GOP Votes for Biden Impeachment Inquiry | Taraji P. Henson

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This is The Daily Show with your host Calpan.

Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Calpan. It's my last night as guest host.

And it's also the last Daily Show of the year, which means it's gift time. Uh everyone, look under your seats. You got the person behind you of you your buck crack Marry Christmas.

All right, we got a great show for you.

Tonight's get into the headlines. Well, kick things off with the big news out of Washington, DC, where House Republicans just ended this year's session with a very special Christmas gift for Joe Biden.

This morning, House Republicans are pushing ahead with an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, despite finding no evidence of wrongdoing in nearly a year of investigations. The inquiry has focused on allegations that the president abused his power to enrich his family, and whether he made decisions while vice president

Welcome to the Donald Trump revenge show.

Even some Republicans openly admit they've seen no hard evidence.

I'm going to just follow the facts where they are, and the facts haven't taken me to that point where I can say that the president's guilty of anything.

With the presidential election in a year away, several Republicans seem to say the quiet part out loud.

What are you hoping to gain from an impeachment inquiry? All I can see is Donald J.

Trump twenty twenty four.

Man, this has been I think the most transparent political congressional investigation since I've been in congression.

Man, Now I hate when I slip up and say the thing I totally mean. Republicans have been searching for a year already, and so far it seems like Biden's only crime is having a messed up son, which would be a terrible precedent to set. I don't want to see Tom Hanks go to jail. To be fair, we can't say for sure whether Biden ever did anything shady

They don't care if it's legitimate.

It's like how I told the Art Department to make this magazine cover of me winning Sexiest Bitch of All Time and.

The enormous penis Quarterly.

You don't even have to speculate about whether this is politically motivated because you literally have a GOP congressman just shouting out Trump twenty twenty four. This whole thing is such a piece of theater. I'm surprised Lauren Bobert's not in the crowd given someone a handy. It seems like impeachment is just something that's gonna happen to like every president now, which is not at all how it's supposed

But let's move on, because I.

Don't want to give the impression that Congress is completely distracted by this impeachment stuff. In fact, the same day they were dealing with that, they still found time to tackle one of the biggest issues facing the country today.

School kids are going to have another drink option in their cafeterias very soon. The House just passed the bill allowing schools to.

Serve whole milk.

Several regulations have limited what kind of milk kids could have since twenty twelve.

The Whole Milk for.

Healthy Kids Acts will give kids the options of whole or reduced and low fat milks.

The nutrients and whole milk like protein, calcium, and vitamin D, provide the fuel Santa needs to travel the whole globe in one night. If whole milk is a good option to fuel Santa's extraordinary Christmas Eve journey, then why isn't it an option for American school children in their own foods?

Okay, I don't know if that's the best argument.

How much energy does milk give you?

If Santa has to stop and drink more at every house, Santa doesn't need milk, He needs one of those Panera lemonades.

Woo.

Done with all the nice kids and it's only ten thirty. Screw, Let's give the naughty kids gifts two, I'm inventable.

Now.

This bill passed with bipartisan support, but it was a particular priority for Republicans, which makes sense. I mean, you can't look at this party and tell me you're surprised they're obsessed with milk. By the way, are kids really out there demanding whole milk?

They're school kids.

They want caprice sons or at best, milk flavored vapes.

But I gotta be honest, there is.

Actually a good reason, like not to expand milk options for kids.

Milk is kind of disgusting.

Like is that weird? Like that we drink milk as a species. It's not your mom's milk. It's not even your friend's mom. It's like a completely different animal.

Milk is so.

Gross, except for chocolate milk that's really ummy. Finally, it's that time of the year where everyone is headed to their office holiday parties. It's the big night where you get to see which one of your coworkers is married to an ugo. Usually a holiday party is a chance for everyone to have fun together, but for the Boston Mayor's party, it was a vipoc's event.

