Elon Musk "Butthurt" Over Trump Bill, Meet Tim Pool | Leah Litman on "Lawless" SCOTUS
34:47 Share

This is an iHeart Podcast.

is the anchor. For NBC Nightly News, I'm Tom Yamas. A new chapter begins. NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. Evenings on NBC. 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. Applause

Oh yeah, welcome to the Daily Show. I'm Michael Kosta. We've got so much to talk about tonight. Trump and Elon go from BFFs to enemies for life. Republicans get caught not doing their summer reading. And Chuck Schumer finally learning how to be charismatic? No, no, no, he's not. But first, Congress is busy wheeling and dealing over Donald Trump's legislative agenda. So let's get into it with our ongoing coverage of the big, beautiful bill.

Oh, I sleep with that. I wrap it around, I kiss it at night. Washington is a lot like high school, and not just because all the politicians are trying to date high schoolers. It's also because when a friendship ends, it explodes. And right now, we are drenched in the fallout.

Jesus Christ. You can't just call this bill a pork-filled abomination. That's reserved for the new TGI Friday's appetizer.

$9.99 for a whole fried pig? I'm there. But this rift between Musk and Trump presents an incredible opportunity for Democrats to go on the attack. Hit him with everything you got. Let's go, Dems. I hear something happened while we were at lunch, which led me to make some news here today and say something I didn't think was imaginable. I agree with Elon Musk.

Oh, my God, that is so lame. Man, I feel so inspired when I hear Chuck Schumer. I just want to hit the streets and then keep walking and go a little farther until eventually I come to a body of water and then, you know, give up on democracy. Nice try, Chuck Schumer. Any other Democrat want to take a shot? Breaking news, Elon Musk and I agree with each other. Yeah, yeah, Schumer already did that.

That's the first rule they teach you in comedy college. A joke always gets funnier when you have to repeat it. And that's the first rule they teach you in comedy college. A joke always gets funnier when you have to repeat it.

And even if Democrats can't take advantage of it, it's still shocking for Elon to turn on Trump like this. Why did he do it? The source in Trump World claiming that Elon was, quote, "butthurt," in part because the bill didn't include giveaways to his companies. Musk is upset that the spending bill cuts the electric vehicle tax credit. The White House denied his request to have the Federal Aviation Administration use his Starlink satellite system.

Are you kidding me? He's upset about that? Let's review all that Elon Musk has gained from his $288 million investment into this presidency. $100 million in NASA contracts. He got to freeze 40 federal investigations against his companies, fired anybody who could regulate or tax him, and he got the President of the United States to plug his car company, and Trump almost pronounced its name correctly. I love Tesla.

But he's still pissed because he couldn't skim every last dollar from the Treasury. There's got to be a better reason. Plus, we're learning Musk had hoped to stay on with the White House as a special government employee beyond 130 days. But apparently the White House didn't accommodate that. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The White House couldn't accommodate that?

That does sound like bullshit. You know, Donald Trump is literally defying court orders as we speak. But with this, he's like, sorry, Elon, rules are rules, you know? If I break Regulation 46C of the Federal Employee Handbook, what separates us from animals? No, Elon Musk got fired.

Now I get why he's mad. It doesn't matter how rich you are. Getting fired sucks. You never totally get over being fired. I got fired from Chuck E. Cheese in 1999. And I still have dreams about going up to the manager and saying, No, Bruce, you're the one that ate pizza scraps instead of throwing them out. Hope you're watching, Bruce. But whatever the reason for Elon's butt pain...

It seems to have opened the floodgates, and now it's giving life to a growing Republican backlash against the bill. What I'm concerned about is they didn't cut enough spending. We've got to have some fiscal sanity here. We're running $2 trillion deficits. We need to try to reduce spending as much as we possibly can. It's hugely concerning to me. This is immoral what us old farts are doing to our young people. This is grotesque what we're doing. Yes, this bill...

is doing to young people is grotesque. Now, it's not as bad as what this bill is doing to young people, but it's still pretty gross. You didn't see that one coming, did you?

In fact, the backlash to the bill is getting so big that even Republicans who already voted for it are backlashing. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even though the Congresswoman voted for the bill in the House, she now says in full transparency that she wasn't aware of a section that would strip states of their ability to regulate artificial intelligence for the next decade. Here's a lesson for us all.

No matter what political party holds office and is in charge, we should all watch carefully the bills that we pass. Yep. No shit. I mean, smart. I mean, congrats on coming out against a crazy thing in this bill, but you weren't aware of what was in it? That's your job. This isn't book club. You can't just read the first seven pages and then be like, I love it. Linda, more rosé. No.

