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From the most trusted journalist at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Michael Costa. Yes. Yes. Welcome to The Daily Show.

I'm Michael Costa. We have so much to talk about tonight. Kamala Harris and Tim Wall's hard launch. Conservatives are furious about tampons, and Charlamagne the God is here to talk about Kamala's race. Spoiler alert, she's black. So let's get into it with another edition of Indecision 2024. Yesterday, Kamala Harris announced her vice presidential pick is Tim Walsh, Minnesota governor and guy who just found a quarter behind your ear. And last night, she took her shiny new running mate out for a spin at a rally in Philly.

Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That's not even counting the crimes he committed. Say it with me. We aren't going back. We're not going back. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves, there's a golden rule, mind your own damn business.

A Minnesotan saying, damn, that's spicy. But if you watch this rally, it's clear Democrats are in a much happier place than they were a few weeks ago. They're like, Why do my hands keep banging together like a seal? Are the corners of my mouth going up? Why? Am I sick? Even I felt it, and I'm dead inside. And part of this is that Tim Walsh creates excitement because he's a new main character. It's like when you've had the same mailman for 20 years, and then a new guy comes around and you're like, This time, I'm going to learn this guy's name. What can I say? I'm a good person. No. The point is this energy is great for Democrats and terrible for Republicans, which is why they spend all day trying to find an angle of attack on Tim Walsh. I'm open to hearing it. I don't want to be partisan. Republicans, I'd like to hear a serious critique from one of your sharpest minds.

Let's bring in Scott Shalady this morning. What do you think of Walsh as the vice presidential pick, Scott?

I'm going to guess this guy's response is moo. Let's give him a chance. Let's give him a chance. He might have a very valid critique of Tim Walsh's policies. Let's hear him out. What do you think of Walsh as the vice presidential pick, Scott? Look, Stuart, he's not a serious candidate. All right. Not serious, huh? I agree. I hate having to listen to unserious people. It really pulls my utters. Look, here's a rule of thumb. You're not allowed to talk about being serious if you have to milk your clothes before putting them up. Now, to be fair, there are real policy issues Republicans have been hitting walls on, like helping undocumented immigrants get health care and his reaction to the George Floyd protest. But they just can't resist a story like this.

He supports putting tampons in the boys' bathrooms for kids as young as the fourth grade.

He says Republicans are weird, yet this is the governor who put tampons in the boys bathroom.

A nickname for Tim Walls is Tampon Tim.

Tampon Tim. We need to introduce tampon Tim to the world. Tampon Tim. Tampon Tim. That sounds like a fictional character parents tell their daughter about when she gets her first period. Look what tampon Tim left under the sink, honey. Super plus overnight. You've got your mom's flow, and we couldn't be proud of her. But basically, what happened is that walls passed a law that put free tampons in all public schools, including boys' bathrooms. With all due respect to tampon Tim, I really just don't care about this. Best case scenario, a trans kid gets tampons. Worst case, the weird kid in class puts them up his nose and pretends to be a walrus, which is also best case scenario. Personally, as someone who was a 13-year old boy, it doesn't matter what you put in that bathroom. Whatever it is, they're going to draw a penis on it. They're going to rip it off the wall and try to flush it down the toilet. It's either that or go to geography, and I'm not going to waste my time with that. Anyways, Tim Walsh, the governor of Minnesota, which is the capital of Alaska, doesn't seem to be overtly problematic, which is why Republicans are accusing him of hiding something.

This is a guy who hides behind his flannel jacket, but he's actually a wolf in sheep's clothing who cannot be trusted.

A progressive in sheep's clothing. Governor Walsh is a socialist in sheep's clothing.

He's a freak in sheep's clothing. He's a freak. He's a freak in sheep's clothing. That's ridiculous. Not like cow's clothing. That's normal. But a sheep, what a freak. Yeah, I know. It's so good. By the way, isn't sheep's clothing just like a wool sweater? I love wearing sheep's clothing in the fall. I can make so many more cute outfits. Seeing your portraits here on high, '98. But yes, Tim Walls may be a former football coach, a hunter, a guy who looks like he has his own homemade dry rub. But Republicans are saying, Don't be fooled by the moderate vibes. Tim Walsh is a secret Communist, and nobody is more on board with this line of attack than Donald Trump himself.

