
Jon Stewart on Trump's Botched Tariff Rollout & Market Meltdown | Rahm Emanuel
Jon Stewart on the fallout from Trump's tariffs, a stock market in a near-recession free fall, and the GOP's spin of the economic turmoil as "no biggie."
Rahm Emanuel, former ambassador to Japan under Biden and a current advisor at investment-banking firm Centerview Partners, joins Jon Stewart to talk about the United States’ international trade predicament in the wake of Trump’s tariffs. They discuss why it’s one of the most “reckless” things done by a president, why he thinks these policies gave China a “get-out-of-jail-free” card, his experience under the Obama administration, and why he believes a Democratic governor could be the one to turn the party around.
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We were getting where we couldn't pay the bill. PG&E asked customers about their biggest concerns so we could address them one by one.
That's terrifying. That's fair.
Joe, Regional Vice President, PG&E.
We have to run the business in a way that keeps people safe, but it starts driving costs down.
I would love to see that.
We're on our way.
I hope so.
PG&E electricity rates are now lower than they were last year.
Hear what other customers have to say and what PG&E is doing about it at pge.com slash open dash lines.
You're listening to Comedy Central.
From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news.
This is The Daily Show with your host, John Stewart. Hey! Nice to see you.
Say, say, say.
We've got a good one for you tonight.
I'm sorry.
I was just... I was just...
I was just putting...
No, stop.
Say, say, say.
We got you.
Can I tell you something?
And I mean this sincerely.
Ever since we started spraying the audience with cocaine before the show. Welcome to The Daily Show.
My name is Jon Stewart. Great show for tonight.
Rahm Emanuel will be joining me later to remind me. He'll be out here.
Reminding me just which one of the three brothers he is again. I don't know.
See the one that owns UFC? Does it matter at this point? But that is later. First, as you know, our economy...
Our economy is in the midst of a beautiful metamorphosis turning from a simple caterpillar into a dead caterpillar so let's get into it with another exciting installment of Trade Wars.
My favorite word.
My favorite word.
Tariffs.
No.
Tariffs.
Now you might remember when Donald Trump was reelected,
Wall Street was thrilled, excited about deregulation, tax cuts, and the fact that you could once again call people sugar tits. One top banker told the paper that he feels liberated because now he can use offensive slurs like the R word and the P word without fear of getting canceled at work.
Hmm. The R word and the P would.
Well, I can tell you today that that top banker is definitely using both of those words. Perhaps even adding motherfucker right now.
The market meltdown. For the third straight day, global markets are sinking.
Markets across Asia, Europe and Australia plunging. At one point this morning, the Dow sinking almost 1,600 points.
The markets lost more than $6.5 trillion in value.
This is an economic armageddon what are we doing here pull but they pull you in from the pool Either Financial Channel's Rodney Dangerfield or something? I told my wife about the stock plunge. She said, oh, I thought you guys would never go down there.
Haven't done that one in a while. This turmoil could have lasting effects on the global economy, on everyday Americans, and most worryingly, the stock portfolios of members of Congress.
Mr. President, now is the time to soothe a worried nation.
Donald Trump put this out on social media.
Don't be weak. Don't be stupid.
Don't be a panicking, which he has termed a new party based on weak and stupid people. Panicking? Panicking? the genius who gave us classics like sleepy joe and crooked hillary just shit out you're a panic How about hysterocrats?
Rapussicans?
How about cryocrats? Rapussikins? How about cryontologists?
Did the overseas factory you had been sourcing your nicknames from
get shut down during the terror court?
So we're going to try this again, Mr. President.
Can you ease the fears of this nation like a true leader?
President Trump holding firm, posting on True Social, only the weak will fail. What are you doing? Your economic policy has the same tagline as season three of Squid Game? It's supposed to make us feel better? Only the weak shall die in my economy.
By the way, in case you didn't get the point that he doesn't give a f***, he spent the weekend showing, not telling. He played not a round of golf this weekend, a tournament of golf, a three-day tournament.