Only Mayor Michelle Wu gives hugs and gifts to the outgoing counselors during the final Boston City Council meeting of the year. But not everyone is feeling the love. After the city disinvited the white counselors to a holiday party. Seven News obtained this email sent to all the city councilors Tuesday. It is from one of the mayor's staffers and reads, I cordially invite you and a guest to the electeds of color holiday party. But fifteen minutes later

I do find a device, But you know, what are you gonna do about it?

You don't want me at a party.

I'm not gonna come to the parties.

I feel bad now, guys, come on, let them come to the patty.

This is this is rough, all right, this is rough.

They planned a party just for the people of color, and then they accidentally invited the white people too, and then they uninvited them like it's a whole mess. And I'll be honest, this is actually a tough.

One for me.

I understand where they're coming from, right, I've been to too many parties where one of my coworkers asks me if I know Seema Anti from Indian.

Matchmaking, and I do, But like, that's not the point.

And listen, white friends, I know what you're thinking, but your coworkers aren't excluding you from a party so that they can talk shit about you. That's what our WhatsApp group is for. But be that as it made. Okay in this case, the invitations already went out to their white colleagues.

Y'all, come on. At that point, it's too late.

Your only option is to say the holiday party this year will center and honor of the narratives of the bipock community, and then nobody's gonna want to come. For more on the fallout of the Boston Holiday party scandal, we go live on the scene, Detroit, Iwata, Troy.

Don't identity based parties like this hurt the feelings of the people they leave out?

You know, maybe, but I wouldn't know because I'm half Japanese and Jewish and gay, and I look kind of white. So I've never been excluded from a party in.

My life, and I never will.

Because that would be a hate crime. So yeah, I go to them all. The American Jewish Council's annual Hanika Hobnan, the AAP I B Yob, the KKK Christmas Keger.

You go to the KKK holiday party? Okay? One word?

Open bar, that's free.

That's four words. What's in that cup?

The point is, if you're gonna exclude people from your holiday party, why announce it?

Just like meet quietly for drinks. That's what I did on my birthday.

Oh cow, that's so so, so so sad. There's no point in having an exclusive party if everyone else doesn't know how exclusive the party is. Okay, Denise, the woman who accidentally sent that email out, she did that on purpose, Like, oops, I guess you found out I'm attending a private soiree this weekend. How embarrassing, I see what Denise did? I love Denise, But did you still have to work with all those people?

Is it less awkward to just invite everybody?

No? Now, Frankly, the only reason to invite everyone is so you can stand in the corner and talk about your coworkers. A party is a lot more fun if you can be like, don't look now, but Keith brought his ex wife as a date, Like, we don't know, we did, God.

Move on, Keith, wait, focus focus Troy. Leaving people out feels cruel to me.

Okay, well we can talk about that tonight at the Daily Show holiday party for gay and Asian on camera talent. It's called the GAAOCT the Geta.

But that's just gonna be you and me. That's not a party.

That's like the perfect party.

We don't have to remember anyone's names. I don't have to make a second tray of potato skins because someone's vegan this week, and we already know who our secret Santa is. I got you nothing. You have enough stuff. Plus when we get tired, we can just Irish exit each other.

Oh I feel like the term Irish exit is offensive to Irish people.

Okay, well they're not invited, so it's just US Asian gay half Jews.

I'm not half Jewish.

Cal I'm really sorry, but I'm gonna have to rescind your invitation. This is just a very exclusive party.

Sounds like it's just you at home alone.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the ultimate party. I'm just gonna I'm gonna order takeout and I'm gonna watch the holiday try on everybody.

When we come back, we'll talk about prostitutes. So don't go away, Welcome back to the Daily Show. Let's talk about sex.

It's the thing America makes its gym teachers explained. For some reason, America has been legalizing a lot of vices, weed, gambling, breakfast for dinner, but one activity is still relegated to the shadows, sex work, which is weird because it's the oldest profession in the world and Americans love old stuff. Just look at our presidential candidates. But why is sex

Oh yeah.

