Behind the Show: Jordan Klepper On The D-List Turnout for Trump’s Hush Money Trial

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Hello, and welcome to The Daily Show Ears edition. This is Ian Berger. I'm a supervising producer at the Daily Show. Today I'm joined by Daily Show segment director Zach Golden. Zach, how are you hey?

I'm good, happy to be here.

We're also joined by Daily Show contributor Jordan Klepper. Jordan, how's it going?

Hey? Everybody, glad to be here.

Earlier this week we were downtown. It was interesting as always, Jordan, this was another Trump trial day for you. How did this day compare to previous segment?

When we filmed on Monday, it felt like deja vu. We'd gone down to the earlier indictment hearing where Trump first appeared downtown. We didn't know what we were going to get, and frankly, we got more of the same. This was, uh, you know, this was we joked, this was the d listers who came out out to support Donald Trump. And I fully will wear the hat of a dlister who came out to see what was going

I would like to point out we even interviewed the same guy that we interviewed before, and we kind of forgot about this because you do so many and we do so many, so sometimes I'm like, people seem familiar and then they're not. But we actually a guy with the scarf is someone we actually interviewed previously down outside the courthouse. So I don't know if he exists out side of that park, if he has a life outside of that, but so far we're two for two with him.

I think people the ecosystem around the MAGA universe is a fascinating one, and there's many podcasts that we've smoken on and can speak too about the ones that exist in rural America when we go out on the road, but the ones that happened here in New York, based around New York events, specifically based around the trial is super hyper specific. You have a handful of Long Island folks who are Long Island Republicans, who tend to wear shirts that talk about what was it not Long Island strong?

What is their shirts? Oh?

The silent majority? They were silent majority shirts. We talked to one guy who makes Maga hammocks. We've seen him multiple places, including at Sea Pack. You had Laura Lumer, who is a far right maga celebrity. Maybe that's too strong a term, but she's a personality and the far right. She saw an opportunity. Last time we were here, George Santos saw an opportunity. Marjorie Taylor Green saw an opportunity to show up, get all the cameras on them, and

So I think that was a big win for her.

You start to see this, You're like, okay, here are the people who see this as an opportunity less as an opportunity to show fealty to Donald Trump and more an opportunity to get attention for showing fealty to Donald Trump and or ten thousand more Twitter or ex subscribers.

Yeah, exactly, Zach. So before the day Trump putend a message out about all hell breaking loose?

Trump said, all hell is going to break loose? Are you gonna go ape shit today?

I'm not gonna go ape shit today? Are you ready to go ape shit today?

I want to see how it plays out.

But you're gonna slow walk the ape shit, right, slow walk it.

Trump supporters are calm, peaceful protesters.

Yes, they would never rush into a federal building and try to disrupt her seedings.

Donald Trump, we never advocate for that. I'll tide that January sixth.

Then, can you tell you, audius, a little bit of how we prepared for that, what you expected to see off of that message?

Yeah?

So, you know, I think that was sent out in a fundraising email like three or four days before the trial was set to take place, And for us, it was an immediate sort of like you could get so used to Trump's dangerous rhetoric that you can sort of become numb to it, but when it is coalescing around like specific events, you do need to take that more seriously. So we wanted to approach this like it was going to be hell breaking loose and see if that was

Except for the amount of people we met who were at January sixth. I think they even cut someone out. This guy had a little Santa vibe going. Jordan was like, were you at January sixth? And then he thought and thought and thought and didn't have an answer, and then he was like, I think I was home watching TV. Yeah, like I'm not airtight, Albi.

You can admit it nata like they're not coming after you from a piece on our show, Like you're not going to get indicted.

I don't know, man, these people had caught a lot of weird ways. I think maybe they're learning their lesson.

I mean, it is remarkable still the disconnect between Donald Trump and his rhetoric around January sixth and again, Donald Trump has always played in a hyperbole and a Donald Trump speech is full of every point of view known to man, which I think is a defense mechanism. He will ask you to be there.

It will be wild.

He will get up there on January sixth and talking about fighting like hell. He will also spew stuff about peace. He will also degrade people. He will say all the things you could possibly say, therefore giving him, essentially, if not a free pass, something for his folks to point to to be like he was talking about a peaceful speech was like Donald Trump was trying to incite a mob and he said.