812 holes of golf with his live golf Saudi benefactors.
And in case you're wondering about the venerated journalists who are now allowed to be in the press pool,
this was literally the first question he was asked on Air Force One in the middle of a financial meltdown.
How was the best for the men? Very good. Because I won.
It's good to win. You heard I won.
Did you hear I won? Because I won. You heard I won.
You heard I won. I won You heard I won, I won Mom, Mom I won Mom I won the tournament, Mom I'm a good boy Good boy, good golf I know the stock market is not the totality of the economy, but if I remember correctly, in the run-up to the election, Trump seemed very concerned about the stock market.
If Harris wins this election, the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression. And anything she can do, I can do better.
I can do it on my own. I won, Mom.
Hey, Mom. Hey, Mom, look.
Hey, Mom, look, no economy. Please love me.
And it didn't have to happen like this.
Trump had so many options to shape the world economy
into the one he thought was fairer.
He could have proposed some incentives
to bring back manufacturing.
He could have gone sector to sector,
nation to nation,
negotiate better trade reciprocal agreements.
But he had to go to full Teresa.
Who the f*** are you, Dick?
What the f*** are you, Dick?
What the f*** are you, Dick? What the f*** are you, Dick? to go to full Teresa. Now, to be fair, to be fair, to be fair to the Trump administration, they did give it almost two months and no effort before they asked chat GPT what it thought they should do.
But for those of us who've been tricked into believing that an economic crisis is a crisis, Trump's people have
an answer. Don't panic.
Calm down. Everything's going to be OK.
I would not worry at all. The
Dow is actually in the same place it was in August. Do me a favor.
Don't look at your stock
portfolio. You know what? I don't really care about my 401k.
Live, laugh, love.
That's what I always say.
You know what I say to all you?
It's 401k somewhere. And when did the right become so chill? Aren't you the Bud Lights turning my kids trans, folks? But economic meltdown and you're getting all philosophical? Losing money nothing this is just the reality of life you're gonna like were you young young and dumb how much money did you lose everyone loses money everyone loses money it costs you nothing except money Losing money costs you money.
It's the definition of losing money. And I know you go, well, it's going to be worth it to get the character of the country that we want back again.
But we have no f***ing idea if that's actually what's going to happen. You're all acting like the tariff regime is a tried and true remedy.
Oh, of course, this is the medicine that's always prescribed. Except the last time it was tried 100 years ago, we had a Great Depression.
So how does this work? It's just a big game of economic operation as he's sticking things in, trying to take out tariffs. It's like, you know, when you're my age, you got to get a colonoscopy.
You need a full colonic, like, to be, feel better.
You know what I mean?
Rat poison can kill somebody in the wrong dosages,
but in the right dosages, that can be very healthy for the patient.
So everyone relax.
This is merely a routine rat poison colonoscopy. By the way, what's the right dosage of rat poison? Oh, if you get enough of it, hey, your headache will be gone.
And by the way, I mean, it's slightly off topic,
but the colonoscopy guy,
his name is John Tobacco?
That's a witness protection thing,
isn't it?
So here's how it's going to go.
Your new name is John Tobacco. Say it back to me.
John Tob. Your new name is John Tobacco.
Say it back to me. John Tobacco.
Your name is John Tobacco. Say it back to me.
John Tobacco. Your new profession is you do anus metaphors on Newsmax.
Your name is John Tobacco. You do anus metaphors.
Say it back to me. Say it back to me.
By the way, If Trump wants us to stay the course with his radical plan, you might want to think of a strategy that inspires our confidence that you all know what you're doing. Like, for instance, these tariffs.
Is this a negotiation? The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation. Let me make this very clear.
This is not a negotiation.
This is not that.
This is a national emergency.
Okay, it's a national emergency.
It's not a negotiation.
Well, I don't agree, but at least I have some clarity now.
The tariffs give us great power to negotiate.
Always have. So much rat poison.
So is this a negotiation or is this permanent? It can both be true.
There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations.
How much White Lotus did you people watch?