But there's one place in America where things aren't quite so dire for sex workers, Nevada. Nevada shows us that when you get sex work out of the shadows, it becomes something much less scandalous a job.

Nevada the only state where sex work is legal in some areas. There are about two dozen brothels across Nevada where sex workers have to pay taxes and get regular STV checks.

A lot of people think that we're dirty, when in all actuality, I've been tested more than probably like ninety five percent of the human population.

Just like any other business, there are safety regulations here. There are security cameras and panic buttons, which is a lot different than the outside world of illegal prostitution. The women here go through thorough background checks.

Everybody working there is licensed, legal verified has cleared their SDD and STI testing and have ski jumped through all the requisite hoops.

That's right.

In Nevada, all sex workers have to get background checked, STD tested. They literally have to be licensed to smash, which also happens to be my favorite James Bond movie.

By the way.

By the way, not once has Bond ever pulled out a condom. That's why they have to keep replacing him. He dies of syphilis. This is why we should want sex work to be regulated. Regulations keep sex workers safe from nearly every single job hazard, except for the clients who just want to talk and then end up crying for an hour. Now, look, Nevada isn't perfect. They have issues with monopolies, licensing fees. They're in the desert, so

So long story shorts.

This is not an easy issue to fix, and there's no agreement on how to do it. But what we do know is that sex work is not going away anytime soon. So let's find a solution that protects sex workers safety and treats them with dignity, because after giving out so many happy endings, it's about time they get one themselves. When we come back, Taraji p Henson will be joining me on the show Don't Go Away.

Her Welcome back to the show.

My guest tonight is an Academy Award nominated actor who stars in the new film The Color Purple.

Please welcome Tara G.

P Henson, Hello, welcome back.

You can't cry.

You haven't.

Oh my god, you thank you.

Oh my god? What happened?

You guys made me cry?

I wasn't expecting that this is you.

Talking about.

That's what the world needs, more love.

Thank you.

This is before you've seen The Color person I mean incredible. I had the chance to see the film early. I know it comes out on Christmas Day. It's fantastic. I'm curious what your first experience with The Color Purple was.

Was the book? Was it the earlier film?

It was the first film. I was fifteen and I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my future, and I started falling in love with acting. And you know, a little girl coming from Southeast DC, I lived in the hood.

You know, you know, I lived in the hood.

And you know sometimes when you come from places like that, your dreams are stifled.

But I just remember.

Seeing all those black faces and I was like, I.

Want to do that. I want to do that.

And that's why representation is so important.

And I want to ask you about that film is incredible. It's about community, it's about women, especially Black women.

What was the vibe like on set?

So much fun?

I mean, like the support that we gave each other. You know, I this is my first time really singing like this, and you know it's not something that I'm very confident in. I'm more confident in my acting than I am I singing. Singing is something I can do. I studied musical theater in college, but you know, when I became pregnant, I kind of turned my back on the music industry because it seemed a little dark to me.

I was like, Hey, they don't have a union. Who's protecting the artists?

So I packed my baby up and I moved west because I felt more secure with acting.

I think I made the right choice.

Yeah, but you know, we supported each other, like this was Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks's first studio film, so where they felt like they were inadequate, I held their hands as far as being their first feature film and and for me the singing, and so they held my hand and it was just beautiful. Like the sisterhood and the camaraderie that we had on the set is why you feel it so much coming through the screen, because we really had a good time.

And you you were a huge Fantasia fan from American iol Right.

Now, I still have callouses on those voting.

Voting for her. Had you all met each other before this movie, I never met her before.

But I lost my grandfather about twenty years ago and he was a huge Fantasia fan. But I still have my grandma. She's turning one hundred in April.

Oh wow, well, Grandma, she's in good hands and sending her law.

God.

So this is this is a musical adaptation of the Color Purple. And I'm curious how for you how the music adds to the storytelling.