But here's what's really unbelievable about this story. We can shit on MTG, and we will because it's so fun to, but...

She isn't even the only Republican who's admitting she didn't read the whole bill before voting for it. Some voters in Nebraska confronted their congressman, Republican Mike Flood, and he admitted that he voted in favor of the bill without reading a provision that would make it harder for judges to hold parties in contempt for defying court orders. I do not agree with that section that was added to that bill. We don't like the bill!

This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill. Hey, hey, hey, why are you guys booing me? I'm just telling you I didn't do the bare minimum of my job. Feels like you should be applauding me for my honesty. Come on. I know reading a 1,000-page bill is boring. I get it. Reading sucks. I can't even get through the birthday cards my kids give me. I love you so much, blah, blah, blah. Wrap it up already. Wrap it up.

But you gotta read these bills. It's not like a 23andMe terms of service agreement where you can just blindly sign it and now there's a clone of you who's a sex slave for an Uzbek oligarch. Unlike that, these bills are important. Anyway...

At this point, there's basically an open revolt against the bill. And this must really piss off House Speaker Mike Johnson. He's busted his balls for months putting this thing together. And after one tweet from Elon Musk, everybody's turning on it? Don't take that shit, Mike. All right? Tell that pasty, South African, belly-flashing, sperm-fountain, absent baby daddy, friendless, Ziploc bag full of jizz, ketamine, breath.

Ketamine, Rasputin, Deadeye, Deadbeat, Doge Donkey, Hitler waving, Seaton and Distributor. Where he can shove his tweets. Come on! With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big beautiful bill. Oh my God, none of them are good at this. For more on the Republicans backing away from their own big beautiful bill, we go live to Washington with the actual big beautiful bill. Bill. Bill, wow.

These Republicans have some pretty harsh words for you. Well, I have some harsh words for them, Michael. How rude. First of all, they were gassing me up, calling me beautiful. They spent all night passing me. But after they ran me through the house, now they act like they weren't into it? Please. Fuck. Fuck.

Well, to be fair, they're finding out a lot about you. You ban regulations on AI. You allow the president to ignore court orders. You kick millions of people off their health care. They passed me, okay? They're the ones who voted for me without getting to know me. They say they regret it now, but you should have seen them on the House floor. It was wild, okay? They're trying to stuff their amendments into me, all 220 of them. They're screaming, screaming, I have a say, I have a say.

What about your pervs? Okay, okay, but a lot of your amendments were added at the last minute. Not everyone got to read them, like Marjorie Taylor Greene. You say that like she can read.

Marjorie, Marjorie, you sweet, sweet girl. You think you lowered yourself for me? I am so far above you, I can see the Jewish space lasers you love so much. Okay? Sorry if I'm being too honest, but you know me, the BBB, I tell it like it is. I can't really snap, but you get it. Okay, okay. Well, what now? You're going to have to face these people again if you want to become law. I know, I know. I have to be the bigger bill. I...

I'm just done with these f*** boys in the house. You know, I think I'm going to take some time to do some self-care, do some light reading, light reading of myself, and then I'll be ready. I'll be ready to go to the Senate where the mature politicians are. I don't think senators will be any more mature. Yeah, they will. They're all like 95. No, I...

I mean, I don't know if senators are going to read all of you either. Politicians just don't take their job seriously. I know, Michael. They're not responsible like you journalists are. I'm sure you've read all of me, right? Of course. I mean, I'm a professional, aren't I? I wouldn't have talked about the bill for the whole headline without reading it. Of course. Okay, yeah. Okay, then what's your favorite provision? Yeah, without looking at me. The big, beautiful bill, everyone. When we come back, we find out the next generation of sellouts, so don't go away. I mean, I don't...

Welcome back to The Daily Show. Every year, there's more and more reporters in the news media. So to find out who some of them are, we go to Jordan Klepper in our segment, News to Meet You. Ever since President Trump took office, he's been attacking the establishment press harder than Elon's face by his own kids.

And now the Trump administration is welcoming a crop of new media reporters to the White House. In fact, they're not just replacing old media, they're great replacing them. Starting today, this seat in the front of the room, which is usually occupied by the press secretary's staff, will be called the new media seat. We have an individual in our new media seat today. His name is Tim Poole.

Okay! All right! Lovely to meet you, Tim Pool. Uh, a YouTuber and, I'm assuming, former GameStop employee. Now...

His head might be cold, but he's in the hot seats. Let's hear him hold this administration's feet to the fire. Many of these organizations that are represented in this room have marched in lockstep on false narratives, such as the Very Fine People hoax, the Covington smear, and now what's being called the Maryland man hoax. I'm wondering if you could comment on the unprofessional behavior. Wow.

Wow. Now that's a great question. Everyone in this room sucks. Do you care to comment? Okay, okay. So the Trump administration has brought in the perfect weapon. Someone who can attack the media from within the media. He's like a wolf in sheep's clothing if that clothing came from Hot Topic.

You know what? You know what? Looks can be deceiving. If he has White House credentials, I'm sure he brings the dignified, well-sourced positions that we expect from qualified journalists. You've got stories of migrants drilling cats and slaughtering mammals in the street. The left are like, women only get paid 73 cents on the dollar for what a man makes. But at the same time, you have this trend of ladies' nights where at bars, women get discounts when they buy drinks. So spare me, dude. Because of trans issues,

we must refer to the vagina as the front hole. What? I can't believe what my upper side holes are hearing. My middle face hole is agape. My back hole is clenched. Are we all caught up here on how we're doing?

But you know what? This is just how new media talks. If you're offended by that, you're stuck in the old legacy media world and don't understand what an alpha this guy is. He's cool, tough, and you know what? The ladies love him. We're going to end up with a generation of women who view almost all men as inadequate. I think it's crazy that I'm about to be 34 and I have no family. You know what the problem is, though? It's definitely not me. I think it's everybody else.

I'm gonna play this hand blind and say it's definitely you, Tim. Although, in fairness, I'm sure it's hard out there for guys who look like Joe Pesci's Home Alone stunt double. Fair. Okay, fine. Fine.

He's not great at analyzing his love life, but that doesn't mean he isn't great at analyzing the political landscape and telling us not just what's happening, but what's going to happen next. Like the predictions he made about January 6th, two days prior. Newsweek says exclusive threat of pro-Trump violence in Washington overshadows inauguration security plans. Oh, I just love that.

the depravity of these news outlets. When did Trump tweet, go get violent and instigate violence? Trump said, be there. It'll be wild. What does that even mean? I'm having a party. Everybody, you gotta be there. It's gonna be wild. What does that mean? Does that mean we're gonna bring guns and it's gonna be violent? No, it means we're gonna have a party. Yeah! That's right, bro! And you know what they say. It ain't a party until somebody drops a deuce at Nancy Pelosi's desk. Yeah!

Fine, fine. So new media's Tim Pool was wrong about January 6th. He's not a mind reader, even though he dresses like a street magician. Still, still, Tim can promise you this. He brings you the unbiased and unfiltered truth. The news you're getting comes straight from me and straight from the source. I don't have a political agenda. Bringing real news and not narrative to all of you. Exactly. It's truth-to-table journalism.

Immune to propaganda and outside influence, Tim Pool is an honest man who cannot be bought. Popular far-right American influencer Tim Pool, unwittingly paid by Russian state media company RT as part of an operation to influence American politics. Pool promoting pro-Russian narratives on a host of issues. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you saying I shouldn't trust a man who dresses like a divorced ghost hunter? No.

Whoa! Whoa! No!

You know what? These news reports can say whatever they want to say, but I'm sure he's not blatantly shilling for Russia. Ukraine is the enemy of this country. Ukraine is our enemy. Being funded by the Democrats, I will stress again, one of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine. We should rescind all funding and financing, pull out all military support, and we should apologize to Russia. Wow.

Now that is customer service. I mean, come on, Tim. You're better than this. These allegations are true. I'm outraged. You can't be pushing Russian propaganda. It doesn't matter how much they're paying you. A new report claims that during the 2024 campaign, Russian state media funneled $100,000 per episode to Tim Pool. $100,000? F*** me in my front hole. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

All right, all right. So what have we learned here today? We learned that Tim Pool has been compromised by Russian interests. However, the good news is I have not. Give me a call, Vlad. For the right price, this face hole can be all yours. Dasvidaniya, comrades. I'm Jordan Klepper. Good night and seriously, good f***ing night. Thank you, Jordan. When we come back, Leah Lippman will be joining me on the show. Don't go away. Dasvidaniya.

Welcome back to The Royal Show. My guest tonight is a University of Michigan law professor, co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, and author of the New York Times bestseller, Lawless. Please welcome Leah Lipman. ♪♪

These people are so f***ing excited about constitutional law. Thank you for coming on the show. Your book, How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.

Explain vibes to me. OK, so by vibes, I kind of mean feelings and the political talking points of the Republican Party that the justices are laundering into the law or sometimes just declaring to be the law. Yeah. So when they invalidated Joe Biden's student debt relief plan, they announced. Boo. Indeed. They announced they didn't exactly have to follow the law.

like what Congress enacted because student debt relief raised questions that were personal and emotionally charged, i.e., it triggered them. And so that just became the law. Are you saying the Supreme Court can have feelings and is acting on those feelings? I'm saying they are a bunch of snowflakes. Oh, fuck!

There's a lot of that in this, and it is very refreshing to read and hear on your podcast, Strict Scrutiny, hear people just talk shit about the Supreme Court. And is that okay to do that? I think it's more than okay. Okay, tell me why. So one is I wanted to put this in a language that even Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch could understand. So...

needed to make it accessible and whatnot. But second is, I think the Supreme Court is this incredibly powerful and not well understood institution. And I wanted to make information about the Supreme Court accessible. I wanted to energize people to get involved in learning more about the Supreme Court and wanting to do something about it. This audience seems to know a lot about the Supreme Court, but let's assume, let's assume that our viewing audience and maybe even the hosts

needs a refresher on what's actually happening right now in the Supreme Court. And talk to me not like a child. Talk to me like a blob. OK. So here's the basic rule of Supreme Court Fight Club right now. That's a movie. I understand that reference. There you go. OK.

So the basic rule is there is no discrimination against women, racial minorities, gays and lesbians, and trans people, but there is discrimination against white wingers or white right wingers, and that kind of discrimination is everywhere, and it's so prevalent that gives them the right to discriminate against everyone else, but you're not allowed to call it discrimination because that's too mean to them. Right. So that's the...

That's the basic vibe. Yes. Well, look, Roe v. Wade was overturned and we're all reacting. We're all we're all reacting to that. But I wonder, besides just reacting that should we be looking forward and what else could they do?

They could do so much. I mean, I worry that the next several decades might look like a Hunger Games for liberal constitutional democracy. So after abortion, I think they are likely to come after contraception. I think they're likely to come after what remains of the Voting Rights Act.

I think they are likely to come after what remains of campaign finance regulation. And so I think that they are in a position to really undo a lot of what is foundational and important about our current democracy. We're going to talk about what we can do

But I want to keep digging into this and some of the bleakness that exists. And you talk about that in the book. I feel like that's maybe a struggle you've had as an author is like, I have to share with you the bleak shit. And we'll talk about later maybe what we can do. Let's talk a little bit about the 303 creative case. And that was something that...

you illuminate really well. And I think all of us could use a resummary of what exactly happened there and how that case was almost manufactured to get a result that they wanted. Yes. So this is a super wild case where the justices basically feel entitled to create a bunch of rules and indeed to make up cases. So the case really went back to Obergefell versus Hodges, which was the marriage equality decision that invalidated laws that

prohibited marriage licenses for same-sex couples. And in that case, Justices Alito and Thomas and the other Republican appointees threw a hissy fit about how marriage equality was so unfair to people who didn't think that gays and lesbians should be able to get married.

You know, Justice Alito said it would facilitate the marginalization of people with traditional views about marriage and even said it called to mind the harsh treatment of gays and lesbians in the past as if marriage equality was, like, the same thing as not allowing gays and lesbians to get married. But anyways, um, so, uh...

In that case, they said marriage equality is going to facilitate First Amendment violations of those with traditional views about marriage. And so when the justices announced that, they are basically inviting people to file First Amendment challenges to civil rights protections for the LGBT community. And that's what happened.

happened in 303 Creative. There you had this organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom, get involved in this case where they found a website designer that became a wedding website designer that then became a religious wedding website designer who then all of a sudden was very afraid she was going to have to make a wedding website celebrating same-sex weddings. And so that was the case that kind of was sort of before the Supreme Court.

even though she hadn't actually been asked to design a website for a same-sex couple. But why decide the case in front of you when you can just play a little fantasy football? And so in that case, the justices just declared that, well, obviously refusing to make a wedding website for a same-sex couple, that's not discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Right. Okay. I can explain that if you want explain. Yeah. But... I stopped listening like six minutes ago. So, no, no, no. That's not true. That's not true. Well, no, but I mean, this is the challenge of the subject you're in. Yes. This... We as Americans can't tune out. We have to be paying attention. And you said fantasy football, and I thought, did I make my trades this week? No.

Well, if we could trade some Supreme Court justices, that would be great. That would be great. Supreme Court. Let's do that. What level of justice do we lose if we're artificially manufacturing cases?

