Jon Stewart Knocks Dems' Lack of Vision Countering Trump Agenda | Sen. Chris Murphy

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Ladies and gentlemen. I'm gonna tell you something.

It is Trump's world and we're just cowering in it. Over just the past few days, Donald Trump deported hundreds of men is way on sal Salvador despite a judge's order, extraordinarily renditioned a pro Palestinian Columbia student with a green card, declared that CNN and MSNBC should be illegal. By the way, I'm not against everything he does now, but perhaps most impressively.

Yesterday, the President played in a golf tournament at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County. He later took to social media to announce his championship win, calling the victory a quote a great honor.

Oh he won.

The tournament at Trump International?

How did that happen? This dude's whole life.

He's like to make a wish batman kid.

Hey, look at that, Donald, you caught all the criminals. Look.

I'm opposed to anyone rolling back American democracy, but I do tip the cap to any seventy eight year old winning a golf tournament and, by the way, still having enough energy left to stroll into the command center in his golf attire to bomb the shit out of Yemen.

Yeah.

Now, look, anyone can bomb the shit out of Yemen after nine holes, but eighteen.

By the way, when.

He did that shift at mc donald's, did they just let him keep the headset?

Is that all right?

Well, they're bombing the shit out of Yemen. He's like, hold on, I got fries at the drive through window.

Hold on, by the way.

By bombing Yemen, Donald Trump continued a presidential tradition dating back decades. It may have been what the Wright brothers invented the plane for. How much better do we have to make this for it to be able to reach and bomb the shit out of Yemen? But fear not, because Democrats, put on the back foot finally have an opportunity to stand up and show their dispirited party they still have the principle and the backbone to face down

This is a terrible cr a bill that is designed to hurt the American people.

It would cut by nearly fifty percent funding for medical research, to.

Take away a nursing home care from millions of our seniors.

There's more than a billion dollars of cuts to veteran benefits.

I'm voting no.

I will be a hard no vote. No.

Hell no, I am even more hell no?

Can you be more hell no? That like no? H double a hotey set.

By the way, right, who's this dude fooling? You know that salty language?

Isn't you?

Merkley dollar in the swear jar.

It's EHG double hockey sticks from now on. But this abomination of a budget shall not pass because Senator Schumer, please remind the people what is necessary.

Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate.

You don't have the votes, unique Congression provo because you don't have the votes because the Philip Buster requirers for.

I only saw the play once.

You see, Republicans, your little evil budget plan might have worked if you hadn't forgotten that one. Senator Schumer is Charles and George of the Democratic Party. I'm afraid your diabolical scheme.

Has been foiled.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer set off a firestorm heading into this weekend when he changed course and announced he would vote to move forward on a Republican backed funding bill.

Turns out you had the vote. Republicans had the votes. What the f happened?

I will vote to keep the government open. I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people.

But but you had but you had to say it were terrible and oh oh wait a minute, ah shit, I know what's going on? Had all right? I know what's going on. Huh. You had me going, Chuckie, you probably got a little some out of this, didn't you, Oh se shoe.

You wouldn't have given up that powerful level bridge on the budget for nothing.

My guess is Chucky got some cheese.

Did Schumer get anything from Republicans in exchange for those dumb votes?

He did not.

Senator Schumer, no disrespect, but you are a disgrace to Jewish stereotypes about financial negotiations.

That's just about the whole point of us.

Is that what we do.

But you're out there, how much is it five dollars? How about I give you seven? Like? Why what are you doing?

And for those of you who may have felt like this was a total capitulation, Senator Schumer just felt like this wasn't the moment for Democrats to press their case because Trump is still took.

Strong when he went below forty percent in the polls, the Republican legislators started working with us. He was at fifty one, he's now at forty eight. We're going to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it until he goes below forty. When it happens, I am hopeful that a Republican colleagues will resume working with us.

You're going to keep out it, keep at it, keep out it, keep at it.

At what.

This was it? This was the it that you would have been keeping at the keeping of the it.

It's not the keeping of the it that's the issue. It's what the it? Don't you have to start it to keep at it?

If this wasn't it, then it's what is it? If this not be it?

But apparently the grand plan is Dems keep fecklessly complaining until the forty eight approval comes down to forty which is a plan, but it's forgetting one crucial piece of information in Schumer's popularity calculation.

The stating cascading poll numbers for Democrats, only twenty seven percent of voters have a positive view of the party, the lowest favorability rating in the history of NBC's polling.

You're a twenty seven person.

You've got to get Trump to lose eight points of popularity just for you to get to the point where you're thirteen points below him. Your approval is only seven points above where it turns red and goes into low power mode. Maybe you're not a numbers learner. Maybe a visual demonstration for you. Here, let me meet you where you live?

All right, here we go. This is let me do this.

This is forty eight percent approval, This is them, This is you you twenty seven percent, this is them.

Oh, I see that much higher? Yes, the much higher. And if you keep this up, you'll be wearing these on your dick. Do you understand? Perhaps I'm being too hard on the center. Also I am not.

Perhaps he has insider knowledge of a quiet, smoldering Republican amenability to compromise. Perhaps underneath that hardshell of Republican in transigence is a soft nugdi center of responsible legislative leadership waiting to be freed. Boggains driven in the hollow yet marbled halls.

Of power, or maybe someplace must hear. I talked to them.

One of the places I told them to go in the gym. You know, when you're on that bike and shorts panting away next to a Republican, why do the inhibitions come off?

That's your client.

I'm gonna dangle my balls out of my shorts, and they do at the gym. Oh, you know, they're gonna lose all their inhibitions on the equipment.

You know, actually, Chuck, I would like to work with you on Medicaid reform.

And also I never told anybody this, but I once jerked a guy off in a park.

Oh this elliptical. I just lose my inhibitions, And.

You know, I would probably be just a skoch more receptive to Schumer's theory of gym based negotiation strategies if it had worked the last time.

We talk to our Republican colleagues all the time, I talk to them all in the gym. When you're a sixty year old on a bike, panting in your shorts, the inhibitions sort of fall away.

You know, I'm not here to posture shame, but for a guy who seems to be spending most of his life in the gym, a little less talk, you talk a little more core. Second of all, in the gym, they're only being agreeable with you.

Christ They want you to leave them.

Alone in the gym on the stationary bike.

Oh sure, Chuck, I'm definitely going to do that.

But I have to tell you something. Peddling really hard and not going anywhere. It's a great metaphor for the Democratic Party right now. Also ball flat, but for some reason, there is a persistent fiction within the Democratic Party that if they just hang out with Republicans in the gym, or wait out Trump's popularity, or give them concessions on a continuing resolution they said would harm the country, that

Fever will break.

All this excitement about dnthpe It's going to break.

So it is like a cult.

The fever will break.

Is this the night the fever will break? The chance to break the fever? I believe at some point soon the fever will break.

I think you're going to see the fever break.

President Obama saying, quote now, I believe when we're successful in this election, that the fever may break.

If someone's been running a fever.

Since the aughts, that's not a fever, that is their default resting temperature. This fiction that you are inventing, this idea that somehow, oh, they'll come to their senses, it allows Democrats to keep thinking that Republicans are actually the ones in the precarious position. They've got a very narrow margin in the House, a bigger margin in the Senate, and their goals are internally conflicting.

They don't have the numbers. Republicans need Democratic votes.

It's going to be clear they can't pass anything without Democratic help.

Congress won't be able to keep the lights on, let alone pass anything of substance without the buy in and blessing of House Democrats and a King Jeffreys. It's a great message, except Republicans have gotten everything through every crazy appointment. The guy who wrote the children's book on Russia Gate, runs the FBI, Tulsa Gabbard, RFK, Weekend Fox and Friends guy.

They all sail through.

Literally.

The only one that has failed so far is picking a chucky doll that runs on cocaine and biagra for Attorney General. And that's just because the Republicans personally hated him, probably for something he did at the gym. Look you,

Hi, I'm Congressman Sarah Jacobs. Get ready with me while I explain to you how House Republicans are trying to give away your healthcare to give tax breaks to big corporations. Last week, Republicans introduced their budget resolution.

I'm sorry, I'm having difficulty focusing on what you're saying because I'm terrified that you're a hard yellow light away from getting ready with Dan Crenshaw. Obviously, that is not meant in any way to diminish Congressman Crenshaw's service and how he was wounded in Afghanistan. Making a get Ready with Me video?

Is that tonight?

Huh?

Comedy is legal again? Right?

Perhaps nothing is as emblematic of this mismatch between the parties than the Democrats' latest viral offering. Now, I understand Democrats would want to showcase that some of their members have not had hip replacement surgery yet, and I hope you understand whatever that last photo was, But I'm fighting you while taking a ship way ahead, just understanding this, whatever this is, is no match for the game Republicans are playing.

