The Daily Show: Ears EditionTrump Blames Plane Crash on DEI, Lewis Black on Dry January | Vince Beiser
Michael Kosta on the tragic Washington D.C. plane crash and Trump's baseless blame of DEI for the catastrophe. Plus, the Best F**kin' News team breaks down which of Trump's nominees was least qualified at their Senate hearings.
Lewis Black Celebrates the End of Dry January and Other Ridiculous Drinking Trends
Journalist and author Vince Beiser sits down to discuss the paradox of electric vehicles and renewable energy in his latest book "Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future." They talk about how preventing climate change has led to a rush for “critical” metals, how China has dominated the field of mining and manufacturing, the minerals and metals behind Trump’s Greenland obsession, recycling electronic waste, and the importance of reusing and repairing gadgets.
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From the most trusted journalist at Comedy Central is America's only sorts for news. This is the Daily Show with your host Michael Costa.
Show him, Michael Fast. We have so much to talk about tonight. Trump shows he's unqualified the comfort Nation, all his nominees are unqualified for their jobs, and Lewis Black's qualified to start drinking. So let's get to the latest news on the Trump administration. In another edition of the Second Coming of Donald J. Trump, I'm going to common Trump's been busy these last few days, signing orders, reinstalling the diet coke button, grabbing Panama by the canal, but it was only a matter of time until he had to start presidenting for real. This morning, he held a press conference to address the tragic plane crash in Washington, DC last night. And remember, one of the most important things a leader can do in a rapidly developing difficult situation is to calm people down, stick to the facts, and keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.
We did not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now.
I mean, or we can just speculate wildly.
Why not.
I get a little bit nervous when Trump has a strong opinion, you know, it's it's never something unifying, like sunsets are beautiful or love is the answer. But this is a new term and he's only a few days in, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt. What's Trump's opinion about what happened in DC?
The FAA's diversity push, A big push to put diversity into the FAA's program, the agency's guidance and diversity hiring, the fas diversity and inclusion hiring plant.
Damn you, diversity initiatives. Why are you responsible for every historical tragedy? The fires in Los Angeles d EI, the bridge collapse in Baltimore, d e I, the Irish potato famine d EI, Slavery d e I. Did you ever notice how many minorities were at slavery?
It's all DI Just.
To be clear, mister president, you have evidence that diversity initiatives are responsible for this tragic crash. Saying this right right.
I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash because they have common sense.
There you go, No, no, no, there you go, there you go. Here's common sense. It's just a coincidence that his common sense happens to align with his long held prejudices. So let's spin the big wheel of blame to see which minorities are responsible for this crash. Who will it be this time? Black people, lesbians, trans Armenians.
The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and Inclusion hiring initiative. They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, and dwarfism.
Dwarfism. I can't believe it's only day ten and Trump is already this far down his list of scapegoats. He's blown past race and gender and now he's hitting dwarfs. Is he really suggesting there is a plane crash because someone with dwarfism worked in air traffic control? Does Trump think they couldn't see the control panel and they were just reaching up and pushing bump and buttons hoping it would work out. Hold on, I just want to say that people with dwarfism are just like everyone else. In fact, they're penises are normal size, which means proportionally they're huge. So in a way you could say that I'm the one looking up to them.
That's a thinker.
That's a thinker. Lot of different layers in there. You might be thinking, well, that's progress. You know, he used to blame everything on past administrations, but don't worry, he got them in there too.
We had a very good policy, and then Biden came in and he changed it. And Biden went by a standard that's the exact opposite the FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buddhachek, a real winner. You know how badly everything's run since he's run this Department of Transportation. Obama, Biden and the Democrats they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary.
I'm sorry you're blaming Obama, the guy from three presidents ago. Forget blaming a fart on your dog. This is blaming the fart on your dog that died when you were eight. And still think about you, Henry such stinky farts. You look, mister president. I know you're scared that people might hold you responsible now that you're president. Because you're the president, mister president, and it's time to just be a man. Okay. Real men don't point fingers. Real men find solutions, real men show leadership, real men moisturized guys. You got to take care of your skin. You got to take care of your skin.
Yeah.
The skin is the biggest organ on the body unless you're a dwarf, and it's the second builder. Ye got to it. All right, Let's move on, okay, because while Trump is demanding meritocracy in government, he's trying to fill his cabinet with a whole bunchh of just real geniuses. Today, the Senate held hearings for Cash Bateel, who Trump wants to lead the FBI because of qualifications like this.