He's a very liberal man, if you want to know the truth. He's probably about the same as Bernie Sanders. He's probably more so than Bernie Sanders. She is more so than Bernie Sanders. There's never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go Communist immediately, if not sooner.

Immediately, if not sooner? There's no sooner. That's what makes it immediately. If you tell someone you want something sooner than immediately, they're going to be late because they're going to waste their time thinking, What idiot says immediately, if not sooner? By the way, By the way, when Joe Biden rambled like this, all of us were like, This man is obviously senile, but now that he's dropped out, it's becoming more obvious that Trump's brain isn't exactly in great shape either. He should get that looked at immediately if not sooner. For more on the Republican reaction to Walls, we go live to Troy Awada. Troy. It seems like Republicans are still trying to figure out how to attack Tim Walsh.

No, I think they figured it out. Tim Walsh is a Communist sheep, a radical left-wing Marxist socialist who is also a sheep.

Okay. So Republicans think Kamala should have picked a more moderate VP like Josh Shapiro.

No, he is also a Communist. A Marxist Communist kosher sheep. He's exactly the type of socialist that Democrats love to pick instead of blue collar Heartland people like Tim Walsh.

Well, Troy, they did pick Tim Walsh.

I know. It was a big mistake picking that Marxist socialist.

I'm sensing a pattern here. It seems like Republicans just label every Democrat as a Communist. I mean, what if her VP pick was Captain America?

The guy who fought Hitler? Like Joseph Stalin? Sounds like a Communist to me.

What about Mr. Peanott?

Okay, Every peanut is the same. Same color, same shape, same taste. Communists.

What about the Geico Gecko?

Anyone that sells insurance is a Communist. It's a shared risk. The gecko, Jake from State Farm, Lemu Emu, and Doug, all communists. Don't even get me started on Flo from Progressive. She's Progressive and her name is Flo.

She is definitely putting tampons in boys' bathrooms.

That's right. What about...

What about Peppa Pig? What about Peppa Pig?

That pig in a red dress who teaches kids about sharing? That's a Communist.

Uncle Sam?

You know who Sam is the uncle to? Mao Zedong.

Come on.

Look it up. It's on my sub stack.

Troy, aren't these attacks getting old? Republicans do this every Democratic candidate. Can't they find something new to say?

It's not the Republicans' fault. That everyone who doesn't agree with them in all of history has been a Communist, Michael. If they picked a normal person, Republicans would call them normal.

All right, here. What if the Dems say their VP is Donald Trump?

Donald Trump? You mean Kamidani? Free money during COVID? Best buds with Putin? Married to an Eastern European?

Troy, come on. Not everyone is a Communist. What about you and me?

Wake up, Costa. You and me work at Commi-decentral. No.

I'm not a Communist.

You're not? Neither am I, comrade. Vink, vink.

Troy Awada, everybody. When we come back, Charlamagne Tha God is joining us, so don't go away. Welcome back to The Daily Show. We all know I've got great opinions, But I'm not the only one. Studies show that other people also have opinions. Here with another installment of In My Opinion is our good friend Charlemagne the God.

Hey, now, if you've been following the presidential election, you've probably heard the news that there's a DEI candidate in the race. That's right. That's right. Those identity obsessed Democrats pick someone just because of their race and gender.

Tim Walsh was a balancing choice for her. He's white, he's male.

We do know that they wanted to get a white male on the ticket, so he's going to be that one.

Here's a really important one.

He's an old white dude.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Thanks to Affirmative Action, there is an old white guy on the Democratic ticket for the first time. For the first time in about 17 days, okay? I'm glad white men are finally getting their moment in the sun. Just to make sure to wear enough SPF. All right? Now, you all know what's really going on. According to Republicans, Tim Walsh isn't a DEI hire because to them, every letter in DEI actually stands for the same thing, black, black, black. Which means the real DEI candidate is Kamala Harris.

She's a diversity hire. Of course, she's a DEI hire.

100%, she was a DEI hire.

An incompetent diversity hire. This woman, this disaster who's only qualification was having a vagina in the right skin color.

That's right. Having dark skin in a vagina is an instant path to the oval office, all right? If you don't believe me, take it up with Ronald Reagan's black pussy, okay? Listen, man, this argument is so stupid to me. If being a woman or a minority was the golden ticket to getting ahead in politics, then President Andrew Yang would have already done Universal Basic Income, and President Kanye West would have already changed the National Anthem to Gold Digger. I've looked at pictures of the last 46 presidents, and it sure seems like there's one identity in particular that gives you a leg up. White man. I'm just saying Donald Trump would not have gotten the job if his first name was Donnell. He'd be evicting himself. He'd be evicting himself his own apartments before his career could begin. But for the sake of argument, let's suppose Kamala was given a chance because of her identity. She still had to do something with it on her own. Kamala has done a great job as vice president. Remember that one big thing she did? Me neither. Okay? That's exactly what you want in a VP, someone who doesn't make the news.

A VP is like a carbon monoxide detector You want to have one, but if it makes any noise, something's gone wrong. In fact, the last time I remember a vice president doing anything that made the news, it was this.

Vice President Dick Cheney apparently broke the number one rule of hunting this weekend when he accidentally shot a friend in the face.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Accidentally. Just like he accidentally invaded the wrong country after 9/11. Now that I think about it, Dick Cheney made the news a lot. Don't be like Dick Cheney. And this is yet another weird thing about Republicans. They always say that liberals are obsessed with race, but they're the ones who can't stop thinking about it. They had a blank slate to build a narrative around Kamala Harris, and they immediately really went 1860 on us because they got black on the brain. And Republicans aren't only saying Kamala is too black, they're also saying she's not black enough.

Early in her career, she identified as South Asian. Now, she is considered an African-American woman. Is she black? Is she Indian? Nobody knows. Kamala's Indian, black heritage or whatever it is she wants to be today.

One year she's black, the next year she's of South Asian descent.

She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went.

She became a black person.

Just to be clear.

I don't know if you know this or not, but you can be both. I don't want to break your brains, but two isn't even the most racist a person can be. Bruno Mars is the most racist a person can We know what's going on here. All of these attacks are to paint Kamala as just one big phony.

Going to Georgia two days ago and putting on a fake Southern accent when you were raised in Canada.

Whoa. Wait, she's faking being black and she's Canadian? Well, that's the worst thing you can call somebody this year. Drake. It's been a rough year for Drake. If I were a white Republican, I'd Are you a little worried about Democrats flipping this on me. If Republicans are appointing themselves the black police, Dems could become the white police because not all Whites are MAGA Whites. You got kombucha YTS, you got cargo short YTS, you got Stanley Cup Whites, both kinds of Stanley Cup, hockey and beverage. You've even got whatever white Jojo CY is. White people around the country watch that clip like, She's not like us. She's not like us. But honestly, I'm not even mad at Republicans for bringing up Kamala's race. They've got a job to do, and they're doing it the only way they know how. The real bullshit is the media for hearing the Republican talking points and treating it like it's a real story. The vice president's racial identity has been in the news.

Identity, heritage is newly injected into the race. Why is former President Trump questioning the vice president's racial identity? Talk about racial identity dominated the headlines. The claims about Vice President Harris's identity will probably make the most headlines.

What do you mean these claims will make the most headlines? Cnn, MSNBC, ABC, you're the ones who decide what the headlines are. These issues don't make headlines Headlines unless you put it in the headline. And none of these issues should be a headline. If a guy came up to me on the street saying, The vice president is a chameleon. She can transform from Indian to black, I see it. I'd be like, Well, God bless you, sir. Here's $2. I got to go.

Media.

If you need headlines, it's not like it's a shortage of important issues in this election. You got immigration, you got the economy, you got reproductive rights, the best place to dispose of a roadkill bear cub. Those are things that we need to be talking about, okay? Or maybe spend some time looking at how the GOP is already planning on how to steal the election by having corrupt state officials refuse to certify the results, getting corrupt judges to back them up before the whole thing goes to the corrupt Supreme Court that's already anointed Donald Trump a king, so now they can overturn the results of the election to declare him the winner in exchange for a new RV. But, hey, man, what do I know? That's just my opinion.

Show them in the God. When we come back, Barbara McQuade will be joining me on the show, so don't go away. Yes. Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight is a University of Michigan law school professor, former US attorney, and author of the New York Times bestseller, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. Please welcome Barbara McQuade. All right. Nice. Look at this. There's a fist on the cover coming out of the center of America. I'm like, Is that where the attack is coming from? Is it Nebraska right there?

Yeah. No, but it is a white, right-handed fist. That's where the attack is coming from.

Well, where are we in the disinformation in America? What does that mean? What is misinformation? What is disinformation?

Yeah, well, disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate people and advance an agenda. Misinformation Misinformation is its unwitting cousin. We hear something, we think it's true, but it's a lie, and we amplify the claim exponentially.

Disinformation is done on purpose. Misinformation is a family member Facebook scrolling, repeating something they saw. Exactly. From within. Is this the problem in America now? Is it coming from within? As you say in the book, is the call coming from within the house?

Yeah, I think it is. I spent my career as a federal prosecutor prosecuting national security cases. I teach a course on national security law at Michigan Law School. Historically, we have thought about information warfare and propaganda as coming from outside our borders from hostile foreign adversaries. But now we are seeing it, I think, as a political tactic within our own country. So these attacks that we hear about Kamala Harris being a DEI hire or that she recently happened to become black. These are deliberate efforts to stoke division in society.

What are some of the other tactics? Because, man, as consumer of news and media, I should know what these are.

Yeah, absolutely. And there is a list of some of the tactics in the book, but one of them is this idea of declinism. Society is going downhill. Everything's awful. Cities in ruins. American carnage.

Sound like a Trump speech right now.

These are some of the same tactics that Hitler talked about in Mein Kampf and used in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. In fact, if you look at the data, crime rates are down. The The economy is up. All of the indicators are actually on the upswing. And yet, if we can talk about the society as being down, then it allows us to say, Well, these extreme times call for extreme measures. And people believe these things. It allows scapegoating of other people in society and demonization of others.

One thing that really resonated to me is tribe over truth. Explain that more to me.

Yeah. So one of the things we've seen in our deeply in polarized times is that people identify with their political tribe, their team. It's almost like Michigan versus Ohio State. We care about being loyal to the team.

One of those teams is legit. Well, that's true. That's Michigan.

But we know.

We know what that means.

But if it all becomes just a sport-What I just said, it was a joke, but then I realized I probably just perpetuated this thing you're talking about. But loyalty to the team becomes more important than truth. That just doesn't work in a democracy. We will never resolve anything if all we care about is advancing our team, winning, dunking on our opponents. That's what politics has become, this idea that I'm going to go along with the con even if I believe that it's not true. Stop the steal. Stop the steal.

One thing that really resonated with me was, and I didn't think about it, was the use of nostalgia. Man, I'm a sucker for that. Sure. Me, too. You say in here, if you've ever seen a car commercial or I like the fonts, I always find myself gravitating towards a font that reminds me of a simpler time in my life. Are authoritarian politicians using nostalgia this way?

Absolutely, because all of us love that, right? I mean, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, right? For me, when I think about nostalgia, my childhood, I think about the happy times. It was 1968, right? War was raging in Vietnam. We had assassinations of our leaders. But in my little world, everything was wonderful. When I see a backyard barbecue with families in their Bermuda shorts, that all makes me feel happy and warm and safe. And so, yes, Utilizing nostalgia as a way to bring you in and say, We're the party that's going to make you safe because we're preying on your fear. If we can bring you back to that idea of tradition and nostalgia, we can make you feel safe.

You talk about Trump in here, but is it just one side that's doing this? Is it everybody? Is it both sides?

I don't like the both sides when it is one. I would say that it is a tactic that can be used by anybody. That's why I really wanted to write this book and raise awareness of these tactics so that people can see it regardless of who's pushing it. But at this moment in history, I do believe that it is the far right branch of the Republican Party that is most responsible for trafficking in lies.

Yeah. What can we do in a bigger sense, and what can I do? Michael, let's start with the bigger sense. What can we do as a country?

I think there are a number of things we can do in terms of reforms. Social media certainly is a place where lots of disinformation is spewed. We have power like we've never had before. I think there are regulations that we can take that could help stem the tide. Sometimes when I say that, I hear, You want to censor America. You hate the First Amendment. The answer is no. I'm a big advocate for the First Amendment and free speech. But I think if we look at process over content, we can find ways to have some common sense reform. For example, the algorithms that are deliberately designed to stoke outrage because that keeps us online and that sells more ads and that's more money for the platforms. I think if we could control the way our private data is taken so that we can be microtargeted, that is something that we could regulate.