What is permanence in this negotiated life we live? Have a pina colada. Forget about if they're permanent or not permanent.
What are we doing? How will this bring jobs back? What are these jobs? Commerce Secretary Lutnick. Trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built in America.
The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones.
That kind of thing is develop the dexterity. I can't even get the lint out of the charging area on my phone.
Now I got to do... Those are the jobs? That kind of thing is going to come to America.
It's going to be automated. And great Americans, the tradecraft of America, is going to fix them.
Mechanics fixing robotics. That's what's coming to America.
so it's not the screws we're gonna be robot mechanics the robots do the screwing and we're just there to make sure the robots are lubed and ready to screw that is the american renaissance we are robot fluffers we are we are waiting this is all so if i'm an american manufacturer how long do these onerous tariffs have to stay in place to convince me to build my army of automated screw and robot mechanics? They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. John Stewart from Popular Robot Mechanics.
I've never built a fully automated robot factory before, but is days and weeks
enough? robot mechanics. I've never built a fully automated robot factory before, but is days and weeks enough time? Or too much time? Feels like it would take a month.
Well, I guess that's silver lining number one of this trade war. Want something even more underwhelming? Here's the Treasury Secretary on if we've heard the good news on the stock collapse.
One thing that I can tell you as the Treasury Secretary, what I've been very impressed with is the market infrastructure that we had record volume on Friday and every everything is working very smoothly. So the American people, they very take great comfort in that blink twice if you want to be saved I was very impressed that in the market crash, the building is still standing.
You know, I was very impressed by the way that the Titanic just slid into the water. Almost like it was taking a bath.
Just dipping a toe. Those drownings should take great comfort in the lack of backsplash.
But their best argument so far for any of this is the same one that we got about Tinkerbell. Being able to fly.
You have to believe. Don't panic, okay? You've got a president who understands business.
I am grateful for a commander-in-chief that has the business acumen luckily we have a businessman in the white house right now the president did write the book the art of the deal trump is a master uh you know negotiator and he does know the art of the deal we're supposed to trust this guy because he wrote the art of the deal that's it you ever say i got the book i got the book art of the deal that's why we're supposed to trust him. You ever look at chapter nine in Art of the Deal?
It's about how smart Trump is about his casino in Atlantic City.
Oh, oh, yeah.
Chapter nine.
I built a casino in Atlantic City.
I'm a business genius.
Whatever happened to the casino, Donald? Trust me. Look, you make a big announcement, but your reciprocal tariff formula was just the trade deficit divided by imports equation.
And when you got busted on that, you threw out this ridiculous calculus problem that's just shapes.
It boils down to the trade deficit divided by imports, which is the formula that got the rich country of Lesotho hit with 50 percent tariffs. Lesotho.
No, your free ride's over, you denim making fat cats. but we continue to blame everybody else in the world that we designed and policed after world
war ii're the richest country in the world ever. We're not the world's victims.
If we have inequalities in this country, that's on us. It's not a supply problem.
It's not unfair trade for the most part.
It's an investment and distribution problem.
It's our f***ing fault.
And I'm not saying we can't make adjustments and renegotiate things,
but it didn't have to be this reckless.
You killed the hostage and then went, so ransom?
Some of the biggest stock market declines since the Great Depression. The worst three consecutive sessions since 1987.
Even worse than it was during the 2008 financial crisis. Their worst day since June 2020 during the COVID pandemic.
Financial destruction not seen since the pandemic. And this time, there's no controversy over how it all started.
There's no wet market.
You, Trump, released the contagion.
It's your lab leak.
And it's right out in the open.
This is like if the researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
walked out to the Great Lawn with a Tupperware and went, we have an exciting announcement. When we come back, Rob Emanuel will join us.
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Let's go. Thank you.
We were getting where we couldn't pay the bill. PG&E asked customers about their biggest concerns so we could address them one by one.
That's terrifying.
That's fair.
Joe, Regional Vice President, PG&E.
We have to run the business in a way that keeps people safe, but it starts driving costs down.