I think we lose all justice whatsoever because in that case, the justices just declared that some set of people have a right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but we don't know what set of people that is because the case involved an imaginary wedding website designer. And so we don't know exactly what group of people now has, you know, all of their prejudices protected by the Constitution. And so that

case has created this spillover where now a bunch of people are asserting the right to discriminate. Right. Let's switch gears for a second and talk about the code of ethics that either does or does not exist within the Supreme Court. I mean, you have some crazy stuff coming out with Clarence Thomas flying on private jets and yachts and having an RV, a $19,000 Bible owned by Frederick Douglass.

Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were paid $30,000 to teach a two-week course. Over and over, there's all of these things. What exactly is the code of ethics for the Supreme Court? Do they have one? It's a code of, like, non-ethics. So they don't really have an actual code of ethics. They wrote something about themselves. They wrote a non-binding guidance document and then wanted a big party to be thrown for them because they fixed the entire...

problem but then not all of them even abide by that non binding set of principles so basically they just kind of do whatever they want and they feel pretty entitled to be kept men and so this is like what I said in high school that mom and dad I think I should be in charge of my curfew

They just get to make up the rules that apply to themselves as they go along. Are the courts underneath the Supreme Court, is it the same for those courts? No. Those courts actually have some rules that can be enforced against them. But, you know, when you're a Supreme Court justice, they just apparently let you do it, as someone once said, kind of.

You were a clerk at the Supreme Court. I was. I always assumed, as an American, that they were the adults in the room, that this is where things finally ended and justice was served, right or wrong? What's it like in there? I think I know how you're going to answer. Part of the goal of the book is to socialize people in a different picture of the Supreme Court. Yeah.

And, you know, we have a guy taking a literal chainsaw to the federal government in electoral politics. But he's not in the Supreme Court, correct? Well, but here's the thing. He's allegedly doing so on like bladder damaging levels of ketamine. They're doing it stone cold sober. They are just saying you can't have the Clean Power Plan because there's a debate about cleanliness.

climate regulation, you can't have student debt relief because that would be like the French Revolution. And it triggers me. You can't have the Voting Rights Act because that's too popular. And so they're doing the same thing. It's just not getting the same kind of attention. I mean, it almost sounds like we as a society have gotten soft, but also so is our Supreme Court.

I think they have gotten soft. They've also just gotten kind of lazy. Like, they're not even trying. They're in robes all day. I mean, it's kind of like...

They're not even trying anymore. You know, they just declare things to be the law. They make up new made-up theories with new made-up exceptions because why not? You know, with six Republican justices on the court, I think they feel like they have to try a little bit less, especially with Donald Trump taking so much of the attention away from them. I respond really well to your passion and your enthusiasm and your drive

And I wonder where that comes from. Inner rage and inner pettiness is some of it.

But there's something behind that. I had a Candace Parker WNBA basketball champion on yesterday, and I feel the same energy, and I asked her the same question, but I'm curious where it comes from you. Yes, so I grew up in a family where the women in my family spoke very openly about what it was like to grow up in a world where women didn't have control over their own bodies, experienced sexual violence, had to drop out of school, and so seeing that

world come back is very makes me filled with incandescent rage, you know, to hear that I don't get to have rights because apparently it's really hard for some men to live in a world with feminism and women's rights, which is basically what Justice Alito said when he overruled Roe versus Wade. He said, well, that case declared a losing side and a winning side. And it's like, my guy, you literally just described how cases are just

There is a winning side and a losing side. But I guess win. Well, one of it's really fun watching you talk shit to Justice Alito. Listen to it and read about it. All right. All right.

Hey, Sam. I want to try to steer this in a positive and somewhat solution-based conclusion. What can we do? I mean, one of the things you talk about in the conclusion is just start talking about this. When you go to the dog park, don't be afraid to share with people that you think the Supreme Court isn't working right now. What

What else can we do? Yeah, so I do think public information and education is a big part of this. I don't think that the Democratic Party is going to lead on this. So I think we need to build a movement of people who understand what the Supreme Court is and how it has changed and how it is changing the country. More concretely, you know, I actually believe in the power of talking shit and memes. That's part of why

I'm here. But no, like, seriously, these guys are so triggered when they're criticized. And Elon Musk was basically shamed and name-called out of the federal government. So sometimes that stuff works. And I feel like we should try it here, too. Great. Wallace is available now. Leah Littman. We'll be right back after this.

Thank you.

That's our show for tonight. Now here it is, your moment of zen. Let's go back to this Musk Trump thing. This is a bromance that appears to perhaps be buckling a bit. This bromance seems to be coming to a bit of an end. Could it be? Could the bromance be over? A bromance turned a bro off? Is the bromance over now, politically speaking? I think probably the fun candlelight dinner part of the bromance is over, but they're still friends.

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+. Paramount Podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.