SCOTUS Ruling Makes Bribing Easier | Sharon Lerner
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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, Michael Kosta. Thank you.

Yes, welcome to The Daily Show. DJ Michael Kosta. We've got so much to talk about tonight. The squad is down a man. The Supreme Court is cool with bribery. And a special appearance from Triumph, the insult comic dog. Let's get into the headlines. Let's get into the headlines.

Let's kick things off with the primaries yesterday in New York. Progressive Jamal Bowman lost re-election to his opponent, money. And in Colorado, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert won, despite being caught fondling her date at Beetlejuice the musical last year. But what can I say? In the end, she won this race handily. I guess she's just really good at working the bass. Hand job.

But the biggest politics news of the day didn't come from the primaries. It came from the Supreme Court, who just made it even easier to bribe elected officials. Oh, sorry, tip elected officials. Breaking news from Washington. The United States Supreme Court has overturned the high-profile bribery conviction of former Indiana Mayor James Snyder. In a 6-3 opinion, the court ruled that gifts to public officials can only be considered illegal bribes if they're given before the official act, not after.

Justice Kavanaugh wrote that it was not a crime for politicians to quote, accept gratuities that may be given as a token of appreciation after the official act.

Ah, I see. So if you give a politician money before they do a favor, it's a bribe. But if you give it to them after, the Supreme Court says it's a gratuity because they think I'm an idiot. I mean, seriously, a gratuity? Tipping culture is already out of control. I got a tip at the coffee shops. I got a tip at the dry cleaner. I got a tip when I get takeout, even though I picked it up and I took it out.

That's why they call it takeout. Okay, fine, fine. But if my state senator turns that little screen around on me, I'm gonna lose my mind, all right? I'm still gonna give 20%, but I'm gonna be pissed about it. It seems like every few months, the Supreme Court makes it easier and easier to bribe government officials. And I don't know why they would do that, but as soon as Clarence Thomas gets back from the Maldives, we can ask him.

Let's move on to the tech world and talk about artificial intelligence. AI is everywhere these days, which is interesting because it also f***ing sucks, you know? It gives me bad Google searches. It gives me fake Amazon products. It keeps generating images of women with six fingers when I very clearly said I wanted six nipples. But...

The tech companies won't stop shoving it down our throats because they need something new to sell to us because we didn't go for the metaverse or self-driving cars or those weird cyborg helmets. So now I can't sit on a toilet without it being like, "Hey, let AI flush your poop for you." I mean, sometimes it shoves the poop back up your butt, but it's getting better.

And some AI companies are now offering songs made by AI. But now the people who actually make music, they're fighting back.

The world's biggest record labels are teaming up to sue two prominent AI music making companies. Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group are among the companies that filed lawsuits against the AI companies. The lawsuits accused the companies of illegally using copyrighted sound recordings to train their AI, raising concerns about the impact

on artists' rights and earnings. -In a statement, Suno's chief executive defended his company's product, saying that it's, quote, "designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize or regurgitate preexisting content." -Oh. All right. Well, if the chief executive of the A.I. company said they're not stealing, that's good enough for me, you know? If the songs it's creating are completely new, then we're good. So let's move on.

You know what? Maybe it's better to listen to one of these songs, you know, just to see. Lawyers for the record labels wrote the prompt, 60s British rock, male voice, by a band that rhymes with the Smeetles, since the generators do not allow naming specific artists. Still, the record labels say the AI generator spit out a Beatles song. Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try.

That was supposed to be a completely new song. Those were the exact words to imagine. The AI could have at least used a thesaurus, don't you think? Envision there's no heaven. It's easy if you endeavor to. Who wants this? Who wants this? I got AI to create a brand new song for me. Why? There's no shortage of music. Did you finish Spotify? Oh.

But I can make a brand new Taylor Swift song. She drops a double album every two weeks. We don't need it. But this song does bring up an important question, which is, should AI be involved in art? And the answer is, no, it shouldn't. We need to decide as a society that AI, it's not allowed to make art, okay? It can help make an elevator go faster or analyze medical data. That's fine. But leave art to human artists. Because, yeah.

Human artists, they have the things that computers will never have. Terrible parents, right? That motivates great art. The bottom line is no matter how good AI gets, it'll never need to prove that it's just as deserving of love as its sister who went to medical school. Moving on to a story that is truly out of this world. And it's going to stay out of this world considerably longer than it would like.

The return of Boeing Starliner and its crew has been delayed again. Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams were only supposed to be up in orbit for a week. They've now been up there for about a month, if you can believe it, as NASA and Boeing investigate helium leaks and thruster issues on the Starliner spacecraft. Just hours after Starliner's June 5th launch came the first sign of trouble.

Starliner, looks like we picked up a couple more helium leaks. All right, we're ready to copy. Find out exactly what you mean by picked up another helium leak. This guy is very chill considering his spaceship has sprung a leak. If my wife called me to say, oh, we've got a few fire situations at the house, I don't think I'd be like, copy, let's chat when you've got some more details about whatever the fuck that means. Um...

Just so you know, there's no real danger to these astronauts. They're gonna be fine. But a leaky pipe, that's such a boring Earth thing to go wrong, you know? Once you're in space, you should be dealing with problems like a quantum overload and the dilithium crystals. Not a leaky pipe. That's something you call the super for. You know what? That's probably why it's taking so long to fix. They call for the super, and NASA was like, "Sorry, he's a little busy. We can send his son." Uh, no. Tomorrow's fine. Tomorrow's fine.

Either way, I hope they can fix this. Imagine if the helium leaks got really bad and they had to say goodbye to their families, like... Tell my wife I love her. Life is so precious. How am I gonna do the rest of the act now? But good luck to the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams. Ha ha ha ha!

Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, who I'm confident will figure this out because they have incredible astronaut names, don't they? Does NASA screen for that kind of thing? They're like, well, your physics scores are the highest we've ever seen, but unfortunately, we just can't put a Braden on the moon. Sorry, I'm getting a little dizzy right now. By the way, you heard right. That spaceship, it's made by Boeing. Jesus Christ.

It must be so embarrassing to work at Boeing right now. The engineers are meeting people at parties like, oh, me? No, I'm Diddy's publicist. For more on the situation at the International Space Station, let's go there live with Ronnie Chang. Wow, you're floating. You're floating. Ronnie, you're embedded with the crew. What is the mood up there like, Ronnie?

It's fine, Costa. Everyone needs to calm down, okay? This isn't the Mets. These people are professionals. Yeah, okay, there were a couple of leaks, but they're all fixed and we'll be back on Earth soon. That's great. That's great news. And perfect timing, because the Trump-Biden debate is tomorrow, and we need you back to watch the whole thing. Oh, right. Uh, the debates are tomorrow. Yeah, very, very excited for that. Um, oh, oh, wait. Uh, what's that? What did you say? Real astronaut right over there?

Uh-huh. Oh, wow, Michael, they just discovered a new leak. It's gonna take exactly one more day to fix it. Well, that's terrible news. I mean, that means you'll miss the debate. Oh, I know, I know. I really wanted to cover two men trying to out-dementia each other, but...

But, uh, unfortunately, now I have to stay up here and, uh, eat that cool astronaut ice cream. Oh, no. That's okay. I mean, you know, you'll be back in plenty of time to report at the convention, so that's good. Uh-huh, uh-huh, great. Uh, awesome, awesome. Oh, shit, Michael, it's been another malfunction. Uh...

It looks like the anti-matter crypto Wi-Fi is down. Probably going to take a couple months to fix whatever that was. Oh, my God. Ronnie, that's terrible. No, I'm so bummed. I really wanted to be in Chicago in the summer with the team, but...

I guess we'll have to be up here until then. All right, you know, just take all the time you need, and you'll be back in time for the rest of the campaign season. Lots of opportunities to report on Trump and Biden. Ronnie. Ronnie. Ronnie. Ah!

I'm an alien. I have taken over the ship. It will take Ronnie exactly six months to defeat me. Leave him alone and send potato chips. Ronnie. All right, that's obviously a sock puppet. If you don't want to come back, just say so. I don't want to come back. Okay. Ronnie Chang, everyone. When we come back, triumph the insult. Don't go away.

Welcome back to The Daily Show. You know, as crazy as it might seem, there are still a lot of voters who aren't sure whether to vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden. So we sent a special correspondent to interview some of them. All right. Welcome to our focus group of undecided voters. Thank you for coming to our marketing research offices. I want to stress that there is nobody masturbating behind this two-way mirror, no matter what you hear.