All of these different words.

You're pointing to the words that said peace, but the actions of the day and the tone of the day pointed towards mob mentality. And yet we go to a place like we were at Monday. People are not only divorcing himself from the reality of what happened on January six, but also of like the culpability of Donald Trump and his words. And so yet again we're in the same conversation of be there be wild and now hell breaking loose, like is he just fomenting anger and violence? And frankly,

Curarently not Lower Manhatten.

No, certainly not there. But you never know, because he's got a bunch of days. He's kind of doing a residency at that courthouse. So you know, maybe maybe they're showing up in week two or three working material.

I get that, Let's see, let's let's see what sticks, what resonates, and maybe the maybe the songs are flinger and has.

Some special guests to get the ticket sales up later on. I think, I mean, Stormy'll be there, there will be special guests. Michael Cohen. Yeah, it's interesting they haven't been showing up to the New York events. But in terms of like how how that represents his you know, support. A few days ago, we were just in Pennsylvania and it was like as fired up and crowded as ever,

I think there was a joke that we cut that was like, if all hell is bringing loose in New York City, how do you even know? Because it's already like full of carnage, right, Like, how would you even tell the difference?

Well, the irony too, you know, the narrative is that he can't get a fair trial here, that nobody in New York likes Donald Trump. Okay, if that's your narrative, stick with it. Donald Trump after the trial went to Harlem and they reposted nothing but videos from their perspective of him being beloved, people cheering, they love Trump. Here, the narrative is wrong. He is he has adored when he goes out in New York. I think again, take

Among the many great characters we talked to, there was also a woman who had the most smoker's voice, maybe in human history. I don't know if you remember who I'm talking about, Zach. She told her she made an appearance on another television show, America's Most Wanted.

Mm hmmmm hmm.

She also had to wouldn't grant us the interview until she finished her finished smoking her cigarette on the park bench, which is just you know, listen, I'm glad that she took the time she needed to mentally.

Prepare to go off.

It is today, the January sixth of April fifteenth, No, no, what January.

I was there January was six. Yes, I was there.

Where were you inside the rotunda? Are you in the office? Were you holding a podium?

Where were you?

It was breached before we even got there.

Because is that why you're here early today? Just to make sure you get that first wave?

Well I have done pretty Go back and watch America's most want it.

I made a grand the parents stand.

When somebody's that we got what we to star, God bless, I'll set my team up.

She had that sassy grandma vibe or like or like our sassy, sassy aunt who's got some stories, who like you give a couple of gen and tonics to her and hang out at the end of a party and let her go like she had and also one of those who you interview and you're like, wow, she had a lot of opinions and she just wanted to chat.

And then you get back into the edit after.

You've relaxed and exhaled, and you watch her interview and fall in love with her all over.

Yeah. I mean truly, we used her a bunch of the piece, and our first cut we had twice as much stuff, and it was all funny and entertaining, but at some point you're like we can't just lean too heavily into one person. But there was an edit, like an early cut of this piece that had even more of her gold.

Yeah, she was truly remarkable, and and that's the kind of person that you hope for at at every at every event, and you don't hope for at every Thanksgiving. You know, it's like, that's that's the person.

I feel like she went and she finished her because she was merely like warming up her instrument, or she came out to do the interview, which is her like New Yorker Smoker's voice.

I think if Trump was watching, I think we got a communications director right here and there.

She she is the She is.

The kind of person who I want much like the Menthol filter she had in her cigarette, I would like her to filter the news of the White House and deliver it to us on a daily basis if he gets that job once.

Again, if she was, I feel like she could run for city council somewhere and it could work.

Oh for sure.

And something she also I don't think this made the piece either, but she said that on January six, she was sitting outside like somebody brought a chair for her, and she was just like sitting outside and watching, just like sitting outside chain smoking cigarettes, being like, yeah, this is what America, this is what America.

Is for smoking section.

You guys, take it easy. We know your lungs are going to catch you up this hill.

In the conversations we have with people on January sixth, they no longer make our pieces anymore because the narrative

It will be, it'll be. It'll be the vernacular like what was it like? Were they fired up?

Not?

Now?

