Al Franken On The MN Senator Against Free School Lunches | Heather McGhee

I'm gonna be pissed. So come on album brag tomorrow. But whatever, let's let's get into today's headlines. Okay, let's kick things off with my home state of Minnesota, which just became the fourth state in the Union to guarantee free school lunch to every single Yeah, dare that's a that's a pretty good, feel feel good story in Minnesota, right. Well, one Republican state senator didn't think so, mister President. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is

hungry yet today. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don't have access to enough frute. Now I should say that hunger is a relative term, mister President. You know I had a cereal bar for breakfast. I guess I'm hungry. Now. The badness is this is a guy who we call in Minnesota a big jerk. You know. The great thing is we've got ten thousand

lakes we can throw this gosh darned jerk into. Sorry I went off the deep end there, but this guy's clearly a jerk, and I don't know why this guy is being so singy. There's a simple solution here. Every year at the Minnesota State Fair they always carve a giant butter sculpture of Princess K of the Milky Way. So why don't we take that sculpture and shove it

up the guy's ass. I'm up on that one. Now, let's head west a couple of states to the great state of Idaho, where they just voted to bring back firing squads as a potential form of capital punishment. Death by firing squad. That is so red state. Personally, I prefer the method of execution in liberal states. Give them a few ambient and put a Ken Burns documentary on until they've met their God. Now, some people argue that a firing squad is less barbaric than lethal injection. But

I have an even less barbaric idea. What if we just didn't execute people at all, or or we duct tape a hand grenade to their head. And finally, let's talk about Donald Trump, who could be arrested any day now in the porn star hush money case. And according to The New York Times, Trump is trying to decide whether he should smile for the cameras when he gets arrested. Now, personally, I think it would be a good idea to smile.

In fact, maybe he could do this smile. You'll notice we put that black bar across the young woman's face to help maintain her anonymity. But don't forget Trump has four separate investigations that could land him in jail. Remember those classified documents he took from the White House. Well, that case just got a lot more serious for him. Trump faces multiple criminal investigations, sources telling ABC News of federal judges determined that there's enough compelling preliminary evidence that

Trump broke the law. In another case, the Special Counsel's investigation of Trump's handling of classified documents, in particular, prosecutors say he knowingly misled his attorneys so that they would file a sworn statement last tune that he knew was false, claiming that a diligent search of his Marlago estate found that he had turned over all the classified documents in

his possession. So, just to be clear, Trump was already in trouble for stealing classified documents from the White House, and now he may have broken the law again by tricking his own lawyers into lying to the government. So Trump's original crimes are now having their own little baby crimes. You know, they grow up and implicate you so fast, okay, the little guy. Can you imagine being a lawyer for

Donald Trump and finding out he set you up. That would make you a question whether it was even worth buying a degree from Barbados in the first class. So look, I know there are a lot of different cases going on, and this all seems very complicated, but there is a simple explanation. Trump is a criminal. I hope that both all now. As you know, as Trump faces the prospect of arrest, he is called on his supporters to take to the streets and protests. So Jordan Klepper went down

to the courthouse to bear witness to the chaos. Check it out. Last week, Donald Trump declared his arrest was imminent and called for a protest to take our Nation back outside the Manhattan District Attorney's office. So yesterday I ventured all the way downtown and joined the media circus to observe this crowd of MAGA protesters who we're definitely around here somewhere. Yeah, this is the truth social here

it says Tuesday protests take our nation back? Ex Is this the protest for Trump or the Trump protest or the supporting Are we taking our nation back? Is that today? I thought it was today, So I did have the day right, And then I found up proud and totally concealed Trump supporter. Why are you here because I'm here to support Trump? Because they want to Dina. So Trump went on his own social media and he called out people, his supporters to come out here and support him, and

right now, that's just you. I'm here, I'm here, have you as a crowd. I don't need you to come on something. I'm okay. I'm here to actually see what's going on. Everyone was talking about it, so I came here to check it out. You want to see it with your own eyes. It's right, because I don't believe what I'm hearing on the news. Meet, so what have you seen so far? Absolutely was not correct. This was an unusual Magarelli. The numbers were low, and it was