So, as undecideds, let's go around the room. Tell us your name and what your f***ing problem is. We've never had worse choices, in my opinion. I don't like either candidate. Same as other people said, I'm not really crazy about either candidate. Okay, I see some of you feel you need more information about the candidates. And I get it. We know so little about Trump and Biden.

Apart from their campaign issues, their actions as president, their handling of the global pandemic, their criminal indictments, whom they've showered with, and a very detailed description of Trump's penis from a former porn star. But we still don't know. Okay. If you're leaning towards Biden, please raise your hand. If you're leaning towards Biden, if you're leaning toward Trump, raise your hand.

Okay, raise it at the 45 degree angle, please. Little straighter, don't bend the elbow. That's good. It's a Hitler joke. You see, because you support a fascist. All right, we're having fun. Okay, raise your hand if you feel like voters are easily manipulated. Who doesn't think so? Okay, now lower your hands.

Okay, now raise them again. Okay, now lower them again. Raise them up one more time. Raise both hands. Now lower one. Now everyone say, "I cannot be manipulated." Which candidate would you have a beer with? Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

- Why? More gummy, less likely to bite you? - Yeah. - Gentle. - Gentle. - Which candidate would you want to be behind in a human centipede? And keep in mind, no matter what you answer, we will all think you're disgusting. Okay, this is tough, guys. I mean, I sense you find yourselves undecided about a lot of things. - My problem is I'm not sure which one's gonna die first.

Thomas, I just have to ask, why are you struggling with this decision when you had no problem deciding to leave the barbershop with those sideburns? Seriously. It's like my mom always used to say, shit or get off the lawn. It's your civic duty. Yes. Would you agree with that? Yes, I would agree with that. What is your gut telling you? I mean, other than seatbelts do not come in my size. I can't trust Biden or Trump. Okay. So I like RFK.

R.F.K. Jr., interesting, also known as the evidence that the Kennedys f*** each other. Okay, maybe this will help you guys decide between the candidates. Here are two sandwiches, all right? One is old and moldy, and the other has chlamydia. Raise your hand if you're eating the sandwich on its deathbed, or raise your left hand if you want the sandwich that we have on tape using the N-word.

Okay, they're having their first debate. Do you hope the moderators will ask Trump and Biden the really tough questions like, do you know where you are? And can you breathe on this mirror? They're probably going to call out each other on stuff. Both sides are constantly saying, this is the end of democracy. Both sides agree. So maybe instead of worrying about all this voting stuff, we should just decide on an escape plan. Does anyone have a bunker?

Thomas, you look like you already live underground. Will the other mole people mind if we crash? It was time to switch tactics. Perhaps if they practiced making any kind of decision, it would prepare them for November. We've all been given Cheesecake Factory menus to share. Now take a look at them and make a choice.

You can do this. A lot of options. All right. You know what? Forget it. Forget it. I knew that wouldn't work.

At this stage, there was only one option left. Look, you guys have barely given me anything, so I'm just going to tell you who you're voting for. Daryl, you're going to miss election day because there weren't any reminders on Pornhub. Pauline, you want a safer, brighter future for your children, so you're going to move to Ukraine. Thomas...

I think you should just stay home. This is a big one. Very important election. We need you to sit it out. And Mark, whatever you decide, I recommend you listen to your heart. Or at least let a medical professional listen to this. Thank you all for being here. We've learned a lot. We'll see you in four years when you can't decide between voting for AOC or Kyle Rittenhouse.

Thank you, Triumph. When we come back, Sharon Lerner will be joining me on the show, so don't go away. Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight is a pro-publica reporter whose recent article in collaboration with The New Yorker investigates 3M's use of forever chemicals. Please welcome Sharon Lerner. Hi, Sharon. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for coming. Thank you for writing this piece. This is a testament to investigative journalism. How long does it take to write this piece? It took about a year. Yeah. A little more than a year, but I was doing other things in the middle. What exactly are Forever Chemicals? What did 3M do? What were you uncovering in this piece? Yeah. So I was writing...

writing about forever chemicals which are PFAS is the name of the compounds and basically they're called forever chemicals because they last forever in the environment and they accumulate in your body. Yeah. And

we all knew we've known for a while that 3m made these chemicals and i have been reporting on them for a while what was new with this story was that someone who had worked in the company came to me and offered to tell me her story right and it ended up shedding terrible light really on the company and on

the delay, the decades of delay for them to reveal the truth of what was going on. She was testing blood and...