I mean, disinformation is pretty profitable, no? I mean, a podcast about conspiracy theories a lot of people listen to. A podcast like mine, the Tennis Anyone podcast with Michael Costa, talks more about life and tennis. It's not really a question there, Barbara. That was just me wanting to push that. But when I... Okay, this weekend, I grabbed my phone, talked about social media. The first thing I see was trans, boxer, makes her opponent default. I go, Holy shit, that's a crazy headline. Then I come to work on Monday and you start unpacking. It's like, That's not at all what this was. What can we do? I think I have my head on straight. I think I can figure out a fact from fiction, but it's very deceiving. What can you do at home if you're watching with your family, if your kids are there? How can we teach them to decipher this stuff?

This is the lie that I is difficult to stop because of our First Amendment. People have a right to say things even that aren't true. I think one of the things we can do is improve our own media literacy. As a country, we could teach it in schools, we could teach it to adults, to civic organizations. But there are some best practices that we can do to help us build resilience against that false claim. The reason people use that is, of course, people who want to divide us, people who traffic in disinformation, exploit an opportunity. They say, Oh, here's a chance to really stick it to the LGBT the TQ community. I'm going to really stoke this and get people all amped up. But there are things we can do. One is reading with a critical eye, not just the tweet that someone with... They usually have a handle like Patriot Girl or something like that. Probably not a real person. Probably a Russian sitting in a boiler room somewhere who just says, I hate it when men beat up on girls or something like that. Find some credible news outlets like The Daily Show or some Learn about the background.

What is the basis for people saying that this is not a woman? In fact, you will read that she was born a woman. She grew up a woman. She has always competed as a woman. She has never once claimed to be, tried to be in any way, fought as a man. And so these claims are really made out of hole cloth. I think that if we educate ourselves in that way by doing a little bit of homework-Be skeptical. Exactly. And be a critical thinker. Just don't accept at face value what you read.

Yeah, you clap. You clap, but you better do it. You better do it. You better not sit on the kitchen table tomorrow scrolling Facebook and just repeating everything you say. We better all do it. The First Amendment is this amazing special amendment that we have that 260 years ago, the forefathers wrote down. But man, has it got us in a world of shit sometimes, huh? Is there a way to reframe it so we think about it differently. Are you allowed to say whatever you want whenever you want? I found it so interesting when you talked in here about how America is particularly susceptible to disinformation. Explain that again to me.

Yeah, well, it is because of our cherished First Amendment rights, and I think everybody does cherish it. Whether you're on the right or the left, it is the First Amendment that allows us to speak out against our government. But I think sometimes people use that as license to say everything they want to say. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It is also the case that, like all other amendments, like the Second Amendment and every other right we have in the Constitution, it is not unlimited. The Supreme Court has said, The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact. We can have reasonable limitations on things. There's a doctrine called strict scrutiny that says limitations are permissible if there's a compelling governmental reason, and the limitation is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. For example, you can't threaten to kill somebody online. It turns out that's frowned upon. That's a crime. Good.

We got that one right. You can't commit perjury.

That's free speech, but you can't say that. You can't yell fire in a crowded daily show studio.

Don't do that. Don't try that. Yeah, don't do that.

There are some limitations, but I really think that the best response to bad speech is more speech or better speech and labeling of speech. One of the things I'm most concerned about that's coming down the pike is AI-generated disinformation. There's this ad going around now. Ad going around now with Kamala Harris in her own voice saying things disparaging to herself. How do we combat that? People can create it. It will create satire. But I think labeling is a way for us. More speech is the response. Labeling so people know that the ad was generated with AI or that something satire or parody, I think, is the best way to address that, because I wouldn't want to do anything that cuts back on our First Amendment rights?

When you read the book, so much of what I was reading was going, Oh, my God. Yeah, now that makes sense. Oh, yeah, that speech makes sense. Oh, yeah. So it's very helpful. I say every three to four years, Americans should have to get some media literacy license, and there's going to be some required reading. I mean, you need a license to drive, and then if you get in an accident, you might have to get your license again. So we should get a license to free speech, and I'm just spitball in here. And then if you have a speech accident, you should have to...

All right.

Thank you for writing this book. It's a great book. Attack From Within is available now, and check out our podcast, #SistersInLaw. Barbara McQuade. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's our show for Now, here it is, your moment of Zen.

Like all regular people I grew up with in the Heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community. Come on. I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy. That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up. You see what I did there? Explore more shows from The Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11:10 central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

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