in my own city. However, the arguments over some basic facts were refreshingly familiar. Do you think it's fair for Trump to be indicted if that does happen this week? Listen? I don't know all the specific facts, but what I do know is he's my president right now, I think he's not president. Do you think he's serving the role as your president currently? Well, he's in my heart, he's my president. I just had to be clear SubTime for sure. Sure you think Joe Biden is president? Right? No? I

think that man is is escape. I just know that's a legendary he's there because that man doesn't make an exens but technically he is there. He is serving the role of president. Maybe I don't know. I haven't been. I've been, I've been Washington, DC. I've not seen him walk in the White House. You don't think he actually spends time in the White I don't know. Well, there are videos of him in the White Huse. He's can we just I just want to get beyond this fact.

He is the president United States. Donald Trumps the president the United States. In fact, that's what I'm said, right, never why you're here today, Joe Biden is going after him because I don't know why he going after Hi, because they're going to push him out to do and probably bring Oh Michelle, Michael Obama and okay, but Michael Obama, why do you call what did Joan Rivers say? What did Joan Rivers? That's correct? If anybody remember what she said?

Do you get most of your news from Joan Rivers? Oh? No, I don't get none of my knew from Doolan River. I'm just telling you what she said about Michael Obama. Okay. Regardless of their sources, the mocking crowd, which the police estimated to be between three and six people, believe these charges were unworthy of a former president. I don't feel Trump should be in trouble. That's unconstitutional. I feel said presidents, this is a political attack. Yes, they're not charging somebody

else for this crime. Yes, everything is political, right, they did charge somebody else with this exact crime. Yeah, So Whyson. He beats homes well. Michael Cohen was charged, played guilty, serve time in jail. This loyalcy, loyal name lucy is nothing. This is about a man who cheated on his wife with a porn star while his wife was at home with her newborn son. But loyalty is a big issue for you. Listen, we made right so we all know. Trump doesn't understand how the law works. Turns out, he

doesn't know when it works either. But Fromaga supporters feeling fomo about missing the Donald showdown with Justice, I'm confident you'll get another chance. Hello, are you gonna be here today? I don't know, Maybe a couple more hours, walk around and perhaps somebody If Trump has indicted in Georgia next, you're going there? Oh no, maybe I won't. It's like a big old indictment to all right, I'll see him Georgia. Maybe we'll swing by DC Carlon what for everyone? All right,

why don't we come back? We'll tell you why. Chucker Carlson's face looks like that, so don't go away. Welcome back, Welcome back to the Daily Show. You know, we have a lot of fun here, but none of our jokes would be possible without the work of real journalists. Real journalists like Tucker Carlson. Now, many people know Tucker Carlson as a world class asshole, but what those people often fail to mention is that he also looks like an asshole.

Although it turns out Tucker gets a lot of help, as we'll discover in another installment of the People Behind the People. We have this information as part of a criminal investigation, but we can't announce it immediately as we typically do. We're gonna hold it. It's okay, great, Now, I want you to look dumbfounded, as if Nintendo just announced Luigi's trans Good, good, Yes, Yes, my name is

Gavin Bancroft, and I'm Tucker Carlson's face coach. If you've ever seen Tucker looking like a groom that pooped himself at the altar or a scandalized baked potato, well then you've seen my work. All right, Tucker gave into the camera like you're a ten year old watching a cowgive birth. Perfect. Can now hold it? Hold it, hold it. Some people think Tucker was born with a face that looks like an inbred boat shoe, but it's actually a lot of hard work. Yeah, that's why he pays me four hundred

thousand dollars a year American. Okay, and now laugh like you're a fancy prince who just saw a peasant get kicked by a mule. Oh gone, because we don't do math. Oh I'm possible. Looking for inspiration, I'll scour the internet for new surprised or disgusted face, as Tucker could make during his interviews when he finds out one of the eminem's as a lesbian. The green eminem got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian. Maybe it's such a treat for me to get to work with Tucker. He's