When we come back.

Senator Chris Murphy, don't go away.

What about in the Daily Show?

And I got tonight a current term US senator from Connecticut, please welcome the program.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, sir?

What uh?

What do you? What do you really think about the Democratic Party? I didn't Uh, I didn't pick that up.

What is happening?

So just in this.

C R for the budget, Yeah, there was great resolve and unity about what a disaster this.

Was for the American people.

Chuck Schumer, they need us. If they don't have us, they don't get to pass it. And then he just flips and I don't want to just blame it on him. There was clearly a decision was made within the Senate. Was there a meeting at Was there a lunch where all the senators in the Democratic Caucus?

Uh?

Had I'm going to assume mostly mushy food.

There is there is, there is, There is jello serve that every single one of our lunches.

I've been to the Senate.

There is a chewing and digestion issue. Was there a discussion as to whether or not you would invoke the filibuster not give them cloture, And how did that discussion go.

Yeah, there was a discussion and there was a disagreement. I don't listen. I don't agree with the decision a handful of my colleagues made. And this all to me sits in context, right. I mean, as you have described, what is happening right now is the billionaire takeover of our government, the highest level of corruption that we have ever seen coming out of the White House, and by the way, added to it, the destruction of our democracy because they know that they can't get away with it

Know the idea, and I've heard a lot of it, and they're kind of I think you bring up a lot of it. We can simply, but I hear a lot of the American people have to get involved. And it does feel a little bit like, well, we've gone to a Knicks game and they're getting their asses kicked and in a timeout they.

Turn to the crowd and go like, you're in right now? Isn't the whole point?

And I hear a lot of like it's a billionaire takeover and it's a threat to democracy. What I don't hear a lot of is what are the three things that in that CR if Chuck Schumer had any leverage, what are the three things he would have asked for? Other than what would he have asked for? Because I follow it pretty closely and I don't.

No, Yeah, listen, So that CR transferred a bunch of money out of programs that help regular people. Right there was money cut from housing programs and job training programs. That's bad for this country. It gave the president new authorities they didn't have before.

The authorities.

So, for instance, one of them is that the president under the cr can start new military programs in the country that have not been authorized independently by Congress.

And of course but before we own Congress just authorized that, so it is authorized.

Well, we don't normally give that kind of open ended authorization to the president, certainly not at a time when the president is regularly hourly abusing his statutory and constitutional authority. It seems like a pretty bad time to give him additional So.

Chuck Schumer could have said, I am going to fill a buster this unless you keep the power of the military purse with us.

So this is the first time since I've been in Congress that we have not had a bipartisan full year spending bill. Right there was negotiated with Republicans and Democrats, and that's what we want. We wanted to have a seat at the table. Listen, this was not going to be a perfect bill.

It was. It's the saddest thing I've ever heard.

No, but you want it. But you don't want a full year spending bill passed without having some of your priorities in that bill. And that's not what ended up happening here. And I get it, the specter of the shutdown White was real. You never know who's going to win a fight over a shutdown. But this seems to be a moment where our parties should be taking some risks.

It didn't seem like they even tried.

Yeah, yeah, John, I mean, and again, I don't think you can ask the people of this country to do these exceptional things that are going to be necessary to save our democracy if we aren't willing to take risks. And it's not just what happened over the cr right. I mean, we have the opportunity to just say no to all legislation that's coming before the Senate unless it fixes the constitutional crisis. We didn't all have to show up to the State of the Union speech. We could

Masks, I thought the paddles.

I thought, anytime you can take a page out of the Valentine Heart candy playbook, little messages like is.

It Maybe this is begging the question.

Maybe we need to step back and say, is the problem here not that the Democrats don't have a plan to fight it. It's that they actually don't have a plan that they don't have a foundation of how they would look. This election was about the American people repudiating that government was serving their needs right. The Republicans have been working on this little project twenty twenty five for sixty years, and the Democrats feel like they were just

Yeah, I mean, listen, Ultimately, we need to be a party that stands for everybody in this country having access to happiness and success, not just the billionaires. We need to be a party that but the tax corporate power right so that people are in control of their lives.