My name is Cashptel, and I have written the first ever children's Russiagate book. It's called The Plot Against the King. It is a fantastical telling by me, the Russiagate chief investigator.
Wow. I mean, that's a great reason to not teach your kids to read. At the same time, the Senate held hearings for Tulci Gobberd, who Trump wants as Director of National Intelligence, even though she's friendly with dictators like Bashar al Assad and looks like the head of the Galactic Council in a bad sci fi movie. For more on those Senate confirmation hearings, we go to Jordan Klepper, Desi Leidik, and Josh Johnson.
Let's go first. Let's go first to Jordan. Let's go first to Jordan.
Jordan, you've been covering the Cash Fattel hearing. How did he come across?
How do you think Costa Patel's a conspiracy theorist who believe the twenty twenty election was rigged, follows QAnon, and, most shockingly, thinks toddlers want to read a pop up book about Russia. Gates, I mean, just listening to him speak gave me brain damage so much that I think listening to him speak gave me brain damage. Clearly, Cash Patel is the least qualified of all of Trump's nominees.
I'm sorry, but can I just can I butt in here?
Yes? Does you're covering the Tulsa Gobert hearings? How did she come across?
How do you think Costa I haven't been that uncomfortable since Klepper asked if I liked his haircut. She wants to be Director of Intelligence. Have you seen her friends? Bashar Alisad, Vladimir Putin, Justin Baldoni, heartburn, upset, stomach diarrhea. It's too much. She is clearly the least qualified Trump nominee.
What are you talking about, Desi? First, my head looks fantastic, and Tulci was at least in Congress. She spent time in the government. The only thing Patel has spent time in is the comments section of the Pizzagate subreddits. He's the most unqualified.
No, no way, you cannot trust Tulsi with state secrets. I wouldn't even trust her with secret brand deodorant. CBS blocked it up now because of her.
I'm sorry. Can I hop in here? Yes, Josh, you're covering RFK Junior's hearing. Yeah.
And obviously he is the least qualified candidate because he is r F K Junior. He wants to run the Department of Health and Human Services. He's not qualified for health. He's barely qualified for human all right. He's basically a leather bag full of coughs for someone who might be in charge of all the drugs. He acts like someone in charge of all the side effects nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset, stomach, diarrhea, Baldoni.
No, no, look, my guy wrote a children's book about Russia Gate. The only reason you write a children's book about Russia Gate is you can't write an adult book about Russia Gates. He used more exclamation points than a white woman's email.
I deleted that.
And Tulsi is the least qualified. She couldn't be more of a Russian mole if she was dangling from resputant's back. Josh, do you really think RFK is less qualified than Tulsi?
Does a bear carcass get dumped in the Central Park woods?
Cash Pattel, if you're watching a bear is the one that goes girl?
Please?
Tulsi makes cash Pattel look like Stephen Hawking.
Yeah, current day Stephen Hawking, because cash Pattel is brain dead.
At least they have brains.
RK Junger's brain got eaten by a war.
In his head. Hey, guys, guy's hey, why are we fighting over this? Okay, they're all unqualified. Why does it matter who the least qualified?
Is Michael because the reporter covering that specific hearing gets the right to use a somber but serious Pulitzer contending voice when they say, in the opinion of this reporter, Cash Pattel is the least qualified nominee in American history.
No no, no, no no no.
Tulci Gabbert is the least qualified nominee in American history.
You're both wrong. RFK Junior is the least qualified.
Nominee in an American Ah, in American history.
Josh are you? Josh, are you putting in contacts?
I don't have glasses, but I need to look smart. God, I never touched my eye before this.
Look.
I don't think. I don't think any of you are qualified for this job. Jordan, Desi and Josh everyone. When we come back.
Lewis Black, we'll try not to drink it all the right by.
Welcome back to the Davis. When our news story falls through the cracks and Lewis Black catches it for a segment, we call back in Black.
Ah Alcohol, It's why I get up in the morning, how my mom made it through her pregnancy, and why I'm not allowed within fifty feet of a horse. Booze is the committed relationship I'll ever have. But some people know nothing about commitment.
Dry January, the challenge of giving up drinking for the first month of the year, is growing in popularity.
Happy Dry January.
It's the month where folks ditch the booze and go alcohol free. One report found that twenty five percent of American adults completed dried January last year.
A lot of people are going to be doing dry January.
I have done dry January every year now for or three years.
Well, goody, goody for you. It must be nice to have the luxury of giving up booze while the rest of us are trapped in reality wildfires, bird flu, crippling, dambling debts. If you're not blacking out every single night, you're not paying attention. And by the way, why are we giving up alcohol in January? It's colder than Jack Frost's debts. All your fat friends are posting Jim selfies, and it gets dark faster than Justin Trudeau's face on Halloween.