It was all January sixth vibes. Man, you couldn't get the crowd going super chill? Yeah yeah, no, yeah, yeah, she's wonderful. All right, Hold that thought. We have to take a quick break. The last court appearance. We had some stars that you mentioned, like George Santos, Marjorie Taylor Green this there was Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani son who recently ran from governor of New York.

Well, there was more press than there were MAGA supporters. I did run into one January sixth B List star, Rudy Giuliani's son.

Yeah. I was in Washington, DC on January sixth as well.

I was with President Trump. Sure, I remember him talking about peacefully protesting. Some people were talking about peaceful protests.

Some people also on January sixth, were talking about trial by combat.

Let's have trial by combat. Do you know anybody who was talking about that? Oh? You know, look, I would say the peaceful protest is the most important thing. No trial by combat, tests, no trial by combat. Do you guys even care what's going on inside the courtroom or not?

What was that like Jordan talking to Andrew?

Oh exciting, Yeah, it's so exciting. You know, this is why you do it.

You know, you get a chance to rub elbows with the hoy POLOI and Andrew Giuliani.

I mean again, we were we saw he was he was going around.

Trying to talk to media, trying to alle himself with Donald Trump, supporting Donald Trump, and so it was an opportunity for us to discuss.

With him won his allegiance.

And whether or not he was on board with this narrative of this being a peaceful event, which, to be fair, it was a fairly peaceful event, but it being the rhetoric leading to potentially a dangerous event, and comparing that to what happened on January sixth, and specifically comparing that to what his father said on January sixth, she weirdly forgot them that he seemed to have forgotten I appeared. It's shocking because it seemed pretty public and it was

I mean, who hasn't memory hold their father in citing a riot?

Right, here's a picture of your dad at four Seasons landscape, ping, do you remember this guy? This is another picture of him with his hair dye bleeding down his temples? Is this the guy you're forgetting? Zach? How do you think Andrew felt about the interview when it was wrapping up.

So the end of the interview, which which didn't air, was definitely the most bizarre part because he was just getting like all of his machismo bullshit energy was coming out when he realized that Jordan had got him with the trial by combat thing, and it was just so like just so bizarre, just like devolving into these weird like power dynamic of Okay, yeah, you're very funny, very you know, just just exactly what you would expect, like

That seemed to last like way too long.

It was one of those bro handshakes of like, you know what I'm doing with this handshake?

Bro? Right? Bro?

Right, bro a lot of bro. I'm like a lot of a lot of bro. Even if it wasn't verbalized, it was I felt a bro.

Handshake in there. And I'm very uncomfortable in those situations.

Do you feel my college golf strength coming through? That's right, college golf, baby, That's what I did. I was an athlete college golf.

It's just so interesting that he would even, you know, I always find it so interesting that the people they have the hubris to think that, like you know, im, Yeah, I'm gonna talk to this guy who's like very well known for pointing out hypocrisy in public figures like me. But like, no, that would you know, that's that would happen.

I'm ready. It's like he went into the interview without having any idea what we're gonna talk about. He's like, let's go, let's go, let's do it.

It's it's all peacocking. That entire event is just peacocking everyone who shows up. Juliani's there, He's strutting around peacocking, trying to show up to Donald Trump, Laura Lumer is trying to do that. Even the wild, wild guy with a huge flag, He is there peacocking.

Nobody wants to talk about anything or.

If you people are there just because they have what feels like an earnest gripe. It feels like an earnest opportunity for so many people, and that's what we what we found with Juliani.

Yeah no that I mean, it's interesting that he showed up because you haven't heard from him in a while. But I guess if you're that figure in New York, this is your opportunity. I don't think he'll be showing up again for a while. But here was his shot.

There was there was a there was a guy emblematic of it all. Okay, this is this is not a ton of people there. But I remember as we were leaving, a guy came in with his Trump paraphernalia and he was meeting his body. They had a big hug at the entrance and overheard him saying, Okay, let's let let's go out. Let's go, let's let's go get in there. I see a lot of cameras. Let's go talk to the people, talk to the cameras. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's the mentality of all of those folks walking in.

It's interesting because I read something that was talking about day two about how there was really only one supporter there, which is very funny and said it's hard to make TV out of things not happening, so we don't automate go and do that. But I would be very curious to talk to that one supporter and be like, what's it like, what are your plans for the day? What do you have in store for day three? But thinking about that, how do you see I guess, like, do

I don't think Trump is going to get a big response here in New York City, and I think he will bring he will articulate that as this being a biased liberal town.