But the public doesn't user them as breaking it. They view the Democrats as having broken it. That's my question is is there a reflection on the Democratic side that part of what this is is their theory on governance is somewhat broken. That you know, let me explain this, let me get it more specific. Example, if I'm a taxpayer, I feel like I pay money. I pay taxes, but I don't get health care. I have to buy insurance.

It shouldn't take ten years to build a bridge, right it shouldn't take five years to get a subdivision permitted. Government is not working for people right now. And when I first got into politics, the Democratic Party every single day talked about reforming government, talked about reforming democracy, talked about getting big money out of politics, talked about strict

We've ever said, God, I talking about me. This is the most corrupt show I've ever seen in my entire life.

Then, as Democrats, we have to start talking about how we would fix it. And what happened in this last election, as you know, is that we made democracy the tent pole of the Harris campaign and it looked like we were defending the existing democracy. This version of democracy is working for billionaires, corporations and the elites. And if we don't talk about how we're going to change that, and we're not going to be credible in this country.

But isn't it going to be pleased? Enjoy your copper.

I think credibility, I think is such an important word here, but it's something that is earned. And I see a Democratic party that is way too comfortable with corporate lobbyists, a Democratic party that God blessed that we can negotiate the price of ten drugs and that that's a huge victory. Like if that doesn't send the message that this party is utterly out of touch with it's not a party that understands it seems the power and leverage that government

So listen. It all started during the Wall Street Crisis of two thousand and eight. The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party that breaks up the banks, not the party that bails out the banks, right, And it was that day the Democratic Party started credibil.

For that, isn't it.

Maybe it's Jimmy Carter opening up trade, it's Clinton deregulating the financial institutions. This is a long history of even when you think about Medicare or the ACA, oftentimes those are just subsidies.

Corporations love the ACA.

They're making a shit ton of money, billions of dollars.

So this party has become addicted recently to sort of writing people checks in order to compensate for the way in which the economy is rigged. I'm not saying that the child tax.

Credit is talking about right, let's go.

So I'm not saying right, I'm not saying that come out the child tax credit isn't a good thing, Or a little bit more money for your Obamacare subsidy isn't a good thing. But that doesn't make people feel good that you're having to give them a little bit of money to compensate for the fact that work doesn't pay in this country. That drug company CEOs are making out like bandits buying their seventh housses.

Right, So, if you.

Were really serious, if you're really serious about communicating a message that resonates with you, well you wouldn't be talking about just negotiating in a different way for ten drugs. You'd be talking about putting a cap on the amount of money that any drug company can sell drugs to any Is that so hard?

That's the point.

The point is simply this.

The government subsidizes these corporations with billions of dollars and demands nothing in return. And isn't that the foundation of a governing philosophy. Maybe they could put it in a book, They could call it project, something.

Like is that work not being done?

Because right now it looks like ad hoc people on TikTok making better brand for themselves, but the party seems utterly rudderless.

Okay, so two things once we viewed We viewed people like Bernie as an outlier threat to the institutional Democratic Party, when in fact, what he was talking about and is still talking about is the crossover message, right, is the message, it's.

A traditional Democratic message. It actually it's RFK Democrat.

And that pulls trunk quoters back into the Democratic coalition. The second thing is this, the Republican Party has paid for a permanent infrastructure around ideas and around messaging that makes something like Project of twenty twenty five possible. Whereas Democrats raise lots of money every two years, we blow it all on thirty second ads that disappear into the ether as soon as the election is done, instead of

Day, practical ideas, common sense, but.

Sell them every day, build the infrastructure or to lot every day.

Clearly they have the money. Clearly there are think tanks. Is it because no one has brought the party together as an individual? Is it because the corporatists part of the party has been dominant?

Tell listen. I think the Republican Party has had some dominant figures, some of them funders like the Kochs, some of them political figures like Donald Trump. The Democratic Party hasn't had that kind of continuity of leadership. But there's also a consultant class inside the Democratic Party that makes a lot of money off of those thirty second ads, and they don't make as much money if you're actually

Right, No, listen, I can today more, are you?

It feels a little bit like the Democrats are standing on thirty fourth Street and they're looking up at the Empire State Building and they're going, we should build one of those. And they're like, oh, why didn't you And they're like, I don't know, we you know, opened up a Papaya king if he blocks down to think about you know, how how far back in this process do you think the Democratic Party is and is there even a consensus about beginning that process because it doesn't seem to be even nascent.