I would love to see that.
We're on our way.
I hope so.
PG&E electricity rates are now lower than they were last year.
Hear what other customers have to say and what PG&E is doing about it at pge.com slash open dash lines. I guess tonight, former two-term mayor of Chicago,
he has worked for three Democratic presidents,
served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under Joseph Biden.
Please welcome to the program, Rahm Emanuel. Sorry.
What's happening? You were back. You were in Japan.
Yes. As the ambassador.
And it's still an ally. Until a week ago.
I was going to say, check your phone. Then you come back, and you recently just took a new job.
What's your new job? Well, I'm doing daily show Writing What's your job? Yeah, I'm working for Centerview And I do write for the Washington Post And I'm on CNN I thought you worked at an investment bank Yeah, Centerview Oh, Centerview How's that going? I'm out there with a takeout. When did you join? About a month ago.
And when you got there, let me ask you a question. When you got there, how was it going? Well, there's a six-letter word that a lot of people are saying lately.
What's that? Tariffs. Yeah, tariffs.
Was this a completely unexpected... I mean, he's been talking about tariffs forever.
It seems like... Did your bank set aside anything for it? Did they know this was coming? Did they put...
Is there a basement where they keep things? Cash? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, here is... I'm going to breathe calmly.
Don't panic, because everything's going to be fine. Yeah.
11 weeks and $11 trillion. Out the window.
Arrivederci. Shalom Aleichem.
Whoa. Yeah, bon voyage.
Look at you. Yeah.
And we only have 200 more weeks to go. Right.
Yeah. A trillion a week? Yeah, say so what could go wrong yeah he takes it very easy yeah is this the the colonic that we need in your mind yeah let me let me try to help you John please yeah so I mean I'm sure I have a Elon Musk measure.
What does that mean?
How many kids do you have?
What does that mean? Yeah. So, I mean, I'm just very, I have a Elon Musk measure.
What does that mean? How many kids do you have? What does that mean? This is supposed to be a manufacturing renaissance. A manufacturing is going to come back.
Screws next to Apple phones, as you said. No, no, no, no, no.
We're robots. Butts.
Elon Musk has a 20,000-person factory in Shanghai,
a 12,000- factory in Shanghai, a 12,000 person factory in Berlin. When those get repurposed back in the United States, this is an incredible success.
Until that time, it's an absolute failure. And what is really, I mean, on a serious note, also driving me absolutely crazy.
We had China isolated. We had the whole world angry at China for exporting and destroying their economies.
And we were going to be their hope and dream. We worked on getting Japan and Korea to align with the United States, isolate China.
Now they're working their own economic deal and we're isolated. It's really the most.
Japan and South Korea are working there. Working out with China.
But don't we all... Doesn't everybody trade with everybody? Yes, but they were actually number one foreign investor in the United States.
Japan. A million Americans work for them.
One of the biggest manufacturing countries that support manufacturing in the United States. Japan.
It's the most reckless thing done by a president. I mean, there is natural disasters, human disasters.
There's lightning, creates a fire. There's arson that creates a fire.
This is arsonist. Right.
But don't you think this is his MO? I'm going to tell you a story. This is really the wrong direction to go in, but I'm going to do it anyway.
You look like you're taking... I'm thinking how I can do this.
I was going to bring some Excedrin for you.
Excedrin? What is this,
the 40s?
Give you an Excedrin and a
Paul Mall and you'll be fine.
Oh, you're lucky. For God's sakes.
I can give you some McKinley juice.
Here we go. Oh, don't do that.
So, I had a dog
and the dog would go
outside and he would
eat whatever he could find outside
Thank you. Here we go.
Oh, don't do that. So I had a dog, and the dog would go outside, and he would eat whatever he could find outside, and generally things that a dog shouldn't eat.
I'm worried where this is going. He comes back into the house.
Everything's fine. And you would go home.
In the middle of the night, he would wake up, and he would vomit on the bed. I would turn the light on, and I would look to try and go get stuff to clean it.
