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Hello Ears Edition listeners, and this is The Daily Show contributor Extraordinaire Jordan Klepper. We are back making episodes for The Daily Show. We couldn't be happier about it, and personally, I'm still glad to be fingering the pulse. The Daily Show returned back this week with guest host Michael Costa and I got to hit up a Trump rally in Lake Winnipesake, New Hampshire. I'm joined by supervising producer Ian Berger. Now.
Ian is always out in the field with me riskiness life, googling restaurants and bars to check out after the rallies. And we want to give you a little Ears Edition extra, an Ears addition, if you will. We're still getting used to it. This show's been off there for a while. The wordplay, it's going to come back.
To us in next year. We'll have it.
Yeah, give us a little bit we needed. We needed seven months to really hone those skills. We're gonna unpack this piece that we got to do this week and talk a little bit about the process we go through out there in the field. Does that sound like a plan, Ian.
It sounds like a great plan, a wonderful plan. I mean, I think we've been waiting to do this for a long time, so now we're able to do it. We no matter what we're asked to do, we're gonna be really grateful and dive right.
In exactly, We're gonna jump in for people who don't know. So Ian and I have worked together. I mean I started the show twenty fourteen, so since twenty fourteen, at the Daily Show, at the Opposition Klepper, the Daily Show, and the last few years primarily, if you see me out a Trump rally, there's a decent chance Ian is just slightly off camera, you know, frustratingly biting the paper or talking down somebody.
We just talked, stressing out and judging people.
That's that's my job most of the.
Day, external judge there. And I would say, what's sort of funny about this strike. In the last five months, a lot of news has happened, and you and I tend to text back and forth. Yeah, yeah, I've sent you text messages. There's wild things with the ex president, international stories. It tends to be a little bit of a news hotbed right now.
Yeah, we've texted throughout the strike obviously, because there's a lot of free time when there's a strike.
And yes, as you said.
This to be clear, to be clear, talk to text. There was no writing, were.
Right, We did not write it. It's absolutely not. I don't even use punctuation when I text, so it can't count as writing. So that's my workaround. Yes, we texted like the whole time because we follow the news and we're eager to talk about these things. So it's almost as if we instinctively just texted each other bits while the news was happening, Like, imagine if we did this right now, and that's cool, good to kind of keep
those muscles in shape. It's also a little sad, I think to be like, yeah, imagine if we were on the field in Harrisburg, PA and talking to Trump voters.
Wouldn't that be delightful right now? But that's just who we are.
Yeah, Yeah. Indictment after indictment, it's like, oh, we have a job where we can comment on this, go to some of these places and it feels as if the conversation is bonkers right now. It would be a fun place to find comedy insanity. We finally got to do that, though, this week.
Wow, thank god, And it was wonderful. It was great.
What were your expectations going to a rally, a Trump rally in New Hampshire.
Well, I think I'm gonna say this because I think we're in the same page a lot, and we travel together, so we often arrive into a town together. We were not sure what this was gonna be because obviously we've not been on the road in a long time. But also Wolfborough, New Hampshire, is a very small, beautiful town on those shores of Lake Winnipesaki, and it doesn't have much of a Trump vibe and there's not a lot of people around. So I'll speak for both of us.
I think we were afraid there would not be many people there, and that we've had those thoughts before and every time we say, oh man, this might be the rally where there's not a lot of people, This could be the one, We're wrong, right, Jordan.
Yeah, it's remarkable, I think because the Trump and did an event in Iowa and this was sort of an opportunity for us to do sort of a catchup. We're like, we want to go out there, and literally we've been off the road for five months. What are people talking about there's a couple of things that happened this week we want to get to. But also do they care about these indictments, the news of the last five months. And so there was an Iowa event and we're pretty
certain because we've been to Iowa a lot. It was this time of year, a lot of people come out, there's a lot of energy there, and yeah, you're right. Every time we go to these towns where it seems like this is a quiet town, nobody's going to show up, we have this conversation where we're like, I know we've said it before, but who's coming to Wolfboro? It feels empty, it feels quaint, it feels somewhat progressive. And I tell you,
we wake up that next morning and it's packed. Yeah, there's a lot of people who made the trip.