Oh my goodness. I mean, I think Scott Sanders is who we need to give the credit to for that. He's the producer who was the first person to bring music even to the musical, and so he's the one of the producers on this, and he's the pioneer of the musical.

That we have Color Purple. But I thought it was.

Brilliant and I had to give him his credit. I was like, you know, because as black people, that's what we are. Like I have like my little nephew. I remember one day, the washing machine was on and it was in this kind of like percussion beat and he started dancing.

And that's just how we are.

We We will dance to you know, we banjo, We like make sounds on our chest and we dance and I just thought, Wow, what an interesting concept to bring music to.

This this this this, this.

Beautiful piece of literature. And it just makes sense because we are musical.

You know.

And and and what I love about this musical and why we use musical music and how it's used in the film is most times you sing a song where you don't have the words, When you can't find the words, you sing a song. And that's why it makes so much sense, because these characters are going through so much trauma, you know, And that's what we are as a people. We don't wallow in them up. We don't let ours trauma consume us. We dance, we sing, we go to church, we laugh.

You know.

I wanted to ask about that the music was part of it, but then blitch your director. Also, I wanted to ask you about the the I feel like a lot of times when you see communities of color film, especially if something is a period piece, and especially if it's through the lens of someone who is not from that community, you often end up just really focusing on the victim, hit on the trauma. And this was such

Oh absolutely, And for me, I remember when I got the call my manager, cause is during the pandemic, we had nothing going on. We're sitting around talking heads on zoom and he calls and he's like, you know, you're being tapped for sugar. I said, sug what and he was like, sug avery.

For the color purple.

I said, oh god, why are we That's a classic leave it alone. But then I met with Blitz and for one I knew I had to do it because I've I've been a part of some incredible cinema that was about black people but was not told by black people. So I knew for that, for that alone, I needed to be a part of it because I knew it would look different. And when he started explaining his radical reimagining of it, I was like, oh my god, I have to be a part of this. This is literally

The Regids knew it would look zo.

Yeah, you know, I want to ask you about the foundation, the Boris Lawrence Penson Foundation.

It just tell me about it. I've read a little bit and I thought it was trua So I'm.

Very proud of the work I'm doing for black and brown and underserved communities and mental wellness because you know, we're just learning to talk about it.

Guys.

You know, we have been suffering and since slavery, we've been passing down dysfunctional ways of functioning, and it's time for us to heal. It's time for us to break generational curses.

And so when I.

Was looking it, it was all out of my own necessity because I'm ra raising a young man by myself, and thank.

You, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't with that on my worst enemy. But you know, ah, becoming a young man, and I'm not a man. You know, his father was murdered when he was nine, and then my dad died two years after that. So I what am I? You know, I I N I S And so now the rose colored glasses are coming off and he's understanding that he's a black man in America, which is different from being a kid, cause he's not cute anymore.

The forest launch time, breaking down that Sigma is so critical.

Thank you for doing us.

Last question I want to ask you is a little bit of a fellow actor nerd question. What was it like working with Oprah and Steven Spielberg on this.

Oh, I didn't see much of Steven Spielberg, But what I will I'll find this funny. My entire career on sets, never knew Steven, never met him. I would always go hold my phone and if Steven Spielberg calls, tell him I call him after this tape, and finally he called.

But I will never.

Forget the first shot that we the first scene that we shot was the very last scene of the film, and that's everybody around that big oak tree. And I remember that day. Oprah was there and everybody's like, oh God, Oprah, see you got to be.

On your best behavior.

And so after they yelled it's a picture wrap for the day we did the electric slide with.

Oprah Winfrey say that.

I'm sure someone has it out there.

Well, thank you.

Look the color purple is in theaters on Christmas date, Toron, Jip.

Hans and everybody. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll do right back up today. Thank you so much.

Well, that's our show for tonight and that's my time as guest host. And if you're looking for the perfect holiday gift, then you can pick up a copy of my book or audiobook You Can't be Serious, wherever books are sold. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you.

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