Oh please.
Me.
I'd much rather give up booze in May. The weather is warm and I'm already coked up for Sinka Demayo. But for those of you not sure about dry January, don't worry. There's something even dumber.
For some people that looks dry.
For others, it might look damp. A damp January would mean only drinking on special occasions, adding more dry days to your month, or consuming fewer drinks in each Sitting damp January?
Are you shitting me?
Damp January sounds like someone I paid for a lap dance in the eighties. Just say drinking less. Not everything needs a label. I'm an a shoe a team situationship. No, you got a hand job from a co check girl, Now move on with your life.
Quitting booze may seem.
Like a good idea today, but once TikTok goes away, you're gonna be getting hammered at Dave and Busters with me and Pete hegxitt. Fair warning, I tend to shit my pants on Dance Dance Revolution.
Now.
I get it some of you don't like fun. But if you're out with your dipshit friends and you can't drink booze, surely there must be something you can drink.
During dry January.
People zip on mocktails, cocktails without any alcohol content.
There are great non alcoholic wines, fears, and spirits that are on the market.
Today, global sales of no and low alcohol products reaching more than thirteen billion dollars.
Last companies are casting into stars releasing non alcoholic products like Katie Perry's boot free beverage line, d Slaw a Great Time and Tom Holland's non alcoholic beer Company Bureau.
This is from Proxies. This is their Bubbly Rose.
Couldn't you add alcohol if you wanted to?
You could?
You could.
Wowy an alcohol free drink that you can add alcohol too. If only Thomas Edison were alive to see this.
Look.
If I ever order an Elderberry Hibiscus Fizz, be sure to garnish it with a loaded gun. These drinks sound almost as fun as getting an ammo enema, which, by the way, you can also add alcohol too. It's called booping come coect.
But listen.
If the eighth best spider Man can cash in on the mocktail boom, so can I introducing Lewis Black's Dry January Vodka. It's just regular vodka and you can sit in the corner and watch me drink it. It even comes with a blanket to throw over me once I pass out. Now that's what I call a situation ship.
Wow, Louis Lewis Black every long when they come back, it's visor we're going to be on the show.
We don't go along.
Welcome back to the the other show. My guest tonight is an award winning journalist and author whose latest book is called Power Metal For the Resources that Will Shape the Future. Please welcome Vince Biser for us Power Metal.
Yes, power Metal.
You sure this isn't a book about metallica.
Or you know, going for the broadest audience I can get.
What is power Metal?
So what it's about is, uh, it's about the terrible paradox of electric vehicles and renewable energy.
That's all the time we have for tonight, Please continue, all right. So the paradox is this.
So we are moving towards those things, right, evs and renewable energy, which is great because we need those things to avoid climate change, which is the biggest threat that we face. But there's a catch. Yeah, and the catch is metal because build all those things. To build all those there's millions of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and by the way, all of the digital gadgets that we all rely on our phones and our laptops. Everything about the phone has metal in it. Your phone has metal in it, my friend, I don't know about your phone personally.
Yeah, I actually have a wooden phone with a row. Okay, so even our everybody here has metal on themselves right now.
Yeah, So we need billions of tons of those metals. So there's a worldwide rush on to get those. They're called critical metals, the same basket of metals that we need for renewable energy and for digital tech.
Wow.
And as a result of that, we are cutting rainforests to the ground. Children are being put to work in minds. Oligarchs are going.
Fine with the children, but the rainforest stuff, you know.
So are you thrown out a list?
Are you? Are you telling me honestly, I have young kids and I would love for them to have a job. I mean, it's like, that's funny because of you know, we know my kids are a okay, But when you see the footage and you read about these minds, it's it's really fixed up. It's really really and it's even more when you go, oh, I might be contributing to that in a way.
You might the the cobalt that those kids mind might be in your pocket right now, not yours because your phone is wooden.
Right, but everyone else you're essentially saying there's no such thing as clean energy? Correct, What liberal friend you're trying to piss off?
Well, I'm just you know, I'm a journalist. So my job is to just try to tell the truth as best as I can, and there is you know, renewable energy is much better than the fossil fuel power energy, but it comes with its own cost has its own serious downsides. Which is not to say that you know, you shouldn't buy an ev that we shouldn't be turning onto renewables. We should be. We have to understand they come with serious costs and we have to do what we can to minimize those costs.