Yeah.
Actually, we wake up the next morning, we're like, we'll take our time, get some coffee and then get to the venue. And one of our cameramen is there already and he's like, you have to get here now. There are hundreds of people online already. So that's and we haven't learned that lesson for some reason, but that's usually what happens.
Yeah, for those who don't know, people often ask like, what our strategy is when we approach a rally like this, How do you think of it? From a producer's standpoint? Approaching this New Hampshire rally, what was your strategy going in?
Well, I think, like you said, this is the first one back, So it's okay to have a more general conversation because the narrative of our show, in the narrative of your pieces going into this rally, is that this is our first show back, catch us up on everything that's been going on, but we can make jokes about
what's been going on in our life. So it's a little bit kind of like we're casting a pretty wide net, I think initially, which is in some ways easier, you know, to be like what do you want to talk about? Which is earnestly how we felt when we arrived, like you and I both didn't know what they wanted to
talk about. Now, if we were, you know, had been doing this for months and months and months and had been on the road and a story break had just broken and we went to a rally, we I think we would know exactly what they were going to talk about. And what we wanted to address. But I think going in you would agree this was pretty like this was kind of a general take at the start of our conversation, and I think for you and myself included like we hadn't been to a rally in this part of America
in a long time. It is like, how are you people doing? What? What do you what do you you know? What are your vibes?
Yeah?
And what do you think the vibes were? Jordan?
They were I think we laughed they were their father along than you ever think they are in terms of like drinking the kool aid and buying in on the things you hear. And now again, this is a Trump rally, so people are our big time. But Trump has been so successful at moving those goalposts and so what was surprising to me is not that people believe that the election was stolen and Trump is perhaps even still the president.
We had people who wouldn't concede that Joe Biden had won New Hampshire for our last election, which was which was sort of a starting point for a couple questions. We had a base baseline question, no twist or irony within it. It was Biden won New Hampshire. What has Trump done in the time since then to win over those New Hampshire votes? And it was like pull and teeth to get people to agree with the premise that New Hampshire went to Biden. Yeah, as far as I knew,
it was never a conspiracy. People even entertained.
It's a weird conspiracy to get in on because it's like, to me, it's like when people just would describe heist movies that were like, they spend twenty million dollars to heist eighteen million dollars. It's like, why would people go so far to steal New hamp Sure's few electoral votes. It seems like an odd thing to me, And so it did derail stuff for a little while, and we weren't ready for that. But it's kind of like it's always funny and refreshing to be like, oh, that's right now.
You're taking this thing that other people have kind of embraced and maybe enjoyed spreading around and putting it on your own personal story.
Yeah, it's it's I mean, he's Trump has taught people of worldview, which is you don't need to concede anything uncomfortable, and even the mild uncomfortable idea that the state you were currently in didn't go the way you hoped it would. You don't have to concede that either. And we go to these rallies sometimes and I think, I laugh because sometimes it's not until in the edit where some of the things that are said really register that one we knew in the in the field was like, wow, we
weren't really prepared for New Hampshire conspiracy theories. Secondarily, we got a lot of people who big up January sixth, who were not only big up in January sixth, who were there on January sixth. I think that is something that has been normalized beyond being a third rail of we don't want to talk about it. That's a complicated time, perhaps looks poorly on us, has now been woven into
the narrative of this was a great day. This was a day that only proved what we thought, which is other people are troublemakers, and this day, if I was there, only proves my maga bona fides right.
When we talk about that day, and I would hope most Americans would do the same when we talk about it. We were there, we witnessed history and The conversation we will forever have about that is like, this was really shameful. This is a really low point in American history. But
their view of it is the opposite. They're boasting about being there, and they're proud of it, and the expectation I think from there sharing those stories amongst their friends is like you were there, so lucky, high five, you know, where most of America would say, this is really you know, this is a really dark time in America?
Or what was your US rally.
January sixth, twenty twenty DC.
If you're going to go to one, go to one? Do you make it inside?
I can't say that for a little reasons.
You may or may not been involved in it. He's in this activity.
Yeah, well, can't get into that one.
Sure. Sure, we'll have fun, try not to overthrow any Daly elected officials.
No, no, we'll be good today.
Yeah, I trusted.
One thing that we noticed that was funny was they were proud they were there. They obviously know they can't say they went in the Capitol. Whether they did or not, we don't know, but that one couple did. We we had to cut it out. The couple who thought isis planned it.
I think January sixth is probably my favorite one.
You were there, Oh yeah, that's your number one? What what made it in your favorite one? What stood out from January sixth.
Well, aside from all the violence that was planned by the FBI and such, do.
You think were they proud boys and oathkeepers?
No, they were anteeth of Black Lives Matter, ISIS and MS thirteen.
Some of January six is perfect trained by ISIS.
I mean this is NEMES thirteen, Black Lives Matter, ANTIFA ices.
Yeah, can you say maca.
Hey, anyone could put a maga hat on it.
Do you remember what they said about their actions that day, Jordans. No, they said we were there, proud of it, proud of it. And then the next kind of line of questioning would be like what did you partake in the festivities? And they were like, we were there, but it was really cold. We went to a hotel room right away.
That's right. That was a whole segment. And this is where people often like, oh, what are you leave it out? What are you leave it out? More often than not wildness, and I think that was what You're right. We spent a lot of time talking to them or not a lot of time. I would say the average amount of time we spend talking to people is anywhere between three to seven minutes, maybe maybe less, maybe seven would be a lot.
Yeah, they may have been like eight minutes because there was like they didn't want to back down on anything. But that would have been very long for us, right.
That was a big thing. They were proud of January sixth that they were there, and then a little bit of pressure. They were like, well, you know what, it was cold that Dame and we went right home because it was so cold. And I think you made the point. It was like you drove across the country to be there support Donald Trump, and he told you to march on the Capitol, and by eleven thirty you were like, I'm going back to the hotel. It's a little nippy
out there. It wasn't even that cold we were there. It was like maybe maybe it was fall jacket weather.
I looked it up forty nine degrees I did, but it was forty nine degrees. And Sonny and these people drove halfway across the country, got a hotel room, went and watched Donald Trump's speech. Still had the hotel room for that night. We're like, yeah, that's enough.
This is why you go to these rallies. Though You're like, you can plan as much as you want in New York, but you're like, did you think you're gonna get a January sixth climate conspiracy out of that couple? I didn't, and we stumbled on it.
It would be amazing if that that like kind of alibi was you know, echoed this week go forward, like we bring it up, be like I heard it was cold that date? Is that why you didn't go to the Capitol? Like, yes, definitely, that's that's my story stick in it.
Yeah, we're gonna pause it right there, pay the bills, and we'll get back into it, and we're back talking about Ian and I's last rally in New Hampshire. Something that stood out about this particular rally was and not a ton was in the piece, Like I think we're
putting this piece together. Usually we cut this thing down and we have a fifteen to twenty minute run and we're like, how do we make this a compelling television We usually have about six minutes to fill that can air on the show or tend to air on the show, So we're really cutting certain things and tonally trying to
make a television that works. But a storyline that had come up was Israel, obviously the events in the Middle East that had just happened when we walked out the door, and so that was a big question we had as well, because there's a larger question everybody's dealing with right now
is like how do you talk about this issue. There's a lot of heartbreak, a lot of scary stories and images coming out of Israel, and especially when we were in New Hampshire, it was a very new story and people hadn't wrapped their heads around it, and so there was questions of like, how do we approach this? Where is their space for comedy? Is their space for comedy? And also how do people want to talk about Israel? What did you notice when we were out there?
Well, as you said, it's hard, and I think you and I were like, I don't know how to do this in kind of our formula, like how do we We're not going to dive into this. This is a much bigger issue than you know, kind of simple man on the street interviews with you know, maga folk. But as you said, they were willing to bring it up.
And then whenever they're so willing to bring it up, you kind of always know they're going to bring up like kind of a bullshit attack on Biden or the left, and it's something that may or may not most likely not true, and fortunately that's where they went. And it's almost like you and I do this, and I do
this the night before. It's just like on right wing Twitter and you're seeing the attacks that they've just been trained to kind of like lay out, and it's like this tragedy happened in Israel, and sleepy Joe Biden's at a barbecue, just eating barbecue, and it's like, well, okay, maybe nott a barbecue, but like if you just read one news story, you know like what America has done in response, and so we're not going to get into
the appropriate response. But you can't come out and be like, yeah, the President ed States doesn't even know what's going on, and you're like, well, he did send an aircraft carrier group there. That's undeniable, Like there couldn't be a bigger symbol in the world than what that was. So they they're trained to lay into that line of attack very quickly, and unfortunately, you were prepared and we're still getting comedy out.
So you don't trust the generals?
No, I don't eat.
What are you must excited to see? It's time. I just want to see him speak, see what he has to say about Israel. I know Joe Biden was doing a barbecue with his people. We set a fleet of naval ships to Israel. Yes you're against that. I am for that. Oh that's good. Yeah, you can Biden credit for that. That's more the generals making the calls. There can we trust in those generals?
I don't even know who's in anymore?
So. I mean, I think that was such an interesting moment for us in that I do think that man in particular brought up something that is it's always compelling. I think Trump's relationship with veterans is a giant question mark for us, And that was the thing we also talked about. We talked to a few people about the story. It's amazing the stories that happened that week that we're not talking about right now, which was nuclear submarine secrets was we had a whole section about that, which was
a big news story. Is a giant news story that's not anywhere near the news cycle right now.
And make our pieces. We're like, this is so hysterically crazy. This is it. No matter what happens, we have this. It didn't even make it.
This is where news is nowadays. We are a comedy show. The ex president may be shared nuclear secrets with an Australian billionaire and we were like, now we got seven other things we have to hit.
We have isis planning January sixth with MS thirteen, Antifa and.
And we and forty nine degrees is somehow too cold to stay outside past noon. So there's a lot for us to rafts.
People are from New Hampshire. I just want to dig into them more.
They're from New Hampshire and they said forty nine degrees in Martin DC was too cold for them.
What do they do for six months?
You're born with a Patagonia layer if you live in New Hampshire. That's just that these there's lies here, There's something going on. It's fishy again, strange times we live in. But I would say that the veteran thing was wild because that person we're talking to a veteran by an average person's understanding of the news. The way in which Donald Trump had talked about our armed forces within the
last couple of weeks was abysmal. It was at least it was it was at least uncouth, if not borderline offensive. He talked about executing Millie he had it had been revealed, which had already been revealed, but had just been doubled down on the way. He talked about injured veterans and public ceremonies, and yet we talked to a veteran who pivots to defending Trump over his generals, and that conversation is not all on air went deeper into like what is your chain of command as somebody who was in
the armed services? Who do you trust? And he very specifically pointed to generals as people he distrusted. And then, of course, in the beautiful packaging that these pieces tend to be in is like they will say something so definitive and then find a way in which to contradict it, just immediately in a way that again I had no idea there was going to be two facing on generals out there in the field, but yeah, well, other.
Was not to be predicted.
You're right, we've experienced people saying like, oh, I love him because he supports the military, but what about him making fun of John McCain. This was another level. And as you had said, there's been so much recent news, but it just doesn't deter them.
Yeah. I mean we talked to multiple people who we would confront them with information that was new to them, like this Australian billionaire getting nuclear secrets and then passing that off to dozens of other folks. We would confront them with that information, they would be skeptical of it, and then they would indulge the idea that it were true. And then when asked, if this were true, would you
be disappointed? We talked to one person. He was like, of course, it would make me sad and what have you. Which from an interviewing standpoint is that it's nice to be able to agree on a set of facts and a set of morality of like, we can at least agree, maybe we let's say we are not going to fight
about whether or not you think it's true. Let's say this is a piece of information, if this information were true, would this thing shake you from a moral standpoint and or from a political or from a national safety standpoint. And we had that person who was very clearly like, yes, that would make me sad, I wouldn't want to.
Hear it was the Australian submarine secrets. He was right, said so that guy was reacting to the allegation that Trump could share nuclear secrets which could put our you know, arm force, which is in danger. And he was earnestly disappointed. And I'm not happy to hear that, which you're right.
All to hear that which was it was again we rarely get that. But when we get to that point, and yet again, then a follow up, that is, even if that were found true, is there any space for doubt for you to not vote and support Donald Trump? And he said, he said no, And I think that's something we see all the time, like even when confronted with information, if they were to accept it, which yet again, this person was not his news. Bubble wasn't allowing that
news to come in his bias. Bubble wasn't allowing there to be room for him to believe it. And even if he were to break through those two barriers, there was still no space for him to have doubt about his choice.
Right, his tribalism Trump Trump, his tribalism, Trump's everything like he's it's like, you're right, all these things had he kind of worked its way through his his brain and his tribalism is like just put to stop to it, which is where we are in so many things. I will say, thinking about this rally and in the context of like all the rallies we've gone to in the past, the crowd's pretty friendly. And you and I noticed this
in twenty twenty. When they're pretty confident with Trump's like chances, people tend to be like engaging and friendly. But as that confidence kind of like gets chipped away at and he seems to be in more trouble, they get angrier and angrier. Like right before the election in twenty twenty, people were down and just angry and it was like, don't talk to me kind of vibes. And then after he lost, they were like, don't talk to me, are
going to hurt you kind of vibes. But when we started the first rally we did, when we came back in twenty nineteen pre pandemic, you and I noticed everybody was like, yeah, I'll talk, let's talk. You want to try to make fun of Trump. We're on top and so he's obviously not on top now, but maybe in their brains he is in some ways, so they were kind of engaging. It was like, oh, this is this is an easy crowd to talk to. Now I'm interested. It's like how that changes?
Yeah? Do you think that is a reflection of their perspective being more optimistic than perhaps left wing media thinks they should be.
Yeah, because I think take pulling out aside, and I mean you're straight up ignoring you know a lot of things that the justice system and ignoring ninety one criminal accounts those take those away. I think the news they're seeing is like, look at Biden screw up, Like at Biden screw up, Like how old he is? So then you just feel invincible and you're willing to talk to liberal media that you normally hate. And I think that kind of reformed some of our day.
And I think people often ask like why do people talk to you? Or is it hard? And I think this was We also travel Abby is a lovely producer, travels with us and helps us talk to people and see if people want to come talk to us. And as we were talking afterwards, the experience of getting people
to touch was really not that difficult here. Right people were open, wanted to talk, wanted to talk about their ideas, and I do think that there's reflective of people feeling pretty optimistic or confident.
Yeah.
I think if if as any of these trials progress, if in any one of them things start looking really really bad and more information comes to light, I wonder if there will be this reaction to kind of like more guarded kind of engagement with us and more anger.
Like I could see that.
Was there anything in this in the edit here that you wish had made it to the final piece that you look back on and like, oh, I wish we had more space for that.
Well, one thing we cut out. We talked about the submarine, which is crazy that we cut out. We had a run where we were bringing up Trump allegedly overpricing mar Lago, overvaluating mar A Lago, and we asked people what they thought it was worth. And that was a funny run because people have no idea how much real estate costs in another part of the country, much less Florida. Florida to people's like this kind of magical place where things could cost eight billion dollars. So that was a funny run.
How much do you think mar A Lago is worth?
I don't know. I tell you it's gotta be worth like a billion. If I had to guess.
It sounds like a guess, I mean a.
Couple of million.
And what they're saying is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned, I've.
Heard three hundred releases around there that are worth You can't put a price on state secrets. One hundred million, I don't know, very expensive.
I think Sadni Arabia would definitely pay more than one hundred million dollars for all the information that's inside market. That's a yeah, that's an underestimated uh value. They also echo the way in which Trump talks about it, which you know, they don't need to be experts on how much real estate is in Florida. But when you ask somebody, which we thought would be a funny ask, and I think it was of like how much do you think marl Lago is worth? So people like, I don't know,
A billion? A billion, I mean, that thing's gotta be worth that's like the best, that's like the best place on earth. Like, yeah, right, this is how you talk about it.
They're like, it's Florida, You're like, right, it's a big state where a lot of people could retire.
It's Florida.
Do you have any idea how much things cost there? The cars didn't even touch the road, So yeah, we cut that for time, and then we brought it up earlier. You made a great joke in the moment to the couple who said it was cold. It was something like, oh, you don't often hear that that is the reason why people avoided.
The capital or yes, in the moment they talked about the cold that I was like, yes, do you think that's an underreported fact about January sixth, that many of the people who were inside the Capitol were simply inside to get out of the get away from the elements. Yes, they found it less than funny when I put it out there. I thought, in the moment, a pretty good retort.
Pretty good job, and I think it kind of ended the conversation. But funny thing is like that would have been a valid alibi for I feel for some j sixers, because I think that I had to go to the bathroom, like excuse was used people who were on trials, like, yeah, I broke to the Capitol might have threatened antiblility, but I had to go to the bathroom.
Honestly, that is one excuse. I can get behind the idea that I was in a public space in this country, and we don't provide restrooms for people in public spaces. So yes, I had to storm the gosh darn Capitol so that I could go tinkle and not tinkle on the monument. I'm like, all right, you know what, Okay, I'll give you.
A pass, okay.
And this is something all of the American people need to know. That day, there were a lot of angry people, and they may have been made more angry by the fact that there were no bathrooms. And the reason there are no bathrooms because of COVID and all of the public museums where people go to the bathroom round that wall, we're closed.
That is true.
It is true. There is not to start another conspiracy, but there were shockingly few public restrooms available for sixty thousand people out there on the National Mall.
If those museums are open, do you know how I like, do you know how deface the Air and Space Museum would have been like.
Oh god, this is and you know what, Honestly, that could be the way in which we all would have come together. It's like somebody would have hopped in some old Apollo Apollo seven lunar capsule taking a dump inside, and we all would have been like too much, too much, too much, that's too much. Somebody stole Judy Garland's ruby red slippers. We need to come together. Maybe that would have been it. We need to We need to have public defacement of something we could all be angered by.
We just that's what this country needs. It's that we all need to be angered by one thing so we can get on the same page. We used to have Nazis. Now we can't even agree that the Nazis are bad? Can we at least agree that Chuck Yeager's swimsuit is worth upholding that.
That's gonna be a next and a long series of ours where we're going to dive into what happened with the bathrooms in the National Mall in January.
Sixth I think the podcast.
Why did the Deep stay close them? And what did that? You know, what were the consequences of that?
Where were the shitters? Uh Ian Burger, Jordan Klepper get to the bottom of it all? There's quary minds want.
To know next time, that's what we're doing.
What do you hope it is? Next? For us, we were back, we're in action. Well, we want to get back to go to next.
I think you and I are both curious about an RFK Junior rally. I love the rallies events and our RK Junior event. I think we're curious about that. Like Earnestly and he does. He seems to have, you know, kind of have them frequently, so I think there'll it'll be an opportunity for us. I would say that, like I've heard some reports, I think there's you know, a kind of interestingly mixed crowd across the political spectrum. So that's that's what I'm looking forward to.
Yeah, I think wherever we can expand. It's always fascinating to hear the folks in their perspective at MAGA events. But I want to talk to r K Junior people. I want to talk to folks at other primary events. I want to see what a Christy fan looks like. I want to meet that one Mike Pence fan, the Hailey heads like. It's always nice for us to hear people and different levels, especially on the right of Is there space in this party to move away from what
we see in the MAGA world. I don't buy it, but it'd be nice to talk to people who might think there is so hopefully, hopefully get some opportunities to do that in the future.
Yeah, looking forward to it. I think we're gonna have a good time.
Awesome and good to be out on the road with you.
Same.
So glad we're back, Jordan. I will see you on the chores of Lake Winnipesake going back.
Lovely, we love Honestly, we couldn't get more thumbs up for Lake Winnipesake. And you know that that should be said too in this town. I laugh because oftentimes if I'm recognized in town, people are disappointed to see me across the board. It's on the right, if you recognize me, you're like that guy, and on the left you're like, oh no, what's happening here? This is my home. And I want that wonderful woman who I saw outside the coffee shop in Wolfborough, I want her to know we
thought your town was beautiful. He really was lovely. I bought a sweatshirt.
Thank you, New Hampshire.
Thanks so much for joining me and Ian and thanks so much for joining us with the Daily Show. Yours edition.
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