But I also think at its core it's bullshit.

This I'm doing this for you, I'm fighting for you as a way to get a rise and way to get people to cheer at a rally, But deep down he's not doing it for you. This case, the farther away we get this case is about him having sex with Stormy Daniels him then during an election months before, like what a month before the election, paying for Stormy Daniels.

Not to talk about the sex they had.

Now that's Trump's thing, and ain't the rest of America's things, and him trying to connect that to your struggles. People who have to work nine to five, people would have to take time off of work, they would have to figure out what to do with their childcare to come on down and support and yell on your behalf. Like, No, the people who are doing that are people who see it as a job opportunity, not people who see it

Yeah, it doesn't seem like his logic, like it'll track with the most fervent supporters, but you know, for your average, not as engaged civilian in America, like that logic just doesn't track if you know anything about the trials whatsoever.

Also, there these are shows.

We go to these rallies, and a lot of people go to the rallies because they're fun. They wait in line for tw hours because they want to get inside. They want to hang out with their pals, and they want to cheer for Donald Trump when he comes on out. You don't get to see Donald Trump when you come to downtown New York. It's a legal proceeding that's happened inside a building that you're gonna have no access to if you're there because you want to see Donald Trump

Going to a stadium and watching the game on the big screen that's being played somewhere else is never a good look in my opinion.

That just seems a little desperate.

But that's not even that. It's like going to a stadium then being like, we're gonna stream this event to your phone, right and you're not even gonna watch it as a community. You're gonna watch it on your phone.

Let's all get updated on Twitter together.

Yeah, we haven't been to one of these in another state. I'm very curious about what it will be like in Georgia in Florida when those things are happening. I'm very curious.

I am very curious to see if it's if it's a similar situation, Uh, if we go down to Atlanta, and if people are are absent or if they find this as a crusade that they want to travel for.

The good news is, we're gonna have so many opportunities. Guys. This is the good news. And don't let it sink in. Don't think too much about it because you'll get depressed. But the good news is we have a lot of opportunity to make this kind of TV. This is thank you President Trump for allegedly committing so many crimes. You've given us a lot of material and and like a very busy calendar. So I mean, think about our you know, our lives. We are maybe we're the victims here, you know what this is?

Yeah, I think I think I think that's a victim narrative. People can rally around Ian. Thank you, Jordan.

You should tell the audience you're doing this for them the way Trump does.

You know, look, I'm a I'm a self centered comedian, and even I know that's a bridged far.

Well, I'm doing it for them and travel points, so that's also for me.

That's where I do feel like, you know who really hurts on this is uh is you and the lack of travel points you're getting. I think what really is suffering is the buffet bar at the Delta Priority loud.

Like, oh great, the Manadan courthouse. I've done jury duty here, fantastic. I went to high school five blocks from here. This is not exciting to me. Okay, we gotta do better. Trump get arrested in more interesting places.

Thank you. I know, I love it.

Yeah, come on, get arrested in Charleston or a Hawaii arrest. I don't just something something to really really give us something that Vegas baby.

I feel like Vegas would be very hard for him to get arrest They'd be like, yeah, that's what we do.

It's promost We have advertisements for this in the airport.

Dude.

Well again, great job, guys, great piece. It was a lot of fun working with you all. I'm sure we'll get to do it again. Zak, you're excited to get back out.

There same here. Yeah, pumped and ready to go. Let's let's go to Georgia.

You know.

And before we go, actually, I want to give a shout out to our podcast producer Ashley Williams.

She is leaving us for.

The Today showy sad, god bless moving from the Daily Show to the Today Show a little bit more present.

I can respect it, I understand it. Ashley.

Thank you for all your hard work and having to listen to the conversations of a bunch of blawheards like us, and so we appreciate it and we wish you well on your next endeavor.

Jordan Zach, thank you and thank you for listening to The Daily Show yours edition.

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Hey jen h, when did you guys start hiring competent people? Because that it was Ashley who was running the pocket has I guess what you would call her shit together and like laid this thing out, you know, you guys have really changed the culture from when I was there.