was finding that everyone's blood had forever chemicals in it. And how did 3M respond to her research? Right. So she ended up-- she was asked by her boss to test all these blood samples. And these were samples of blood from the general public. So she starts testing them, and she keeps finding trace amounts of this chemical, PFOS, which was made by her employer in everyone's blood. It's not supposed to be there, right? And then she tests different parts of the country. She tests animals.

and she finally brings her results to her boss. And in response, her superiors were not happy with her work. She thought they would be happy. You found this amazing thing. She's a scientist. Yeah, she's a scientist. She's in the environmental lab. That's her job, right? And in fact, what they ended up doing was questioning her and saying, this can't be right, and your equipment is probably messed up, and why don't you repeat the experiment? Mm-hmm.

And eventually what she finds is that there was another chemist at the company who had discovered the same thing in 1975. So decades earlier. And you talk about it in the article, but part of what solidified her belief in her research was she actually tested...

-Old blood? -Yeah. -Wasn't-- Was it-- What was that? -Yeah. So, she's been-- She's testing all these samples from around the country, and they all contain PFOS. -Right. -And her bosses start saying, -"Oh, you think--" -"You get PFOS. You get PFOS. You get--" It's like, "We all got it." Yeah, and they start saying, "Are you sure? 'Cause maybe you just think it's everywhere." -Right. -Right. -"You just-- You're delusional, basically." -Right. Right. And then she ends up testing a sample from rural China -and an old sample. -Right.

And it was the first one she tested that didn't have any of the chemical in it. Wow. And she realized, here it is. Yeah. Someone in rural China who's probably dead at this point doesn't have forever chemicals in their blood. And then she ended up testing someone, a war veteran, who the blood sample was from 1957 before Scotchgard entered the market. So let's talk about that. What...

What are forever chemicals in you mentioned Scotchgard right? So initially they were in Scotchgard which is this coating for fabrics and carpets Yeah, and carpet couches and then they had also a product that was for food packaging and it was also in firefighting foam And that was the beginning now. I cannot name all the products that it's in thousands really and you know

The companies say they're in every car and cell phone or make it there during everything and you know 3 m put out a little spreadsheet in 2022 of just their products that contain P fast and it had more than 16,000 I love I love that they put out a spreadsheet in 2022 and they've known about this since 1975 so 50 years later super helpful. Do you when you start digging into this when you start digging into this you ever just want to go.

I don't want to hear about this shit. Well, you know, when I dig into this, what I want to do is tell people. And that's why I'm here, you know? Yes, right. I mean, it is utterly depressing, but I think it would be slightly more depressing not to report on it. Well, yeah, I mean, your article triggered my awareness. And then I remembered the Mark Ruffalo movie, Darkwater. And then I remembered I looked you up and you had written about this even before that. And it's like, holy shit, we got to pay attention to this stuff. Mm-hmm.

You know, I have a four-year-old daughter, and I often am trying to tell her to stop being so pushy, right? Hey, chill. You can't keep pushing back, pushing back. But then I meet you, and I read this, and I heard you say that you've got to be pushy to dig in and fight against 3M that made $14 billion last year. Am I a shitty parent? Well...

to be an investigative journalist, you do have to be kind of pushy. So it depends on whether your daughter wants to be an investigative journalist or not. I mean, you're...

We're working on just putting your pants on at this point. I mean, you have to find out things that people don't want you to know. And so, you know, with this story, the response I got from 3M when I was writing about this in 2015 and 2016, you know, it's totally different from the story I got from someone who was on the inside. And it only took me...

Nine years. Right. Is there something that you do now differently in your life, a habit, knowing what you know? Are you not drinking water out of the hose like we did in Michigan growing? I mean, is there just something? Because, look, a single American citizen taking on 3M or DuPont, because 3M is not the only company with these. You know what?

What can you tell me that I can do or you can do? Besides being aware, which is a positive step. It is. Yeah. And, you know, it is so widespread now, as you said. It's tons of products and some water all over the place. So I don't actually, I mean, I don't use nonstick pans and that kind of thing. That's easy. Or microwave popcorn. That's easy. Don't use microwave popcorn.