Then he would eat the vomit and then look at me and go, I did good, right? Do you see what I'm saying? Isn't that what this is? Trump, I guarantee you, here's what's going to happen. Trump is going to announce he's going to eat the vomit and look at the country and go, huh? He's giving China a get out of jail card.
They were in the doghouse with everybody. They were isolating.
They were destroying steel plants in Chile. They were destroying steel plants in South Africa.
But they had Belt and Road. They were making tons of relationships with people.
But they were also exporting all their economic problems domestic all over the world. Yes.
And they had a lot. Herding manufacturing in Malaysia.
All over the world. Yes, yes, yes.
And they were isolated. And they were becoming a problem for everybody.
We're going to be the safe haven. We've now become the problem.
We've given them a get out of jail card. This is, listen, the way I look at it, March Madness used to be about basketball.
Right. Now it's about the Trump administration.
Right. You used to do brackets.
Now you do 401ks. And you used to do portfolios.
I've never seen anything. I got to tell you, I like my dog vomit metaphor much better than yours.
I feel like mine was very direct. No, no, no.
Yours? No. Now I'm thinking about seating and everything else.
I'm telling you, I've literally. He's going to announce.
The only thing that I can say good about this is you see all these CEOs on the shows that are all now like, this is crazy, this is insane. I'm going to say, Schmuck, what took you so long? I mean, I cannot believe all these guys running around.
Oh, it's the largest tax increase in American history. Thank God for the American people.
They think this is horrible. He says,'t you listen to his people they're all his people i'm talking about the american people not his people it's totally different no no no no no no no no no that's god no this is the wrong way to look at this this is his people are literally they're like grasping the english language is down to four words yes sir mr president his His people were the majority of the voters in this country.
I used to, I worked for three presidents. I used to be 6'2".
I'm now only 5'8". Your job is to go in the Oval Office and tell them, you're out of your mind.
These guys, yes, and they go off and they repeat all this crap on TV. You know, Ludnick, the Secretary of Commerce, he makes a used car salesman look like a decent guy.
I've never seen anything like this.
Let me tell you this, and from your whole rant there, no way you're 5'8". There's no way.
No way.
There's no way.
I am...
I'm 5'7", and I could dunk on you.
Come on, let's go.
Let's go.
There's no way. Yeah, I'm taller.
Taller. I got...
No, no, not a chance. So listen to this.
I play Jewish basketball. It's 5'8".
Jewish basketball, that's Wilt Chamberlain. Trump is going to say what he's going to do is go, I just made a deal.
He did the same thing the last time. China just said they're going to buy all our pork and all our soybeans.
It's the best deal anybody's ever made. They don't actually ever do it.
Nobody ever checks on it. But why, even if you wanted to renegotiate our trade agreements or create a fair system or whatever it is you want to do, why would you do it such a reckless fashion all right i want to go ahead to your first point please he the in your book here the art of the deal he is the worst negotiator china never bought anything they took him to cleaner north korea never agreed to anything the he negotiated the trade deal with canada and mexico and then he just blew blew it up he's blowing up his own deal yeah he.
He is not a good negotiator. The only part, when you claim you're a good negotiator, it's if you cover up the fact that you're a horrible negotiator.
You could have done this seven different ways he picked the eighth way. Right.
And it's, the problem is not just, and you are right, he's going to say after Japan or after Israel, I got this deal, and he's going to try to calm the markets down. But the fact is the damage to America, nobody will ever trust us.
In eight weeks, he's destroyed 80 years of reputation that America built, all of us collectively, all through all the battles. He has destroyed it.
And just like your dog, he threw up on the bed. That was my point.
That was the point of the whole story. Did you miss the point of the whole story? That was my point.
But I wanted to say it my way, and I feel better for being here. Thank you, John.
Did you think I just brought that up randomly? No, that was... Now, let's do the other side of the coin.
Okay.
Democratic policy has led us, in some measure, to this moment.
No, no doubt about it.
Here's the... We got to own this.
Here's the fact, which is we disappointed the country.