Yeah, but they are handing us the opportunity, right, Donald Trump ran as a fake populist and he is there for the unmasking. Right, he has no clothes, I mean, don't write. Yeah, I got but so they're literally every single day empowering the billion You've.

Still got Chuck Schumer in the gym in my head.

So there's nothing you can say to me that is going to wash that ship out of my brain.

Uh yeah, some of us go to the gym. Some of us don't.

Sho we're on an elliptic hall.

I'm sorry, so so so's it's there for the taking. I mean, their only legislative agenda item of any consequence is another tax cut, all of the money going to the billionaires and the millionaires. So so it's there for the taking. To rebrand the Democratic Party is the true populist party.

But it takes, but branding actually remaining on.

Doing yes and listen. We are the party that actually has ideas that transfer power from the powerful to the power less. We have been a little bit too addicted to incrementalism. But they are handing us the opportunity to go out and rip from their coalition. Right, people who actually do care about reordering fairness in our economy and are looking at these guys and realizing, you know what, the economy still sucks. My income isn't going up, and it kind of feels like the only people that are

What I say.

You don't mand it.

You invited me here, sit here.

Yelling at that's good lease people look at these people, look out and sad. These people, they're just sad every day.

I come in before the show. Do you have any questions? I don't know. I'm here on Mondays, so.

You can't get so you can't. I don't think get a lot lower than twenty seven percent.

And I would in bed on it.

And here the opportunity of this moment is given how legitimately upset people are and what has happened over the last week. This is an opportunity for the Democratic Party collectively to show that we are ready to meet this moment, show that we are ready.

To if you have to put together the dream Team tomorrow to start this project. Who are what are the groups that you're pulling together? What are the people and how are they getting started on creating this cohesive governing philosophy that says government is still important as a counterweight to not just slight of power or executive power, but of corporate power and of world interventionist power, and we need it. Could you name three people that you put on that task tomorrow?

Well, listen, I think every single Democrat has to be a part of this. I mean, again, I reject this idea that people like Bernie are threats to our electoral success. I think these ideas centering our entire conversation around asking the billionaires to transfer a little bit of their success to everybody else is core to the sort of existential future of the party. And we need to bring this conversation everywhere. I mean, this is our project right now.

Think they're going to let you stay in Washington. We have got to bring.

But three people don't come to mind, because I can't see Bernie anymore. Sweet Bernie in his sweater walk in the Capitol grounds, out of breath.

Going like aoc and Hi, We're gonna go. We're gonna be in Colorado. We're going to be in the Nevada come out and see us. I don't know what these people are doing, but I'm doing my best. Like there's got to be another answer. Burn right, but they're right.

But you know, listen, ten thousand people are showing up for Bernie, but a thousand people are showing up on a dime for any Democrat who's got a message that resonates. People are desperate to do something right now. They want to be plugged into action, and so we need to be out there giving people mission sets. Go to your

I think what they want is a cohesive message that feels like it addresses what people believe. Were they corrupt and broken elements of the system. That Democrats help design and have to be honest with themselves that no longer are functioning in the way that they.

Want make government work again, and make it work for everybody, not to.

Make government work again. Hold on a second.

Monument work?

Oh man, Hey, everybody, hold on muglah christ.

Who hold look on shop for tonight.

But before we go, we're gonna check in with your hopes.

For the rest of the week, mister Jordan Clepper, Jordan, what's on Thatchnic week?

Oh God, I gotta tell you. It is March Madness.

A month of exciting college basketball tournament starts this week, and I've already got my bracket filled out.

It's already busted.

Damn it, damn it. There it goes, Jordan Junior.

Is a little college fun, Jordan. The games haven't even started yet. So you didn't. You didn't. You didn't blow it. You didn't blow any of the money. The thing hasn't even who'd you picked to win the whole thing? The New England Conservatory of Music. You blew it, Jordan Clepper. Everybody.

Also, Oh, I meant to tell you this March thirty first, I'm hosting a night at Too Many Stars at the Beacon Theater right here in New York City, live comedy event benefiting autism programs nationwide.

If you're in.

Town, yeah, I say me an unbelievable lineup, many great stars.

We'd love to have you there, raise a little money.

For these programs that are suffering, because, as you know, when public money leaves, private people are here.

It is your moment, is that.

It's fish or cutting bay time for Sator Schumer, he's got to either your night or get off the pot.

Vivid imagery there from Senator John Kennedy. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The.

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