And I have to say, I don't know if it's been reformulated recently, but that was one of the original things that it was in. I'm sticking by what I said earlier. Yeah. I mean, honestly, as an environmental reporter, a lot of things horrify me. I would say, actually, the...

My reporting on plastics maybe left me with more of a, you know, changed my habits. So, like, I don't use single-use plastic because you cannot... Yeah. Cool.

And my question is flawed to you because I always find in capitalism the onus goes on us. Yeah. Right? Like, hey, Sharon, why are you using that plastic bottle? And it's like, well, I assume what's on the shelf is safe for me. Yeah. And that's not a safe assumption. And does our government step in on this? Where are they on this? Well, yeah, there are a lot of government failures here in this story. One is that when...

the 3M ended up giving in studies that they had done in 1975, 1980. They finally gave them all to the EPA in the late '90s and 2000. -Yeah. -So that's, you know, two, two-and-a-half decades after they did them. You're supposed to hand this -- give it in immediately if you see that there's evidence of real harm. So they were fined $1.5 million. -Right. -And what they made on that single -- -I mean, I make that a week.

But, like, in the year that they phased out the chemical, they had $100 million. It was on the market. So it makes no sense. So we have to make it actually... There have to be consequences for companies that do this kind of thing. Well, you mentioned the EPA, and there was a...

There was a new, I forget, guideline that they've set up recently. This has to do with forever chemicals. And we're using, in the article, you used the term PFAS, right? But that can mean a lot of different... Well, PFAS is the class of compounds. And the one chemical that Chris, who was talking about, was discovering was PFOS. That's one chemical in this class that's called PFAS. The class, there are thousands.

Right. So PFOS is not made anymore, but it's still in the drinking water. And EPA recently said drinking water limits for PFOS and PFOA. Yeah. Fabulous. Great. Great. Very great. The only problem is, one, they're no longer made, but there are thousands of chemicals in this class, and we've only gotten, you know, a couple. Yeah. So... And it's in New York City, drinking water. I mean, it's in everyone's drinking water. I, you know, and...

Yeah. And now the challenge is local cities are going to have to find a way to pay for filtering this out. Right, right. And there is just a big suit, a big settlement with 3M where they're going to pay $12.5 billion. And you think, oh, that's a lot of money. And it's not when you have to actually remove these chemicals from water everywhere.

Environmental crime. That's a new term that I recently heard, and when I read your piece, I said, this is environmental crime. 3M has committed assault on us. Maybe murder, depending on the classification. Has anyone at 3M... Is anybody in trouble? No. Not in a criminal way. Sweet! Love this f***ing story, you know? It's just...

-Yeah, not in a criminal way. But I like the way you put that. It is -- It is a crime, right? -Yeah. -And, I mean, part of the reason I think it's a crime is because we weren't given any choice in the matter, right? So nobody said,

in exchange for this beautiful, stain-free couch, we're going to put a toxic chemical in your body and leave it there forever. It wasn't like that. It was, here's this product, and we know this thing we're not telling you. So it's like bodily trespass, really. I mean, these chemicals are in infants when they're born, before they're born. Right. One of the saddest and scariest parts was when

in the article you talk about, and this is gonna be really sad, but how women actually finally showed that they had less forever chemicals in their body, but that was after they gave birth, 'cause they passed it on to their child. - Yeah. - Right? - Yeah. - So this is...

This is a problem. What can you leave us with? Everybody here is now newly aware. Should we call our Congress people? Should we stop buying plastic? Should we? Well, I mean, here's something. Here's something really focused we could do. Great. I like focused. Like the entire audience. I like that. Yeah. So one of the crazy things is that PFAS...

are still being... New ones are still being introduced. So we still have thousands that are being used, but they're still introducing new ones. That is, like, that seems bananas to me, and that seems like a very focused point that we could, you know, do something about. Yeah. Thank you very much for writing this article. Thank you for coming on The Daily Show and talking with us. You Make Me Sick is available online at The New Yorker and ProPublica. Sharon Lerner, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. Thank you.

That's our show for tonight. Don't forget, tune in tomorrow night at 11 when Jon Stewart's back at the desk to cover the presidential debate live. Now, here it is, your moment of Zen. This is not a president of grievance. This is a president who is showing joy, showing a sense of humor. He's rallying the crowd. And I say this term again, the happy warrior. He's like Popeye with two cans of spinach and it's working for him.

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