Now, they will stab you in the back.
We will disappoint you.
And that's just down to where it is.
And you get to pick as the American people.
That's the truth.
I'm sorry. the country.
Now, they will stab you in the back. We will disappoint you.
And that's just down to where it is.
And you get to pick as the American people.
That's the choice.
That's the good news now.
And here's the deal.
Didn't you want to be the DNC chair?
That is a terrible
bumper sticker.
No, you ask me.
People disappoint you.
We got to be honest.
When you make a mistake, you got to be honest. When you make a
mistake, you got to own it. And that's the only way to, and here, and here, and here, no, here's, and here's what it is.
Yeah. We were just talking earlier.
Yes. The Stewart kids and the Amaliyah kids, they're going to be good.
Loving home, good education. And the American dream, they're going to get a shot at it, which is a deal.
But in fact, out of Washington, the American people haven't gotten the shot. They've gotten the shaft.
And what happened is trying to own a home, trying to basically save for your retirement, save your kids' education and health care so you're not in the poor house one sickness away. People are missing medications.
Kids are coming home from college. They're living in the basement.
And the American dream is good for only about 10% of the kids. That's not how we keep score.
And we are responsible for not keeping faith with that. But in saying all that, then, can't you understand why a percentage of the population would be like, burn it down? No.
I don't care. Here's my thing.
Here's my thing. More than that, because of what happened both in Iraq war, what happened in the financial meltdown, the American people lost their lives, their livelihood, and the elite let them down.
There is no doubt that they're right to be angry. I have no problem with some of the people that make up the MAGA.
They have a right to be angry because the elite lost faith with them. What I have is all these other executives who've lived large on America, who allow a president to run roughshod over the law, who run roughshod over America.
They have no right to that. But that's not owning the Democratic failure.
That's, again, placing it to. So let's stay with it.
The Democrats have a responsibility for what they have done with losing faith. You can't let Peoria, Youngstown.
You can't let parts of Wisconsin, La Crosse. But we did.
No, we did. And that's why the first thing, sorry.
we owe you. No, we do.
You have to get clean with people, own what we did wrong, and worst case scenario, we then get sidetracked into side issues rather than the main cause, which is the American dream. So how would Democrats bring that back? The American dream is unaffordable.
Right. It's inaccessible.
Yes. And that should be unacceptable to us.
And then number two, what you have to do is right now is a deal with the fundamentals. OK, no part of America is off from being invested or invested in.
You've got to make sure every American has a chance at the American dream, which means it starts first and foremost with education. Oh, Rob.
Even when we did. Wait a second, hold on.
No, don't. No, no, wait a second.
I've got one. I've got to own that.
OK, number two, you own with the fact is you've got to invest in this country. And we did not do that.
We basically let Americans and let the Chinese eat their lunch. And that's not fair.
But even when they did it, I was talking to Ezra Klein. We were talking about rural broadband.
Billions of dollars invested in rural broadband. There was a 14-point plan to get companies to the starting line to go to build.
Out of all the companies that jumped in there. Everybody dropped out but three.
Nobody got to the starting line by the time their administration was over. They invested in green technology.
They didn't build the electric charging stations. How can you go out there and say we need to raise taxes and money when people don't believe that you're going to spend it? Like, here's what's so upsetting about all of this.
Trump is great at diagnosing the problem. Doge is great at telling you we need efficiency.
I think the way they go about it is actually haphazard, cruel, reckless, doesn't fix the problem. But they're not wrong in the diagnosis.
Yeah, you pointed out, and I have no... I agree with you 100% of what we literally did all the...
Passing the legislation should be hard, not actually getting the resource out. On the other hand, let me give you one reverse.
Can I ask you... Is this about a dog? No.
It's about when the auto industry was on their back, and they literally i remember as the chief of staff for president obama right and we got a notice that there's six weeks left before chrysler and gm are belly up and thousands of jobs and thousands of communities were on their back the united states came in and saved it and our auto industry came back so in fact there is moments you can point to you can't get a charging station you go. You go, wait a second.
