You're listening to Comedy Central. Alex Wagner, welcome back to the Daily Show and a club. It's a thrill in an honor for me. This is your sixth time you might hold the record. Congratulations. I feel very positive about that. Actually got you a monkey Pops vaccine with a gift. I want my photo in the hallway. I'll keep saying it. I'm over and over again, and I will make sure that I have one. I see two chains, I see Oprah.
I need to see Alex Wagner in the hallway and then I can stop coming out of I mean, you cook me on the spot. Now I'll find I do have the photo of us in my office. It's like a like a beautiful frame, Tiffany frame. It's perfect and no one walks past it. But it's fine. It's funny. That's for you and me, Trevor. This is a really
exciting time for everybody because your show kicks off tomorrow. Yes, I love your your Instagram bio reads anchor at MSNBC plus person worried about the future, But I think that sounds a little mile dramtic. What do you have to worry about the future, like the climate partic's caps melting faster than expected, President shuffling off classified nuclear secrets to Palm Beach Resort. You know, Republican election deniers being elected
across what do you want? But you, you know, because you travel so much and because you've talked to so so many people on the ground, I've always felt like I should listen to you when you're worried, because you talked to like America. Yeah, yeah, And I will say on this show, I'm going to keep talking to America. I just went down to Florida, UM, which is the place like vow never to return to each time I go, and yet I keep going down to Florida. That's what
makes it great. Exactly. It was a hundred and seven degree a hundred and seven degrees down there, and what Governor de Santis is doing in that state is worthy of a very close examination. And so we went down there and looked specifically at the ways in which Christian nationalism has worked its way into Florida public schools. And we're gonna be talking about that this week and some of the very alarming things that teachers are being trained
to teach public school students on UM. You know, I I will say you should be worried, Trevor, because, um, not just this is happening in Florida, but this is very much seen as a model for what's happening across the rest of the country. Rhonda Santis maybe the Republican nominee for president, which which people think of as like a good thing because they go like, oh, he's calm. You know, he has a demeanor about him. Trump is crazy, but it seems like Trump's crazy was also the reason
he couldn't get things done. Yes, Rhonda sanctist. Everyone says it's like, oh, he's he's got all his cards, he's ready to play them. And he has a network of conservative activists and donors and power players in his corner. I mean, this is the result. This is a harvest of multiple years of trying to figure out how to re indoctrinate students into a certain line of conservative ideology, and the Santis has made it happy been. But he has a lot of people behind him, and there are
other governors. Carry Lake in Arizona is the Republican nominee in Arizona, and she was on the stump I think it was yesterday praising de Santis and saying, am I allowed to say this on this family program? That he had big dick energy just like Donald Trump? Like not even kidding, she said, b d e if you know, you know big de Santis energy, but really saying that what we needed was more big dig energy, the kind
that Rhonda Santis and Donald Trump have. So that's where we are as a country, Trevor, and I'm here to tell you, I'm alarmed you you are going to be the person who is informing so many people about what's going on in the country. You know, as as as an anchor on a show like yours, you're in an interesting position because on the one hand, you want people
to understand the states of the country. On the other hand, you don't want people to exist in a perpetual state of panic, because then what happens is people start getting tired and there like I I don't care anymore, nothing is actually happening. How do you find that balance? Well, I think, you know, I don't want to be pollyannish about things. Right when things are bad, I'm going to tell you they're bad. But I also think we we haven't given up on democracy. And the reality is, if
you don't like what Governor Ronda Santis is doing. I mean, I spent ten hours in a Brevard County school Board meeting. You can run for school board and stop some of this stuff from happening. You can participate in midterm elections. You can call your senators and congressmen. I mean that stuff.
As cliche as it sounds, as small ball as it sounds, it matters because the decision that the Brevard County school Board makes about whether or not kids can have book fairs again and read certain books and talk about being homosexual or transgender, that means something. And those decisions are discreet, but they are part of our larger system of governance. And I don't want people to ever lose the hope that the project of America is a fed, a complete and it is a rap, because it's not. I mean,
and you can swing the pendulum back. I still believe that we generally take two steps forward and maybe one in three quarter steps back. A lot of one, and that's a lot of stocks back. I mean, I hope look at look at you and me, Trevor. You know I'm hosting the nine pm hour of a very important cable network. You are the voice of a generation. Our stories are unlikely. We're too brown people that weren't ever supposed to be in these positions of power, and look
at us, you know, and true, and that's true. It's it's true. Sometimes I go the fact that it is the exception is what makes it scary a little bit sometimes. And so what's interesting about America when you when you look at it as a whole, is it feels like sometimes like in the run up to Donald Trump, it feels like the country knew this was happening, and then people on the coast, we're like, oh, that will never happen. Tramp could never have. It feels like there's a certain
complacency now. Is people relax, you know, they want to watch succession, they want to read what's happening, watch people enjoy themselves. But it seems like conservatives are being told constantly that they're under assault, that this is the end of the world, they need to run for school boards, and so they believe it and they do it. And so I love to know, as somebody who's gonna be on MSNBC, you're in a position where you have part
of your audience, which is in a bubble. Many of us do you know how do you or do you even think it's possible at the stage to just pop out of that bubble? Is there a way you can see? As Alex Wagners, as the journalist who's gone around the country talking to Trump supporters and you know, Biden supporters are like, do you think there's a way you can get through to people who maybe don't agree with you.
I'm gonna damn well try. I mean, you can't just say we're only We're only gonna talk to like live liberals And this is for the seller corridor, you know, like this is I'm a journalist, and you are gonna hear from some Republicans. Sometimes sometimes they may be critical of Donald Trump. Sometimes sometimes they may not be. But I think it is my job to show people what's happening in the world, and not just what they want
to see. I mean, listen to the future of the Republican Party matters not just two Republicans, but to Democrats and independence too. If one of the two parties in this country is forever broken or populated by clowns or worse, like, we're not going to get anything done done as a country. We are for better or worse in a marriage, and we gotta figure out a way to make it work, because we know what divorce kind of looks like. We tried it in eighteen sixty and we can't. It didn't
go so well. So your first episode tomorrow, it is tomorrow. If you will on the show today, don't don't give anything away because you obviously will tease anything. But if you will on the show today, what would you what will be the number one story? Bet Well, listen, I think for sure we're gonna be talking about Trump and mar Lago and what exactly he was doing with those papers and the degree to which this is part of a very serious investigation at the d o J. But
I don't think. I mean. The other thing that I want everyone to focus on is the fact that we have to significant primaries tomorrow happening Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin, And what we very well could see this week is the exit of Liz Cheney, probably the standard bearer for integrity inside the GOP, be escorted off the stage stage right.
And for Sarah Palin, who in many ways is the proto Trump re entering American politics as a Republican congresswoman from Alaska, and I think as we take stock of where the country is at, we need to take stock of where the Republican Party is at. And those two entrances and that entrance and exit tell us a lot about where we're headed in the GOP. And I think it's deeply problematic, and I think it warrants further investigation
and analysis. This is why you're the best person to host the show, because you know luck, You travel luck, you meet the people, um and don't hang out with you. You don't get overwhelmed. No, you don't get Thanks for that, I'll take it, but no, you don't get overwhelmed. Really, one thing I've always admind about you is the fact that you don't get overwhelmed by the delusion of information that's coming at you. Rather, you find a way to process all of it in one of the most fantastic
ways that I've ever seen. Congratulations on the show. Backul be joining me again. We're gonna be watching everybody don't Forget Tuesday to Friday, nine pm. Wat's the Daily Show Central Armed Comedy Central in stream fool episodes anytime I'll on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast