Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Jessica Tarlov - _I Disagree_ Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends_ _ The Daily Show

Transcript

Jessica Tarlov - _I Disagree_ Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends_ _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

0:00
Speaker 1: Is this a little warmer than Fox News?
0:02
Speaker 2: A little cozier? It's more people in the studio.
0:06
Speaker 3: Yes. And a very nice, lovely welcome, though it's actually
0:10
Speaker 3: physically cold in here.
0:12
Speaker 2: It is a little chilly.
0:13
Speaker 1: They don't tell you that.
0:13
Speaker 4: Well, we keep everyone awake, you know? We don't want
0:16
Speaker 4: them falling asleep like Brian Kilmeade.
0:19
Speaker 3: So I was on radio with him just minutes after
0:21
Speaker 3: the nap, and he was wide awake.
0:23
Speaker 2: So I think that just, you know... Dips in and out.
0:26
Speaker 4: Himalaniadoc put him to sleep a little bit.
0:29
Speaker 2: November is the time.
0:31
Speaker 3: Yes.
0:31
Speaker 2: So I'm excited about that.
0:33
Speaker 1: Hopefully we all wake up before November.
0:35
Speaker 4: You are the only liberal voice on The Five. Now,
0:41
Speaker 4: did you tell your co-hosts that you were coming on
0:43
Speaker 4: the show, do you need a fake alibi?
0:45
Speaker 3: I think if I did need one, it's over now
0:49
Speaker 3: as I stare directly into the camera. No, I told
0:51
Speaker 3: them and they were so excited.
0:52
Speaker 2: They were? Yeah. Those are normal people.
0:56
Speaker 1: You're saying they like me?
0:57
Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
1:00
Speaker 1: They like me?
1:01
Speaker 3: I don't know if I would go that far, but
1:07
Speaker 3: there is interest.
1:09
Speaker 2: All right.
1:09
Speaker 1: That's good to know.
1:10
Speaker 4: So you, I truly think you have the hardest job
1:14
Speaker 4: in television. You go toe to toe with four other
1:20
Speaker 4: co-hosts who are disagreeing with you.
1:21
Speaker 2: At all times.
1:22
Speaker 4: And you come armed with something very foreign to them
1:26
Speaker 4: over there called facts. You come with all the facts
1:30
Speaker 4: and you drop them. You have every stat, every data point,
1:35
Speaker 4: ready to go at any given moment.
1:37
Speaker 1: How do you do that? How are you that prepared
1:41
Speaker 1: all the time?
1:43
Speaker 3: It's a lot of work, honestly, but it's not just...
1:46
Speaker 3: You know how it is when you're talking about various
1:49
Speaker 3: degrees of the same story. You're just updating day to day, right?
1:53
Speaker 3: Like you have your treasure trove of information about whatever
1:56
Speaker 3: the subject might be, and then you're updating for the
1:58
Speaker 3: days ahead. So there's a reservoir of information, but there's
2:02
Speaker 3: a lot of prep that goes into it.
2:03
Speaker 2: I have.
2:04
Speaker 3: one of the most screwy algorithms I think of any person.
2:09
Speaker 3: Because I have the left wing side, I have the
2:12
Speaker 3: right wing side that I want to make sure I'm
2:13
Speaker 3: taking it all in. And then whatever else Elon has
2:16
Speaker 3: cooking for me.
2:18
Speaker 1: Always something.
2:20
Speaker 2: Always something.
2:21
Speaker 3: Have, I guess, held my gaze too long on Sydney
2:24
Speaker 3: Sweeney a lot. So I also have.
2:25
Speaker 2: Like, like porn that comes. I mean, she looks amazing.
2:30
Speaker 4: She looks, listen, if I had a body like hers,
2:32
Speaker 4: I would never wear clothes.
2:34
Speaker 1: Never wear them.
2:35
Speaker 2: Just wear footballs.
2:36
Speaker 1: Oh, of course.
2:37
Speaker 3: Yes.
2:39
Speaker 2: Maybe I drop one. Or two.
2:41
Speaker 3: Just when you feel like it. So I have, you know,
2:44
Speaker 3: what's going on on the left, the right, and the porn.
2:46
Speaker 2: And then I'm ready for work.
2:54
Speaker 1: You are also incredibly well-prepared, well-educated.
2:57
Speaker 4: You have a PhD in political science from the London
3:00
Speaker 4: School of Economics. You were a Democratic pollster, researcher, and
3:05
Speaker 4: now you sit next to Jesse Watters.
3:09
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question about him?
3:11
Speaker 4: Is he as charismatic as he doesn't seem on television?
3:19
Speaker 2: Ha ha ha. You would actually really enjoy him. I'm
3:25
Speaker 2: sure that you have heard this before. No, I have not.
3:28
Speaker 1: No one has told me I would enjoy Jesse Waters.
3:30
Speaker 3: You would have fun hanging with him. You wouldn't enjoy
3:33
Speaker 3: the politics part of it.
3:34
Speaker 2: No, I would not. But you watched his interview with
3:36
Speaker 2: Abdul El-Sayed. Yeah.
3:38
Speaker 3: He has a sense of humor about it, and I
3:40
Speaker 3: think it gets to a fundamental....
3:43
Speaker 2: You know what, Jessica? I disagree. And that is your right.
3:48
Speaker 3: And I hope that you get better at it because
3:50
Speaker 3: you've read my book. But it gets at the fundamental
3:54
Speaker 3: reality of politics for the two sides, which is they
3:57
Speaker 3: just don't take it as seriously as we do. And
4:00
Speaker 3: there are some bad things about it when you're talking
4:03
Speaker 3: about something enormously serious about immigration policy and they can
4:06
Speaker 3: kind of wave off politics. you know, a couple of
4:09
Speaker 3: Americans ended up dead in Minneapolis or, you know, what's
4:14
Speaker 3: going on with immigrants who have been here and just
4:17
Speaker 3: contributed to the community for 30-some-odd years and they're getting,
4:20
Speaker 3: you know, picked up at Home Depot. But then it also,
4:24
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways, makes it easier to talk
4:27
Speaker 3: to them about politics than some folks think. And you
4:30
Speaker 3: can form relationships with them that are textured and layered and.
4:37
Speaker 3: It makes for good TV some days for sure. But
4:42
Speaker 3: the possibility of opening up minds to a different perspective,
4:46
Speaker 3: which is what I'm trying to do with my work.
4:50
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you about that.
4:51
Speaker 2: Do you.
4:58
Speaker 4: Do you set out, how do you see your role
5:00
Speaker 4: at Fox News? Do you set out to change minds,
5:03
Speaker 4: to open minds?
5:04
Speaker 3: Changing minds would be fantastic, but it's really hard. And
5:08
Speaker 3: in doing research for the book, I started looking at
5:11
Speaker 3: the social science behind how we actually hear and process
5:14
Speaker 3: information that flies in the face of long-held beliefs.
5:18
Speaker 2: And it's literally painful. You know, when you're.
5:21
Speaker 3: Talking to someone who is so entrenched in their beliefs
5:24
Speaker 3: and you think, are you okay?
5:27
Speaker 2: Are you alive in there? What is happening?
5:29
Speaker 3: And their threat reflexes are going off, their pain sensors
5:33
Speaker 3: are going off, and that has made me feel a
5:39
Speaker 3: lot more empathy towards folks that are engaging in these
5:42
Speaker 3: conversations and having that understanding has reframed how I think
5:46
Speaker 3: about the job. So opening someone's mind to the idea
5:50
Speaker 3: that there's an alternative point of view worth considering. And
5:52
Speaker 3: I'm playing the long game, right? I'm in a long-term
5:55
Speaker 3: relationship with my co-hosts. I've been doing it four and
5:57
Speaker 3: a half years, but also with the viewers. And there
5:59
Speaker 3: are millions of people on the other side of the
6:01
Speaker 3: television and I hear from them regularly.
6:04
Speaker 2: And it's frankly lovely. I mean, some of it isn't.
6:07
Speaker 2: There's a petition to get me fired, which... No such luck. Actually,
6:11
Speaker 2: there are definitely multiple. And then the weird stuff about
6:14
Speaker 2: my feet.
6:15
Speaker 3: But I'll get these messages. They always start with, you know,
6:23
Speaker 3: I don't agree with your politics. Yeah. Fine. But... I
6:28
Speaker 3: really liked what you said, or this made me think,
6:31
Speaker 3: or could you say more? If I've been interrupted, which
6:34
Speaker 3: has been known to happen, there will sometimes be threads
6:39
Speaker 3: on Twitter that just say, I'd really love to read
6:41
Speaker 3: that article that you were talking about. Could you send
6:43
Speaker 3: it to me? And Jesse hears from people saying, interrupt
6:47
Speaker 3: her less. It's been his New Year's resolution for four years, actually,
6:50
Speaker 3: to interrupt me less.
6:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, failed every year. Maybe the fifth year. I think
6:56
Speaker 2: they say five times a charm. Okay, 2027, we're going
7:00
Speaker 2: to do it.
7:00
Speaker 4: Has anyone, you write in your book about a woman
7:02
Speaker 4: who came up to you and apologized for writing something
7:05
Speaker 4: negative about you on message board or something like that.
7:09
Speaker 1: Have you had people come up to you and.
7:11
Speaker 4: Say you actually changed my mind about something or you
7:14
Speaker 4: made me think about something differently?
7:16
Speaker 1: Definitely.
7:16
Speaker 2: I mean, this woman, it stuck out.
7:18
Speaker 3: I mean, Because she also, which was absurd, thought that
7:20
Speaker 3: I would have noticed that she'd been calling me the
7:22
Speaker 3: C word online for years. I was like, that's just
7:25
Speaker 3: a normal stream that's coming in here. But it was
7:30
Speaker 3: an incredibly moving conversation. And she had had cancer. And
7:33
Speaker 3: it had reframed how she saw the world. And she
7:37
Speaker 3: wanted me to know that she knew that I was
7:39
Speaker 3: a good person and that we actually believed in the
7:42
Speaker 3: same core things. Yeah. I, you know, walking around the RNC,
7:47
Speaker 3: for instance, you, I mean, you were there. We were
7:49
Speaker 3: doing different kinds of things there. But running into people
7:53
Speaker 3: like that who would say, you know, I want my
7:57
Speaker 3: daughter to be like you or my granddaughter, which is
8:00
Speaker 3: always such a wonderful compliment because these families are complicated
8:04
Speaker 3: and they are layered. And I think that's setting a
8:07
Speaker 3: good example for someone who shows up with the facts
8:11
Speaker 3: and the data, prepared for the conversation, but also with
8:14
Speaker 3: the humanity that we do want to be infused back
8:17
Speaker 3: into our lives is something that they really connect with. Yes.
8:21
Speaker 2: We need more of that. That's for sure.
8:28
Speaker 4: Speaking of people coming up and saying they want their
8:31
Speaker 4: daughters to be like you, this was one of my
8:32
Speaker 4: favorite quotes from your book. You said, whether you agree
8:35
Speaker 4: with what I'm saying or not, I want you to
8:37
Speaker 4: see a woman who argues without being afraid.
8:39
Speaker 1: I think that's so powerful. And you talk a lot
8:48
Speaker 1: in your book about, I.
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Speaker 4: Mean, just let's talk about the fact that you are
8:51
Speaker 4: a woman on television, which automatically opens up a certain
8:55
Speaker 4: amount of criticism. And then you're going toe to toe
8:58
Speaker 4: in disagreement with four of your co-stars who, for the
9:02
Speaker 4: most part, represent the views of the viewers. How do
9:07
Speaker 4: you process and navigate that criticism? You have a whole
9:12
Speaker 4: chapter in your book about receiving criticism. How do you
9:14
Speaker 4: navigate that?
9:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely been one of the most difficult processes
9:19
Speaker 3: in doing this job. I was not destined or wanting
9:22
Speaker 3: to go on television. My background is in research, worked
9:25
Speaker 3: as a pollster, a behind-the-scenes type person. Then I started
9:28
Speaker 3: doing commentary, and you know what comes with it. I'm
9:32
Speaker 3: actually sitting here freaking out about whether I'm sucking in properly,
9:35
Speaker 3: and my husband's back there monitoring everything. He doesn't think
9:40
Speaker 3: I look fat ever.
9:40
Speaker 2: But you know what I mean. It's like, those are
9:42
Speaker 2: the things that you're thinking. No, I look great. I'm
9:44
Speaker 2: wearing black intentionally. I'm doing Kegels right now.
9:48
Speaker 1: You never know who's watching at home.
9:50
Speaker 2: No.
9:51
Speaker 3: This is high def. After two births, I actually should
9:54
Speaker 3: be doing Kegels too. So now I'm sucking in and
9:56
Speaker 3: doing Kegels.
9:57
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go. Just in case you all wanted
9:59
Speaker 2: to know that.
9:59
Speaker 1: You do them, too.
10:00
Speaker 3: You all do them, too. But the criticism... it really stings.
10:07
Speaker 3: I wanted to lead the book. It's my first chapter
10:10
Speaker 3: focusing on most of the criticism that I've gotten from
10:13
Speaker 3: President Trump and how I thought about it in the
10:17
Speaker 3: moment and then how over time I learned to cope
10:21
Speaker 3: with it and deal with it and eventually use it
10:23
Speaker 3: to make me feel stronger. Donald Trump, who is the
10:27
Speaker 3: ultimate TV critic, he loves The Five.
10:29
Speaker 2: We have a lot of viewers. He's one of our
10:31
Speaker 2: important viewers. And he has picked on me.
10:35
Speaker 4: He gets all his information. It's the only thing he watches.
10:38
Speaker 3: Well, but he also hears me, which aggravates him. And
10:42
Speaker 3: then what he does, which I think is so important,
10:44
Speaker 3: especially for women to understand, is he takes a load
10:47
Speaker 3: of information that.
10:50
Speaker 3: He runs counter to his beliefs, if I put it gently,
10:53
Speaker 3: but that it's against the narrative that he wants to
10:55
Speaker 3: put out there, because he wants to say, all the
10:57
Speaker 3: polls are wrong, and we're winning the war in Iran,
11:00
Speaker 3: and Melania's documentary is actually coming out in.
11:02
Speaker 2: October, you fewer.
11:05
Speaker 3: And so he says, Jessica Tarlow has an unendurable voice
11:10
Speaker 3: and a jittery presentation. which are two things that I've
11:13
Speaker 3: been self-conscious about because I was not destined to be
11:15
Speaker 3: on TV. I know it's not melodious, the sound of
11:18
Speaker 3: my voice.
11:19
Speaker 2: And that- Jessica, I disagree.
11:23
Speaker 4: You are really good.
11:27
Speaker 3: I disagree.
11:28
Speaker 2: I disagree.
11:28
Speaker 1: But please continue.
11:30
Speaker 2: Thank you. This has been so good for my ego already.
11:34
Speaker 3: But in sitting with it and letting myself honestly cry,
11:39
Speaker 3: which I did, and my husband not knowing what to do,
11:42
Speaker 3: he was like, what kind.
11:42
Speaker 2: Of tears are these?
11:46
Speaker 3: But getting to a place where I can understand that
11:48
Speaker 3: if someone is criticizing you on style, you're winning on substance.
11:53
Speaker 2: And that you can take.
11:59
Speaker 3: There's so much strength that you can take from that.
12:04
Speaker 3: Not just if President Trump's going after you, but in
12:06
Speaker 3: any of your lives. And especially for women, you know
12:08
Speaker 3: what it's like in the workplace, right? You're given a
12:10
Speaker 3: presentation and suddenly something comes in about the way your
12:14
Speaker 3: voice is hitting or it's not loud enough or like
12:16
Speaker 3: you're a mom or not enough of a mom or
12:18
Speaker 3: you take, you know, your soft skills are great, but
12:21
Speaker 3: maybe you've had more hard skill and oh no, we
12:22
Speaker 3: want this or that. And it pulls you in all
12:25
Speaker 3: of these different directions. And so finding these core philosophies
12:29
Speaker 3: that I can anchor the way that I navigate my
12:31
Speaker 3: job has been so helpful. Like, if we're having a
12:35
Speaker 3: discussion about politics on the show, not you and me,
12:38
Speaker 3: and I'm making a point about our munitions stockpile, something
12:42
Speaker 3: very sexy, right?
12:43
Speaker 2: Hot. I'm into it.
12:45
Speaker 3: Just depleted down to the bare bones.
12:48
Speaker 2: How would we protect Taiwan?
12:49
Speaker 3: LAUGHTER So I'm talking about munitions, and then someone says, Jessica,
12:58
Speaker 3: what is a woman?
13:00
Speaker 2: And you think, oh, I nailed it, right? I won, and.
13:06
Speaker 3: That's an internal win, so I've gotten good at loving
13:10
Speaker 3: the inside Ws, but you know also that the people
13:13
Speaker 3: on the other side of the screen, maybe not all
13:16
Speaker 3: of them, but a lot of them saw that that
13:19
Speaker 3: conversation that was supposed to be substantive about what's going
13:23
Speaker 3: on vis-a-vis the war in Iran devolved into some weird
13:27
Speaker 3: Marsha Blackburnism from a few years ago meant to bring
13:30
Speaker 3: it back to a culture war issue.
13:32
Speaker 2: That only affects two people. So, right. It's a good thing. Honestly,
13:38
Speaker 2: do they do?
13:38
Speaker 4: Can I ask you, do your colleagues believe in what
13:41
Speaker 4: they say? Yes, they really do.
13:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not performative.
13:45
Speaker 1: It is not like I am playing into this.
13:47
Speaker 2: And I know that that upsets people.
13:52
Speaker 3: And we hear all these stories about, you know, all
13:55
Speaker 3: of the Republicans on Capitol Hill behind the scenes, you know,
13:59
Speaker 3: they're saying, well, Trump is just awful.
14:01
Speaker 2: They believe in the project.
14:03
Speaker 3: And Republicans are much better than Democrats at putting their
14:07
Speaker 3: heads down and also saying this is part of the
14:09
Speaker 3: larger puzzle.
14:10
Speaker 2: That is true. Right? Like, you don't get Roe v.
14:12
Speaker 3: Wade overturned 50 years later unless you believe and you
14:16
Speaker 3: can stick with it. And looping back to what I
14:19
Speaker 3: said up front about how seriously They take politics. There
14:23
Speaker 3: are things where they can say, OK, that wasn't great.
14:26
Speaker 3: But in general, we need to make sure that we're
14:29
Speaker 3: deporting a bunch of the people who are here illegally.
14:32
Speaker 3: And they can make concessions and not take it as
14:36
Speaker 3: seriously as we do in pursuit of the larger agenda,
14:40
Speaker 3: which they believe in.
14:41
Speaker 2: So, yeah, they believe in TV. Obviously, there's, you know.
14:45
Speaker 2: For emphasis.
14:46
Speaker 1: Of course.
14:46
Speaker 2: Of course. But yeah, I don't want to let you down.
14:50
Speaker 4: Are there times that you have changed your colleagues' mind
14:54
Speaker 4: about something?
14:56
Speaker 3: Definitely opened their minds in terms of we talk a lot.
15:00
Speaker 3: You know, the commercial breaks are always a lot of fun, honestly.
15:05
Speaker 3: And I feel like it's.
15:06
Speaker 2: Up to me how serious it is.
15:09
Speaker 3: Like if we had a very intense exchange yesterday, you know,
15:12
Speaker 3: do I want to carry it over into the commercial break,
15:14
Speaker 3: or is it better to talk about dogs and babies
15:17
Speaker 3: and whatever else you would talk about with colleagues? But,
15:21
Speaker 3: you know, in the break, I'll talk about, like, one
15:24
Speaker 3: example with Jesse. I've been talking a lot about John Ossoff,
15:27
Speaker 3: which I feel like everyone on the left is, and,
15:30
Speaker 3: you know, his Sunday speeches with, like, the beautiful camera
15:33
Speaker 3: work and the glow-up and all the things, and I
15:36
Speaker 3: was saying how interesting he does all of this constituency
15:40
Speaker 3: work and that's how he's getting these endorsements from Republican
15:43
Speaker 3: mayors that everybody knows you can actually get John Ossoff
15:47
Speaker 3: on the phone, not just connect with his office. And
15:50
Speaker 3: then it just seeped into Jesse's commentary where he was like, well, yeah, no,
15:54
Speaker 3: I know why John Ossoff is up 10. He does
15:57
Speaker 3: all this constituency work. So does, is he going to
16:00
Speaker 3: be voting for John Ossoff?
16:02
Speaker 2: I doubt it. But it got in.
16:05
Speaker 1: That's a bit of a win.
16:06
Speaker 2: You're just hacking away at it. Hacking away. Planning those
16:10
Speaker 2: Ossoff seats.
16:11
Speaker 1: OK, you bring up Ossoff.
16:14
Speaker 4: Who are exciting Democrats right now, thinking about the next
16:18
Speaker 4: presidential election?
16:19
Speaker 1: Who is exciting you?
16:20
Speaker 4: And what do you think that the Democratic Party needs
16:23
Speaker 4: to hear right now from the right candidate?
16:28
Speaker 2: Well, everyone's just so angry. Yeah.
16:31
Speaker 3: And that's part of why we have a podcast called
16:33
Speaker 3: Raging Moderates, because moderate is not sexy to anyone. But
16:36
Speaker 3: if you are raging, it can be better. And that's
16:39
Speaker 3: capturing the mood. And that's what John Ossoff is and
16:41
Speaker 3: Alyssa Slotkin and Josh Shapiro, these people who would typically,
16:45
Speaker 3: you know, occupy this moderate lane. But they understand how
16:48
Speaker 3: dire the moment is and that people are talking about
16:52
Speaker 3: what they see to be human rights issues, that if
16:56
Speaker 3: you don't have access to good quality health care, what
16:59
Speaker 3: do you have if you can't afford a home? And
17:02
Speaker 3: I've been pretty tough on the party about not delivering
17:06
Speaker 3: an agenda that people can sink their teeth into. You
17:08
Speaker 3: know how Republicans, they always have the great bumper sticker policy,
17:12
Speaker 3: like MAGA. It's annoying and it's recycled, but it makes
17:16
Speaker 3: sense to people.
17:17
Speaker 2: No tax on tips. It's a lie the way they
17:19
Speaker 2: did it.
17:20
Speaker 3: Like hedge funders and corporate lawyers also get to use that,
17:23
Speaker 3: but it makes sense to people. And we have no
17:25
Speaker 3: bumper stickers.
17:27
Speaker 2: You know, it's like, you know.
17:29
Speaker 3: A smart set of reforms that will ensure that you
17:32
Speaker 3: have better quality health care and deliver equality for all. Like,
17:39
Speaker 3: put it on the bumper sticker. So, I mean, I've
17:42
Speaker 3: been throwing around 10 million. That seems like a lot
17:43
Speaker 3: of housing. But if you told people we're going to
17:45
Speaker 3: build 10 million affordable housing units.
17:47
Speaker 4: Yes.
17:48
Speaker 2: That might sound good to them. Yes, that would resonate.
17:50
Speaker 2: If you're going to, for every new regulation, you're going
17:52
Speaker 2: to cut 10.
17:53
Speaker 3: Take it.
17:54
Speaker 2: It was Trump's first term. Steal it. Right. Just steal
17:57
Speaker 2: it and say it. I'm begging you.
17:59
Speaker 3: So I've been thinking along those lines. You know, John
18:02
Speaker 3: Ossoff is obviously exciting.
18:04
Speaker 2: People.
18:05
Speaker 3: I think all of the governors have been doing a
18:07
Speaker 3: really good job, especially trying to be a backstop against
18:10
Speaker 3: the administration. You know, there's the Newsom wing of it.
18:17
Speaker 3: Josh Shapiro, who I mentioned, I don't think that they're
18:19
Speaker 3: going to be household names in the same way until
18:21
Speaker 3: we get through the midterms. Right. If the midterms is
18:24
Speaker 3: very kind to Democrats and it certainly looks that way.
18:27
Speaker 2: Is that what you're feeling right now? I'm so nervous
18:30
Speaker 2: to feel it, you know? Me too. Like, I've been
18:33
Speaker 2: there before and I had my heart broken, so. Yeah.
18:37
Speaker 3: And I hope there's not gonna be some massive polling error,
18:40
Speaker 3: but when you look at the fact that we're spending
18:42
Speaker 3: money in Kansas and Nebraska, it's like, oh, okay, what's
18:47
Speaker 3: happening here? And I've been on the ground with candidates
18:49
Speaker 3: like James Tallarico in Texas.
18:51
Speaker 2: And.
18:58
Speaker 3: it does feel like something is happening. And the sad
19:02
Speaker 3: part about it is that something is happening because people's
19:05
Speaker 3: lives are so tough right now. That they're having to
19:09
Speaker 3: consider somebody or a set of policies or a type
19:15
Speaker 3: of governance that flies in the face of the way
19:17
Speaker 3: that they've lived their whole lives, right? And maybe it's
19:20
Speaker 3: passed down through generations. But it's really tough out there.
19:24
Speaker 3: And Republicans, for... Some reason, well, that some reason is
19:29
Speaker 3: Donald Trump.
19:31
Speaker 2: Actually, I know what the reason is. We can say it.
19:34
Speaker 2: We can say it. Donald Trump is bad. And he...
19:38
Speaker 2: You can say that.
19:39
Speaker 1: As much as you want here.
19:44
Speaker 3: And the way that he rules the party doesn't allow
19:49
Speaker 3: for them to... to speak to people's needs. And that's
19:53
Speaker 3: what the point of government is. And I talk about
19:55
Speaker 3: that a lot in the book. And it was a
19:57
Speaker 3: lesson that came from my dad, where he always told
20:00
Speaker 3: me the job of an elected official is to alleviate
20:03
Speaker 3: as much anxiety as possible for the average American. And
20:07
Speaker 3: right now, the government is just making you more anxious.
20:11
Speaker 3: And they're making your life harder.
20:13
Speaker 2: This is such a nice audience.
20:19
Speaker 1: You're speaking the truth.
20:20
Speaker 2: You're speaking the truth.
20:22
Speaker 4: And I loved the story in your book about your glasses.
20:26
Speaker 4: Would you tell everyone about the story behind your frames
20:29
Speaker 4: that you wear.
20:29
Speaker 2: Your famous frames? So first of all, there's a real
20:31
Speaker 2: prescription in them. I get that a lot.
20:33
Speaker 3: People are like, are those, you know, one of those
20:35
Speaker 3: liberal glasses things where you just sit there? No, I
20:39
Speaker 3: legitimately can't see that wall without them. And they were
20:42
Speaker 3: my father's, and he was actually wearing them when he
20:46
Speaker 3: passed away, and he died five years ago from a
20:48
Speaker 3: 9-11 cancer, which I know if you're Daily Show fans,
20:52
Speaker 3: you hear a lot about 9-11 from John and how
20:57
Speaker 3: expansive the victim community is and just how many people
21:01
Speaker 3: are continuing to.
21:02
Speaker 2: Pass away from the after effects of this.
21:04
Speaker 3: I loved the seventh bell this year that they added that,
21:08
Speaker 3: which felt like a real.
21:11
Speaker 3: Olive branch or bonding moment, I guess, for this wider community. But,
21:16
Speaker 3: you know, after someone dies, not in a gross way,
21:19
Speaker 3: everyone's like, okay, who.
21:21
Speaker 2: Gets what, you know?
21:22
Speaker 3: And I was like, I really want these glasses. And it,
21:30
Speaker 3: helps me stay connected to him and also thinking about
21:33
Speaker 3: his framing of politics, what I was just talking about
21:37
Speaker 3: with the anxiety and that that's why you send people
21:41
Speaker 3: to Washington or why you pick a mayor or a
21:45
Speaker 3: city council member who you feel like gets it, that
21:49
Speaker 3: their purpose in life is to make your life easier
21:53
Speaker 3: so that you can go out and you can fly
21:55
Speaker 3: and you can succeed. And it's, It's a lot of
22:04
Speaker 3: the book focuses on the importance of framing and how
22:08
Speaker 3: you can use data to frame your arguments. And literally
22:13
Speaker 3: having his frames, I feel like keeps me focused on
22:16
Speaker 3: what I believe in and what my values are, especially
22:19
Speaker 3: if you're going up against... people who have a very
22:23
Speaker 3: different way of looking.
22:24
Speaker 2: At the world.
22:26
Speaker 3: So it's just a great way to stay connected and
22:28
Speaker 3: also on message because time is so finite, not just
22:32
Speaker 3: in the like, we're all technically dying as we sit
22:35
Speaker 3: here together, but when you're on TV, you know what
22:40
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, the red light's gonna go off
22:42
Speaker 3: and it's going to be over. And you had 30, 60,
22:45
Speaker 3: 90 seconds to make a case that could impact the
22:49
Speaker 3: lives of tens of millions of people, right?
22:52
Speaker 2: And the way that the ecosystem.
22:53
Speaker 3: Works, if you can, if there's a clip of you
22:58
Speaker 3: representing a vulnerable community or a perspective that an audience
23:02
Speaker 3: hasn't heard before, that can live in tens of millions
23:06
Speaker 3: of people's.
23:07
Speaker 2: Feeds, right? That's what I'm playing for.