Yeah, but even that. I'm not saying, look.
But let's talk about 2008 for a second. We did bail out corporations.
Yes. But people, homeowners, who went under, they lost everything.
You're looking at the guy, you're looking at the guy 100%. It's hard for me to go like, oh, good.
We saved GM when all the guys that work at GM lost their f***ing houses. You're looking at the guy.
Well, that's actually cheap. That's not actually true.
GM jobs got saved rather than go back. Some people were out here for that.
But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, well, yes, but you're not totally accurate.
This may be the last time I'm asked on the show. Not at all.
But on the second thing, here's the thing. We did do, and we saved the auto industry
from going under.
And the second thing is
on that part,
and somebody
who was in the White House
had advocated
for Old Testament justice
on bankers
because they should have been
put into the public square
and literally had
the crap beat out of them
because they were asking
for bonuses
when people were losing
their homes.
And I...
Hey!
No.
Wait. That's what you argue in the Oval Office? No, no.
They're all like, what should we do about the thing? And they're like, beat them! Whip them! Actually, to be all fairness, it wasn't the Oval Office. Put them in a stockade! It wasn't the Oval Office.
It was in the Roosevelt Room. Yeah, they should be beaten up because they're sitting there asking for their bonuses as if they earned a bonus when people lost their homes their livelihood and their life savings that's right and that is where we lost faith in the iraq war which is built on deception the liar's loan that lost people their homes it was built on deception and then you got covid coming around and the democrats sat around and acted like they were do you ever watch what this president is doing and think because you did i.
I do, but I put it on mute. Stop.
You're in the Oval Office. You're watching him do all these different things.
Do you ever think, because President Obama, and this is what he used to yell at me about. I used to have to, I don't know if you were there when I used to have to go down there and he would yell at me for a while.
I was the one that called you. Oh, okay.
When he was with you, I got free time and I actually got the work on him. Oh, that true? Yeah.
All right. So do you watch what this president does in terms of at least the boldness of it, not what he's doing, and think, why didn't we push the edge and get the things that we thought, rather than getting, if we ran on the audacity of hope, why did we govern on the possible?
Is that something?
Well, the answer is in the Talmudic way,
yes and no. And I'll tell you why.
No, yes, I was like...
No, no, I feel like...
Don't ever say that again.
Okay, I'll have to give you...
I understand.
This hand. I understand.
I understand. I know.
Here's the thing. I like sometimes...
I literally... I set up a blind trust.
You look at these people. They're literally trading.
They're setting up Bitcoin. I'm like, we were schmucks.
We were idiots for doing this. On the other hand, nobody had ever had an ethics problem in the Obama White House.
We did follow the rules of law. America was respected around the world.
And we did create jobs. So did we follow it and say, oh, we should have done it audaciously like this and break over? No, because as many...
What would you have done, though, if you could? Oh, that's going to... We have to do three more shows.
No, but I say, on the defense of President Obama... It's not even an accusation.
He said, you know, my presidency is a marathon,
and I hand over the baton to somebody else to pick up. I actually think he left America better than the one he inherited from President Bush in a whole host of ways.
I don't agree with everything. And then you look at this, no, I don't wish we did this.
And I'm glad we didn't do this. Was it constraining? Yes.
But leaving here, literally walking around saying, huh, that will be a recession. What do you need a 401k for? No.
And then I don't mean to push things in a way that didn't follow. Well, somebody who pushed a number of people.
Yes. That's why I'm asking you this question.
There are things there's no doubt, like what they're about to do. Let's take this on the budget and say, well, five trillion dollars in the tax.
That doesn't cost anything.
Well, I'm sorry.
Any kid in third grade math, even post-COVID knows what $5 trillion does call. Okay? I mean, give me a break.
So when they sit there and do all this, they got it, you didn't get it. I mean, I...
I got it. I'm just adding up, how many Americans you've called stupid tonight? tonight.
I'm just going through the list. I start off with the children.
I want the bankers beaten. I want the dumb children removed.
Now, wait a second. I think the American people agree with me about bankers getting beaten.
No, they're not vigilantes. No, it's a cheap high.
I know, but I'm only here for 20 minutes so it feels pretty good we need okay but here's no the thing is do i feel like i could back to your original question do i feel like we should have done certain things like this yeah but that for a guy uh i believe in the end of the day following the rules playing by the rules is better for the country than ultimately ultimately, also at the time. There are definitely frustrating things.
There are things that I look. What I will say this is you look at like what they did on the courts and how they stacked them versus we kind of the way we did it in the sense of the process, full background checked, et cetera.
You could push. You could no doubt push that much harder and much faster.
No doubt about it. And so if you were going to, we'll leave it at this.
Final advice, you're a guy that's been in the Oval Office a few times. The Democrats are in the wilderness.
I'm assuming that whoever is going to be the next leader of the Democratic Party is going to come from the wilderness like it usually does. Clinton came out of nowhere.
Obama came out of nowhere. Generally, the successful ones, even Jimmy Carter, come out of nowhere.
Who's the next? Who's the next? And what would you want them to be? Not, no, here's what I would, on a serious note, I do want them. I want them not part of Washington.
I want them to have governed. I want them to be a true change agent.
And I want them to understand one thing.
The biggest thing we have to do is restore the credibility and trust with the American people.
Competence.
It's more than competence.
Competence counts, but that's not what keeps you up.
The fair deal, the new deal, the new frontier was not about competence.
It was about having a vision in America, holding America to that North Star.
Give me three people that you would call on
to write that vision, to have that vision,
to help you with that vision,
to be that vision.
Three?
Three.
Okay.
I got six for you.
Okay.
Okay.
Here, hold on.
Let me give you...
I'm writing it down.
You got it?
You want this one?
It's better. It's a little better than that one.
Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Here, hold on.
Let me give you this. I'm writing it down.
You got it? You want this one? It's better.
It's a little better than that one.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Hey, John, your dog was playing with that beforehand.
Oh, that's good.
All right.
Okay.
Six.
Okay.
Governor of Pennsylvania.
Shapiro.
You're just talking about the...
Yeah, you asked me who...
But these are the usual...
Okay, so you're saying it's going to come from the Shapiro...
Well, they're the governor.
They're the governor.
Bashir, Whitmer, Gavin Newsom...
The one constant in American history...
Yeah.
...is governors have been the most likely to make it to Washington
because they bring change.
Both parties, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton.
You go there, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Governors are your most likely change.
Would you give a Mark Cuban a shot, somebody like that? Totally out of the box? No. No, I wouldn't, because I think that you actually have to have, you know, the currency you work on in politics is politics.
And if you don't have experience in it, no. And I do think governors bring change.
People that have understand. But the most important thing to me is, can you articulate that vision that takes America out of this wilderness to a better place, to a better thing? Because when you're done with this, it's going to be a lot of carnage.
Young man. Well, I'm a man here.
We're going to take a break. We'll be right back after this.
Do you see, though, the people in the same place? That's our show for tonight.
But before we go, we're going to check in with your host for the rest of the week.
Desi Light and Desi!
What's up there?
What's happening?
It's going down this week.
Oh, big science news, John.
Just this week, researchers using fossilized DNA have brought back dire wolves from extinction.
Very exciting.
Aren't those the Game of Thrones wolves?
The dire...
That does sound a little risky.
Oh, does it?
Does it sound a little risky?
Oh.
I don't want giant dire wolves or a T-Rex with guns for arms.
Only the weak will fail, John.
I'm not weak.
I don't...
I actually...
I don't want a T-Rex with guns for arms.
I don't want that.
Wow, you're being a real P-word, John. P-panic hand? You're being two P-words, John.
Fair enough. Desi Lydic, everybody.
Here it is. Your moment is in.
The Dodgers faced down adversity. You entered the playoffs battered and bruised, but not broken.
When you ran out the healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy.
They had great arms, but they ran out.
It's called sports.
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