Let's talk about China a little bit, because every single chapter of your book shows up, are they better than us? With I say us meaning North Americans, with their mining, with their let me start over, let me let me ask a better question. Sure, China go. It's such a big topic because it's a big country. It's hard to really pinpoint.
So in a nutshell, what's happened is so every single one of these metals that we're talking about that we absolutely need for evs, for renewables, and for digital tech. China dominates the entire supply chain of these things from when they're from digging them out of the ground to refining them into metals, to building the actual to manufacturing them into the actual you know, car batteries and digital gadgets and all the rest of it. That is a big problem because it gives them enormous geopolitical leverage. Right, They've really got us over a barrel with this stuff.
You tell a great story. You follow a man around Vancouver who essentially scraps metal and what did we talk what are the more valuable metals that are around? Cobalt nickel?
Cobalt nickel yep, so for copper. So for a guy like Steve Nelson, who's this scrapper that I did have followed around in Vancouver, Canada, I think.
My pieces were tough. I mean, you're literally in Vancouver following a guy in a dumpster picking up metal, sexy stuff.
That's right, that's right, that's the glamorous world of journalism in the front.
Yeah.
Yeah, So for those guys, copper is the most valuable thing. But Steve is a guy. He's a super entrepreneurial guy who has basically been spending the last twenty years or so just digging through dumpsters in the back alleys of Vancouver for any kind of metal that he can find and sell and recycling. Not just like raw metal, but like old toasters, old light fixtures. He can look at practically any you know, electronic thing and tell you, oh, there's going to be you know, this much aluminum. There's probably about six ounces of copper. I can get two bucks for it at today's price. He carries it all on his bicycle. He's got a little cart hooked up to his bike, and he just rides around collecting all this metal and then taking it to a scrapyard.
I don't think about metal every day. I don't think I want to, But now I think I have to. Metals should be more on the forefront of our brains. Should we be more concerned with reusing or refurbishing the American consumer, this doesn't seem to match up. There's only so much metal we can use right there.
Turns out there's pretty much no limit to how much stuff we can buy and use exactly exactly. But this is where we get into how we can do things better. So we need metals, right, that's what our so much of our civilization depends on. But we can be way more efficient with how we use. We can do a lot more recycling, which is exactly what a guy like Steve is doing. We can also be reusing and repairing our gadgets, right, Like, for a long time, all these the manufacturers have deliberately made their things difficult to repair. So now there's a movement on too worse them to basically make Apple and Samsung and everybody else to make it easier to fix their stuff so that it lasts longer. And you know, as consumers, we can also take some responsibility, right, You don't have to get a new iPhone every single year. Well, you've got that wooden one.
I understand. You need to recycling, man, is recycling perfect? The way we have it now? I throw it in a blue bin. I'm a hero. I don't have to think about it ever again. But talk a little bit about the depth you go in on how it what it costs, and the resources it takes to recycle.
Yeah, so recycling too turns out to have some serious downsides to it. It's really energy intensive, it's really polluting, and it's often done on the backs of the poorest people in the world. So one of the places I went was Legos, Nigeria, the biggest city in Africa, and I spend some time there with guys who are recycling digital junk right our old cell phones, laptops. These are guys sitting around with hammers and screwdrivers, just cracking open those things like walnuts and picking out the little bits of metal.
Can you tell a story about people burning standing around burning electrical wire to be able to later dig into the metal that's in the all those charging courts.
Exactly all our cables. You know, they've got plastic and rubber outside and copper inside. They want the copper, they burn the rest of the stuff. And these guys are just standing around this incredibly like thick, toxic oily reaking smoke. And you know, I asked one of them, I was like, well, aren't you worried? I mean, these guys are just like in flip flops and T shirts, no safety equipment, nothing, And I asked one of them, aren't you you know, aren't you worried about breathing in all this smoke, and he just said, like, you know, it's a job. I'm living in Nigeria. This is the only job I've got. And I said, well, how long have you been doing it? He said since I was eight Jesus, I said, how old are you now? He was thirty five years old.
Right, man, I have a drawer at home that has one hundred wires in it, six iPhones. And don't judge because you have the same drawing. We all have this draw I don't know what to do with the phone.
Yeah.
Right, this is such an North American problem, right, but it is a rich guy problem. Well it is.
It's a real problem for the world, right because all that stuff is just going to waste. Right, we should be we could be recycling it, right, But the problem is there just isn't an easy way to do that. So the good news is like actually, in places like Nigeria and the developing world, turns out they're way more efficient at it. They recycle something like ninety percent of their e waste, whereas here one out of only one out of every six cell phones gets recycled, recycled gets junked. So there's a lot we can learn from those places.