23:11
Speaker 3: That's why you do this and that's why you show
23:14
Speaker 3: up in uncomfortable places. And it's also part of signaling
23:18
Speaker 3: to people who believe in a different politics than me
23:22
Speaker 3: that I don't think any less of them. I think
23:25
Speaker 3: that they're wrong about a lot of things. But I
23:29
Speaker 3: can tell you that politely. And I can find a
23:32
Speaker 3: way to also build connective tissue with people who feel
23:37
Speaker 3: differently than me, that doesn't invalidate their perspectives, it just
23:42
Speaker 3: elevates mine to one worth considering. And I think that's
23:46
Speaker 3: the whole game in modern political communication right now. And
23:50
Speaker 3: you see elected officials taking on that challenge. You know,
23:53
Speaker 3: how many more Democrats are showing up in uncomfortable places?
23:58
Speaker 2: So, yeah.
23:59
Speaker 4: It's... Your book couldn't come at a more perfect time.
24:09
Speaker 4: We have midterms coming up. Thanksgiving is coming up. A
24:13
Speaker 4: lot of people will be sitting at the Thanksgiving table
24:16
Speaker 4: with relatives who have different ideas than their own. If
24:20
Speaker 4: you could leave our viewers with one piece of advice
24:24
Speaker 4: from your book, one most helpful piece of advice, what
24:27
Speaker 4: would you say?
24:27
Speaker 2: That's a hard one.
24:29
Speaker 3: And I will say, I don't even know if I
24:30
Speaker 3: told you this, but my alternate title was Surviving Thanksgiving.
24:33
Speaker 2: Which... We would have had November, the documentary, and my book.
24:41
Speaker 1: Would have had to come out. Maybe November, maybe not.
24:44
Speaker 3: Maybe November, maybe not. Maybe you'll never see my book.
24:47
Speaker 3: But the appendix is 10 tips for your table.
24:50
Speaker 2: Because I wanted.
24:51
Speaker 3: I know that there are some people that are going
24:53
Speaker 3: to come to this for the CliffsNotes. Like, I'm doing
24:55
Speaker 3: an hour, and this a-hole is going to be talking
24:59
Speaker 3: to me about... immigration or who doesn't want to talk
25:03
Speaker 3: about abortion over Thanksgiving dinner, right?
25:06
Speaker 2: It's in there if you need it. Dual answer.
25:11
Speaker 3: So one of the best pieces of advice in the
25:16
Speaker 3: book that I think we could all use is to
25:19
Speaker 3: think in averages and not in anecdotes and to get
25:22
Speaker 3: out of our feelings more because feelings are very easily
25:26
Speaker 3: dismissed and And that doesn't make them invalid. It's just
25:30
Speaker 3: not that strategic to rely on that. Ben Shapiro with
25:33
Speaker 3: the facts don't care about your feelings.
25:35
Speaker 2: He was right.
25:36
Speaker 3: We saw that everyone access Hollywood tape and Mike Pence
25:39
Speaker 3: was like, still good with this. We're gonna move on.
25:42
Speaker 3: So think about those averages versus the anecdotes. But the
25:46
Speaker 3: kind of meta principle that I think is most important
25:48
Speaker 3: from the book is to lead with your humanity and
25:53
Speaker 3: to listen more than you talk. And when you open
25:57
Speaker 3: those doors, a lot is possible and you'll get another
26:01
Speaker 3: crack at it. You know how it feels sometimes when
26:03
Speaker 3: you're talking about tense issues that like a stopwatch is on.
26:07
Speaker 3: And if I don't get this out, and I used
26:09
Speaker 3: to do that, I would go all over the place.
26:11
Speaker 3: And Dana Perino, one of my co-hosts is an amazing
26:13
Speaker 3: friend and mentor pulled me aside and said, you're gonna break.
26:17
Speaker 2: It is too much pressure. Like the whole democratic party
26:20
Speaker 2: is not sitting on your shoulders. You'll be back tomorrow.
26:25
Speaker 2: And you will all be back tomorrow.
26:27
Speaker 3: There will be another opportunity if those doors are open
26:31
Speaker 3: and if people sense that you respect them, you can
26:35
Speaker 3: disagree with them, but that you don't think they're bad people.
26:39
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah.
26:41
Speaker 1: Excellent advice. I'm so happy that you wrote this book.
26:48
Speaker 4: It's fantastic. Congratulations on all of it. And I am
26:51
Speaker 4: so grateful that the Fox viewers have your voice.
26:54
Speaker 1: Thank you for.
26:55
Speaker 2: Doing what you're doing.
26:55
Speaker 1: You're doing God's work out there. Thank you for being here.