylvania two different ways. That's right. And it's, and the I-T-S as actually should be an I-T apostrophe S. So if Ben Franklin had invented social media, they would have gotten a lot of...
-flack for that. -Right. But, uh, so it is, uh-- 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? I think so. I think many of them would be. Now, in their discussions, did you-- as you looked back and saw the discussions that they were having, my understanding is they never really thought that partisan politics would, you know,
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 gonna be factions, but he thought there were gonna be lots of factions, like, you know, and 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 presidents, 12 presidents. And...
Almost like the court. The presidency and the court would be similar. Not a unitary executive. Not a single person. Right. And in the end, it was fought for weeks. In the end, the unitary executive won. But I have to say, that fetus of monarchy comment, I mean, it's not a fetus anymore. It's like a teenager. Right. It is. We are...
200 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 founders' intent differently?
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. Right. But they were--
There were responsibilities with them. Exactly. 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 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 was before it had sort of a negative taste. How many of them do you think...
banged porn stars. How many of them do you... When they talk about virtue... Well, I talked to many constitutional scholars and I never... None of them have ever said that. But... 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 way 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
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 with a 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 differently? I really believe that. 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 emojis, that would not be good. Can you imagine with a...
You know, all men are created equal, LOL. It would have been a 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-- they really thought amendments will be necessary. This has to be a document that can change with the consent of the governed, yes? 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, the last amendment we had was 1992, and...
And I mean, you had to get two thirds of Congress to agree. You can't get two thirds of Congress to agree on 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. The year of living constitutionally is available now. Our thoughts over the night.
Desi Leibniz and Jordan Klepper. They'll be hosting the rest of the week. Here it is, your moment of doubt. The 46th president of the United States and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden calling in to Morning Joe right now. Good morning, sir. Hey, Mika. I'm more than presumptive. I'm going to be the Democratic nominee.
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