You know, it's an easy punchline Trump wanting to take Greenland. Then I read your book. Then I read about Greenland's vast resources of minerals and metals, and I go, oh, this might not be a joke. Is this what America has to do to keep up so we can all get the new iPhone? All the time, it's do you support Trump taking over Greenland through military form?
I do not because I'm from Canada. My friend and I know we're next after Greenland.
No, you you wrote like a Canadian, this has hope and sympathy and.
It's color with a yeah, this.
Might not be a joke about Greenland. We need these metals.
There's things we need these metals for sure, yea, And Greenland does have an awful lot of them. There are there are other places in the world we can get them. So the thing about Greenland, though, it's chock full of especially a bunch of metals called rare earths, which we need for wind turbines, We need them for electric car motors. We also need them for our cell phones. The color red in your cell phone is thanks to one particular metal called europium.
No europium.
No red in your cell phone anyway? What Yeah, europium europium.
That's so funny. Now that sign makes sense that said europium free self on for sale. No, I've never seen such a thing.
Anyway. But Greenland.
Editors, please edit out that entire set.
So problem that there are a lot of these metals there, but number one really hard to get them. Greenlands really far away. The weather's incredibly harsh. Also, the people living in Greenland aren't really that hard on the idea. They've already shot down one rare earth. Mind that folks tried to open up there because they didn't want all the you know, all the environmental chaos that comes with that.
There was a few things in this book that were promising to me. One of them was that there have been successful communities that have pushed off or fought off mining. At least that you mentioned. You might have been lying some really cool things, like experimenting with plants that absorbed metals. And then also this whole idea of someone mining in space. This was some cool shit. Which one of those you want to talk about, Well, let's talk about the plants, because I love if plants are the answer to all of us. Isn't that a great? That is so cool?
So I absolutely love this. It's one of the many, you know solutions that I talk about. And basically there's there are several dozen kinds of plants which suck up different kinds of metal, nickel and other stuff from the soil. And in theory, like who knew, right.
Who know?
But so in theory, you can plant a bunch of these plants in a place where we have that metal, especially like places that are already like polluted, like where there used to.
Be a mine or whatever.
They draw it up and then you like burn the plants or you somehow pull the metal out of the plants, and it can be done. There are a couple of startups and a couple of research labs working on it. I love the idea so far. Sad to say, it's a long way from you know, any kind of commercial scale.
And you talked about how that was planted somewhere and then the plant took over and screwed up the whole arm. So that's a bummer.
Yeah, it's always always a downside somewhere.
How would we mine in space? And how is this not a movie yet?
Yeah?
But there is someone trying to mine in space.
There are some there are quite a few people trying to mine in space.
Glad, do you hate your family if you're like, honey, I got this new idea. I'm going to mine in space. Okay, last question, how can I how can you be a better consumer? So I can't take on a mining company, but how can I do this better? I mean, this is really scary shit you're talking about here.
Yeah, So, I mean, so all those things we've been talking about, which is really what you know, most of the second half of the book is about. But also the number one thing that we as individuals can do is, if possible, don't buy a car.
I know that was that was a that was a heavy sentence I read. I know, as a man who has six cars and nine motorcycles, that's not true. Why why should we not buy a car?
Well, because cars are by far the most material and energy intensive thing that most of us own, unless except for your house, if you own a house. And I'm not saying you're a bad person if you own a car, even if you own nine cars. I own a car myself. What I am saying is we need to get to a place we need to reduce the number of cars that are out there, because if we swap all one billion gas cars that are already out there for one billion electric vehicles, we're gonna swap one set of problems for another. Much better is we got to reduce the number of cars by giving people the freedom to choose whether or not to have a car. Because right now, most places in America, you've got to have a car, you need one. But if we can promote things like bicycling, public transit, getting around by foot so that fewer people need to own cars, so that more people can choose whether or not they want to own a car, we'll all be much better off.
Thank you for writing a great book. It's a great power. Metal is a bail of one out Vince Biser. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. Thank you. That's our show for today. But before we go, this Sunday, I'm headed to Asheville, North Carolina, to participate in a charity tennis event support Hurricane Helen relief efforts in western North Carolina. You can support this cause by going to the link below to make a donation or bid on great auction items like even an autograph book from me available now now here. It is your moment of zen Chair You're a wise man, mister chair Thank you, mister Chairman, mister Chairman, before we go to the leash, Chairman, Yes, what do you want?
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