got all the attributes a face coach could want. A forty pounds skull, natural mouth breather, the haircut of a drunk lacrosse dad. It's a face that's just made to tell old people that Abbott elementary is critical race theory. We've experimented with more subtle expressions. Hey, let's just try a cat a little smile, Like you were walking to work and you saw a Mexican family getting evicted. But at the end of the day, Tucker knows where his

bread is buttered. And that's looking like Frankenstein walked in on his parents having sex. All right, that's a wrap on Tucker's face. Tucker's face. Everyone you tomorrow, they do, because when we come back, Heather McGee will be joining me on the show. We'll be right back after this word from the My Pillow Guy. Welcome back to the Daily Show. My gift tonight is an author who's New York Times bestseller The Some of Us has just been

adapted for young readers. Please welcome Heather McGee. Good to see you here. You know, I've been doing podcast, a very prestigious podcast, for for about four years. And now you're you're my favorite guests. You've been on three times. You're my favorite guests. You're so brilliant. Um. Now you're an economists and you the first time we met was during the banking crisis, and we talked a lot about that. UM,

subprime loans, et cetera. And housing has always been a big part in the gap in terms of wealth between blacks and whites. Can you explain where that's where that kind of started? Yeah? Absolutely. I mean I always say wealth is where history shows up in your wallet. So today, the average black college graduate has less wealth on average than the average white high school dropout. Makes no sense.

Say that again. Yes, so if you're the average white high school dropout, you are wealthier than the average black college graduate. So that's history showing up in your wallet. Right. We're talking about wealth, not a paycheck. We are talking about your home equity, your stocks, your bonds, your inheritances.

And that all dates back to that massive racial wealth divide that we have today, dates back to when most middle class Americans wealth began, which was in the New Deal era, coming out of the depressed, the progressive FDR government said we want to commit to affordable housing and mass homeownership, and they created this massive system, this system of public subsidy, and they based it on the never substantiated assumption that black people would be too much of

a credit risk. And so they commissioned maps of the entire country's largest cities and surveyed them down to the block level for their racial and ethnic character and said, if there was a high Negro concentration, we're going to circle that with a red line and say banks do

not lend here. And that really only ended in the nineteen seventies, and it was quickly replaced by what people call reverse redlining, which is when those contiguous communities of lower wealth black communities were targeted with those high cost loans. But that's what we were exactly, and that's how we're met. Oh yeah, but yeah, the red lining started during the

progress of FDR in the early thirties, that's right. And you know the way I see it, And this is really the kind of core idea of the some of us. You know, you and I met, not just because black families were being disproportionately targeted early in the subprime crisis, before it was a household word. You and I met once everything had fallen apart, right, once Lehman had gone bankrupt, once trillions of dollars in household wealth and eight million

dollar jobs had disappeared overnight. And for me, it was such an object lesson in the way in which racism can ultimately have a cost for everyone. We ignored the canaries in the coal mine, what was going on with black and brown families early in the crisis, and banking committee members just weren't focused on it. And then obviously we know how the story ended. Well, the some of us is about how race intersects with economic inequality, and

it became an instant New York Time It's bestseller. And now you've done a book that's for for school children, for mid middle schools. Yeah, yeah, school, nice school. Yeah, And how do you explain this to them? How does because these uh, these kids are able to understand this? Right? Yeah, yeah, I noticed this is the book, and it's a little shorter than the other, but it seems pretty sophisticated. Yeah, it's we really didn't dumb it down. That was the

lesson I got. We did sort of casual focus groups of educators and middle school students, and they were like, don't dumb it down. We actually have access to all the same information you do, and we have the same kinds of questions. Right. The core question at the heart of the Some of Us is why does it seem like we can't have nice things in America? Nice things like not like flying cars, but nice things like universal healthcare and paid family leave and childcare in a great

