The Daily Show: Ears EditionJon Stewart on Conservative Outrage and The Real Cancel Culture | Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr.
Jon Stewart dives into Harrison Butker’s controversial speech, the subsequent Fox News outrage that he's being canceled, and how the real purveyor of cancel culture is Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Plus, co-founder and co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., talks about founding the commission with the goal of representing voters from a nonpartisan perspective, how the media has affected debates over the years, and Trump and Biden’s decision to go around the commission for their upcoming presidential debates.
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What welcome in the Daily Show. I'm in the top short, we got a great job for you tonight. There is so much going on in the world right now.
The President of Iran died in a helipa gopna chrest.
The International Criminal Court is moving towards.
Arrest warrants for bib Net Yao, and Michael Cohen admitted on the stand today he stole money from the Trump organization. Only in a Donald Trump trial, with the star witness be the one who ends up going to jail.
How lucky is Donald Trump? Donald Trump is like a corruption mister Magoo.
He's just stumbling around quid pro quohing metal beams falling all around him.
Gets out completely unscathed.
But forget about all that, because there is one story still with so many unanswered questions. It made its way all the way to the White House Press Corps.
Can you still assume.
That the Kansas City chiefs will be visiting the White House this year in celebration.
Of their total victory.
You confirm is.
The chiefs kicker Harrison Bucker welcome out of his White House?
Butker apparently the Kansas City chiefs Field gold Kicker gave it conservative Catholic commencement speech at a conservative Catholic college. Seems expected. Although we did have a shout out to the ladies.
Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.
Hah, all right, Apparently enjoy the pta, bitches, not the advice you want to hear when you're one hundred thousand dollars in debt earning a degree in electrical engineering.
But I imagine that the cancelation of.
One Harrison Butker was swift and unforgiving at the White House.
What I can say is we invite the entire team, and we do that always.
I don't have anything beyond that. Aha, you woke ARATEI at the Communist Wait, well, I'm sorry, what was that?
What did you do? Still? Go to the White House and be honest? Football team?
And all that's really happened is some people roasted him on TikTok, so, I guess this is just kind of a passing distraction or if you happened to tune into more conservative media.
Major scandal rocking the NFL players in big trouble, not for doing drugs, betting, or beating women, but because he's Christian.
The left seeks to destroy an outspoken NFL Catholic.
He's been docks, he's been slammed, he's still calling for him to be canceled.
Left hates Christian values.
And they will try to denigrate you, isolate you, cancel you, and ultimately silence you completely. But be not afraid.
How can I be not afraid when what you have proffered is so afraidable, by the way, and you're hitting us with that King James sentence structure being not afraid? People only say that when there's shit to be afraid of. Let's say, three to four horsemen. But my question to the right, I guess is have you never been on the internet before?
Because that's all it is. It's just people.
Giving each other shit all the time. I mean, my god, you're all so thin skinned. Look, Jerry Seinfeld took more shit over the past two weeks promoting a pop tart movie that Harrison Butker did for his entire speech, And I ask you people, what is the deal with that?
I'm not doing an impression?
I legitimately would like to know why he's taking so much shit about everything from everybody? And who are these people? It's so hard not to do the voice and who uh these people are?
Now?
It's the Jerry Seinfeld impression is the first thing a Jew learns in kindergarten.
It's not. Of course, nothing about.
The right wing reaction is surprising, because the idea that there is an all pervasive, all powerful threat to free speech called canceled culture has become a central tenet of modern conservatism. They celebrate their being silenced at conferences, They celebrate their being silenced on podcasts and streaming outlets. They celebrate their being silenced with over seven hundred book titles about being canceled.
Why are there so many off these books?
Unless you don't know nobody reads anymore? And by the way, if you already read a war on woke and woke inc, you're really not going to learn anythink from woke warriors. Conservatives have an entire industry devoted to complaining about not being allowed to say the things they say all the time. Their victimhood is the entire brand.
You can no longer say somebody is homeless, You have to say they are unhoused, free phones, food, and clothing. Sounds like a great deal a homeless woman in a Democrat run city.
Acid.
We won't be allowed to say illegal aliens because it'll be hate speech and therefore illegal illegal aliens streaming.
Across our border.
Transagenda's are religion now convert or be canceled? Big Trands has a real knack for making everything about themselves.
Dare to speak your mind about issues like pro life, well your life could be ruined forever. You could be canceled. I'm never going to apologize for being pro life.
How did we get to the point where we can't say all lives matter? As a matter of fact, all lives matter.
All of you still speak? How doesn't the woke mob have cable? But this is their identity now, constant victimization. They say what they want and if you get upset about it, you don't believe in freedom.
I just believe in freedom.
Why are liberals so afraid of freedom and freedom of speech? I don't get outraged if you don't like with somebody saying, oh, you can turn off the TV, turn off a radio dial, turn off a podcast, walk out of a commencement, or you could buy a.
Different beer than bud Light without going into your back swamp and assassinating six times. You're so unbelievable, They're so full of shit that Sean Hannity can say with a square head, I'm not the kind of guy who gets outraged, Sean Hannity, He's basically just a meat bag support system for a forehead vein.
Tonight, every American has a right to be angry and ticked off.
We have a story that will make your blood boil now.
The left is hell bent on banning doctor Seuss, pepe Lepew Dumbo, Peter Panner on the chopping block, sanctimonious sulf righteous, frankly overpaid, lazy, agenda driven liars, when a pompous jack ass do you even know what my job is? What part of this can you get through your thick head? My message tonight to these snowflakes is very simple. You people discussed me, but.
Every snowflake is different. We can't all discuss you. Look, it is absolutely true that in our modern social media driven society, our interactions are incentivized and monetized for outrage, and it is fighting exhausting for everyone. But contrary to your conservative book industry, the outrage isn't just coming from the left. It's coming from the left, the right, for the right, for the left, and the swifties and YA readers and anybody who dares to lift their head up to say finding anything. We are not censored or silenced. We are surrounded by an inundated with more speech than has ever existed in the.
History of communication.
And it is all weaponized by professional outrage hunters of all stripes, scouring the globe for graduation speech snippets, off hand comments during promotional tours, out of context comedy bits, lay marketing ideas, or any words and phrases they believe they can latch onto to generate monetized clicks. Outrage is the engine of our modern media economy. And sometimes someone loses a job or something else happens like that that should never happen.
But but.
I leaned over so far I may never get back up again.
But contrary to conservatives victimization complex, there is no organized cancel culture conspiracy where even the slightest misstep can one hundred percent get someone on the right canceled. Actually there is, Oh, there is one.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney gets kicked out of Wyoming's Republican Party for opposing Trump.
Yeah, as irony would have it, it turns out that when it comes to cancel culture, the ones who smelt it dealt it. There is someone canceling people on the right. But the only one canceling people on the right is Donald Trump. And anyone who dare speak out against him refused to buy into Trump's stolen election claims, and you'll lose your job like Liz Cheney or countless others. In fact, everything the right says cancel culture does to them is actually being done by MAGA.
For example, they will shout you down and try to shut you down as opposed to discuss with you.
Yes, the woke mob shouts you down.
And what happens when you're a Republican and dare criticize the boy king.
That is a failure of leadership.
And I you could boo all you want, but here's the thing.
Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison.
And if we elect.
I know I know.
I know, you know me.
As a person who who says what he thinks, and I don't have the fact that I wasn't a fan of our last president's character issues.
And I'm also another fan.
Show some dad respect Romney, You piece of shit, mother mater.
It's called Claire's look.
I was telling you mother last night, Hickory Dickory doormain, Your mom was fucking a moment.
Oh you like that?
What's what's another hand? I like the party? By the way, what's another thing that the right hates about? Woke? Cancel culture?
Many Americans feel forced to stay silent for fear of upsetting the cancel culture mob.
Yes, that's under cancel culture. You can only speak your truths in private, well denying them in public. For instance, this poor young fella who privately wrote of Trump, He's a demonic force, a destroyer. I hate him passionately, he wrote in private, but of course in public, fearing the cancel mob, he's forced to stand next to his tormentor with what can only be described as the fakest of overlap faces.
Grab b.
But that's cancel culture. It won't let you speak your truth. In fact, it makes you do something even worse.
The left is married to censorship and has nothing else. That's how you get people to believe in alternate reality.
Yeah, the woke mob is so permicious it forces you to deny reality. Like imagine if Trump ever gave a speech about January sixth, where he clearly confuses Nicky Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
Nicki Haley, you know they do.
You know, they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything.
Because of lots of things, Like Nicki Haley is in judge of security.
We offered her ten thousand people.
Now, in a healthy discourse, you would just go, hey, man, you know, everybody brain farts sometimes, you know, whatever it is. But under the Maga cancel culture mob, people like Congresswoman Stephanic have to pretend this was all part of a grand strategy.
That isn't a mix up. The reality is Niki he doesn't speak.
Nicki Haley is relying on Democrats just like Nancy Pelosi to try to have a desperate showing in New Hampshire.
But he was one of about January seven. Strum has not lost his step.
He is a stronger candidate, stronger than he is today than he was in twenty sixteen and he was in twenty twenty.
He is reverse aging, he is stronger, He is Benjamin Batan. He will be our wisest baby president. And by the way, denying in reality still won't save you. There is no level of loyalty deep enough to be free of Trump cancel culture. Rona McDaniel literally dropped Romney from her name to keep Trump happy, and he still fired her. And that Romney name had gotten her into all the hottest clubs in Salt Lake City, Yeah, the ones with lattes. Truth is Trump is the real cancel culture. Emphasis on cult, because on the right you can say whatever the fuck you want about gay people and trans people from TikTok to Patreon. You can decry DEI from podcasts to I don't know the Governor's office of Florida, and chances are not only will you be fine, you'll get a raise, But if you ever dare speak out one iota against Donald Trump, be yes afraid. When we come back, we'll discuss the presidential of the basic plans.
Acco don't go on.
He love about it.
The Talent Show My dad canight.
He is the co founder and co chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Please welcome to the program. Frank Farnkov, let me first of all, welcome you to the show, and explain me very.
Quickly the reason on the Commission for Presidential Debates kind of got blown out of the water.
You guys would run the debates eighty seven that.
The two candidates Trump and Biden, the two main candidates, made their own agreement.
And and kind of cut you guys out of the process. Is that correct?
Well, they're trying to I see. Why would they do that because we're not nice people, I guess, and they.
Seemed so nice.
But why what was the reasoning behind not having it in the way that it's been since eighty seven?
You know it started in eighty seven for a reason.
We were created after two studies, one at Harvard one at the Georgetown not familiarly for the centive, and because there was so many problems with the candidates on both sides over the years. We went sixteen years without any presidential debates because they wouldn't participate.
No one can be forced to debate.
They thought it was through partisan when it was the legal women vite.
That's right, and so we were created.
Paul Kirk was then the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I was President Reagan's chairman of the RNC, and we created the commission and have done them now for well, we've done thirty three over the last thirty six years. And we were created for one purpose, to be in the middle of the candidates, to be representing the people.
Biparties and commission, not non party.
Non partisan ice.
And so at this point in time, with this particular h battle, there's a lot of things unexpected happening, and I don't know what the hell is going to happen.
Is we go forward?
Agreed, so we have to wait and see. Now they agreed, supposedly they've agreed, but now the question is.
There's gonna be one debate on Sanna apparently, and then one other debate. I'm not exactly abc U.
Now the questions that aren't been settled because I hear that the former president today said he won't appear unless a drug test is taken by Biden to show he wasn't hopped up like he allegedly was when he made his speech, you know, the State of the Union speech.
I don't know. I don't think that the prey.
They want Biden drug tested because they think he's trans What what do they think is out of it?
What?
What do they believe?
We believe I guess that that he was hyped up there at when I say speech.
And would Trump then also drug test?
I don't think so, all right?
And the other thing is what's undecided, John, is how do they walk out on the stage, they see.
That these things, they decide where to sit.
Oh, yeah, a lot of things. The mute button.
I put a mute button in four years ago because they weren't obeying the rules that they weren't supposed to talk for two minutes when the others.
I put one of those in my TV and I used it as soon as they started. Let me ask you a question, And perhaps this may not.
What are we missing?
So let's say they don't go with the Presidential Commission and they don't go with what are we really losing? I mean to be perfectly frank, I don't get much substantive out of these debates anyway. The idea that their answers have to be a minute and a half and there's a buzzer, there's a meat.
So that's all been changed. We changed that some time ago.
What happens is the debates ninety minutes are divided into six fifteen minute pods that each answer a question from the moderator for two minutes without interruption, and then the moderator can drill down. It's no of these two minutes, one minute and all the rest like existed a long long time ago. Those are the things we changed. And so you know what they're going to do here. They haven't answered those questions.
But do you believe that those debates were fruitful? Like when I think of the debates between Trump and Hillary, or Trump and Biden or Trump, and let's say, Adore, I didn't necessarily, I didn't find much.
What we do, what we do after each cycle is we go out and ask to the public, did the debates have an effect with any good for you in making this decision? And about sixty five to seventy percent say it's not the only and the most significant factor. But yes, it does play a part. And you know, we look at it in two ways, John, Not only are they answering the questions about issues that are important to the people they want to hear, but you'll learn an awful lot about the personality the attitude of a person, how they conduct themselves in the debates. For example, I think for former president Trump really hurt himself in the first debate last time. I think Al Gore back in nineteen or in two thousand walking across the stage in front of door, so they learned that, isn't that?
I think that's kind of my point, which is if what we take away from it is al Gore side and war rouge, so he shouldn't, so he shouldn't be president, that strikes me as a methodology that is terribly flawed.
Well, you tie that with what the answers to the questions were also on, but no one.
Remembers those and isn't because I think the point is you have this sort of system set up for tradition, but the media has changed so drastically. It's so polarized, it's so sensationalized. They're not looking to accomplish. What maybe the Commission even is looking to accomplish, is that now at.
Odds, what we lose is this number one, We lose the town hall meeting in this situation where there are private citizens who are on the stage and get to ask the president former president whatever questions that's a real big part of this.
We go to campuses we've got.
I mean, there are four schools right now, Texas State, Virginia State, Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, the University of Utah, Salt Lake. They're cramped, they're they're they're working up right now to put on.
What they do.
They teach civics, special civics courses. I mean, there's an awful lot that's done. Those schools really deserve a hand because their whole.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm pretty sure those schools are supposed to be teaching civics. Whether there's a debate or not, I do think we should give them applause, like Utah is teaching physics and civics.
And uh, I guess my worry is we have this.
Are we clinging to an institution that nobody is particularly satisfied with, whether they think the moderators are to partisan, whether they think the rules are too archaic or too steeped in Roberts rules of order, and we're not working hard enough to design a system that will help our democracy flourish rather than just become sensationalistic.
Fact.
I think that that is a criticism that's been there, but we have changed what we do now. Wasn't what happened when we how we did it back when it started, or how it was done before us. Just dividing, in fact, the ninety minutes in the six months, monitoring.
An audience seems to me a way of dispelling a little bit of the theatrical nature.
But do you know that was both parties, both candidates and said, well, at our debates there were people are booing, and those are.
The primary debates. We have nothing to do with the primary debates.
In our debates. You can go back and look at all thirty three of them. Very few times do you even hear that there's an audience. They may laugh if something funny you said, the ticket said you're not allowed to make a noise. If so, the Secret Service is going to come and drag you out.
So they've been pretty good. They've been pretty good.
Silver Service really dragged people out for making noise. Yes, yes, I don't think you're making the case for democracy anect. I think you're finding yourself in all.
Right, Well, John, we're not perfect understood.
I'm starting to get that sense.
How does the the Commission regain its footing or is it out of the barn?
And that's the end.
We say this as I said, we were.
We were started so that we could provide the middle down the middle for the public. If these two candidates.
Clowns, no, well you know you started with that and switched.
But if they're successful, if they do this and it works out and so that people sitting at home and watching on television have have learned something, we'll salute them.
We'll salute them now. Whether that doesn't mean we're not ever going to come back.
But if they crash, which they may still because a lot of things have to figure, we're gonna be there. We're gonna be there until we know for sure, we'll be there to pick.
Up the pieces.
This is one of the situations where you say to the debate, people will be there when you fall, and.
I remember that, yes, you will fall.
All right, Frank Praier, Cup, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna take the whole break that is, don't chalk for tonight.
Before we go, we're gonna check in with your host for the rest of this week, mister Michael Costa.
Michael gout, everybody, Michael Cup, I'm what are you doing here, Jordan.
I mean, we're trying to let people know Michael cost is hosting for.
The rest of the week.
The rest of the week, that's like a million years from now. Let me tell you what's happening. Minutes from now, my special Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse Moscow Tools will be airing.
Right after this.
Let me tell you it's hilarious Data Informative award winning Probably. I mean I went to Estonia. I interviewed the Prime Minister. So you enjoy your little hosting week.
Okay, well, look I plan on it because while you're off jet setting to the tropical paradise in sunny Estonia, some of us me we're.
Pulling all nighters at the office preparing for the rest of the week. You were pulling all laters. You think John can hear me right now?
I mean maybe, Frankly, I don't know how old people's ears are.
Well then yes, yes, but not to prepare for the show. I actually stayed up all night in mining crypto.
It's cheaper if I use the studio's power supply's very much use.
Hey, good job, guys, Maybe somebody thank you stay tell.
For joining Stock shows kind Up Next and The Daily Show week I'm the pasta here.
It is a moment, is that when I'm in New York, the amount of people that show support is actually cuge, but they do it like this, like it's like a thumbs up, like hit it under their jacket, like so that no one else could possibly see.
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