school in every neighborhood. And they have those questions. Two and so in the Some of Us, I use a lot of data, in a lot of history, but ultimately it's a series of stories like the story of the drained public pool and that now the cover of this is the boy jumping in a pool a white boy looks like, and I think of a black child there. Tell that story, because that's the first story you tell, Lease,

get right, yeah it is. It's the story of what happened to many of the country's nearly two thousand lavishly funded, grand resort style public swimming pools that were built in that same New Deal era of public goods, around when the big housing subsidies were happening. And I like to get the kids to picture what it would look like to have a community pool that was free and could

hold over a thousand swimmers at a time. And most of them, you know, they kind of gasp and they're excited about the idea, and then I tell them that they were usually for whites only, and they're sort of like, oh, you know, And then I say, but then in a civil rights movement, black families began to say, you know what, it's our tax dollars that have funded those public pools

all along. We want our kids to swim. And the court sided with them, and progress was made, and then many towns and cities, not just in the Jim Crow South decided to drain their public pools rather than integrate them. They literally drained out the water and backed up truckloads of dirt. And I really see in the conversations they have the questions they asked me, they get it so unbleivable. And they did that all over the country. Yeah, and

Ohio and West Virginia, all over the country. Yeah. Yeah, so and then they planted over yea, so just so black and white people couldn't swim together. That's exactly right. It's this zero sum story, this old story that says that progress from people of color has to come at the expense of white people, that we can't all sort of share in well being, that we're in this competition for dominance and status. And you know what, young people

get it. It's this story that is of course unbelievable, but they've lived in America long enough to know that it's actually quite believable because they understand that over their lifetime, public goods have really been atrophying, that they don't have those big, beautiful swimming pools anymore, that there isn't free college the way there was that was a kind of a public pool that was funded by the government, and they know that as the college going population got more

diverse for them, right, they're already in a g zero sum. Yeah. Idea is basically that wealthier whites taught poorer whites that anything that helps African Americans hurts them. Yeah. Yeah, that's zero sum, that's right. And the sum of us is about we all do better when we all do better, which is what Paul wallstons the late grade. The late grade. You know, it's the part of the book that young people really resonate with is the hopeful part. Right. They

want to hear that we can fix this. And I truly believe that everything about the world that we see now, all the dysfunction, it's because people made decisions to make the world as it is, and so people can make better decisions. And the core message is that through collective action, people coming together across lines of race, finding solidarity, recognizing that we all do better when we all do better,

and that we all want big, beautiful public pools. We can really win and take on powerful interests, but we can't if we're divided. And they get that, and it's been a really fun trip across the country, schools, libraries, little thing going all over the country finding communities where this is happening. In Minnesota. Yeah, we have a town, Wilmer, Minnesota. It's in Canada, Yo High County. It's the biggest turkey producing county in Minnesota. Which is the biggest turkey producing town.

That's the town I went to the graduation there. About half the class German, Scandinavian, about a third of the class Hispanic. There's a big meatpacking plant there, about fifteen percent Somali. This was the most beautiful thing I'd ever gone to in the time that I was in the Senate. This town just worked together. Lewiston, Maine is doing that all over the country. This works when we all when we realize the some of us. That's that's how we

create wealth, That's how we create prosperity. That's how we create a good life for all Americans. That's right, you should really run for office. We Herder Heather mcgie. The Young Reader's adaption of adaptation rather of Heather's book is available now, and the Some of Us podcast series is available wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we're gonna take

a quick break, but we'll be right back. That's our show for tonight, but before we go, I'd like you to very seriously consider donating to Sandy Hook Promise, a foundation started by parents who lost a child at Sandy Hook Elementary School ten years ago. I met these parents after the school after the shooting in twenty twelve, and what they've done is absolutely amazing to try to save other families from going through the horror that they experience.

If you can, please help support their continuing work by donating to the link below. Really he would appreciate it. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights and eleven tenh central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast