August 8, 2024 • 32 mins
Michael Kosta on Tim Walz's debut at Philadelphia's rowdy Harris rally, the GOP struggle to find an attack line on the new VP candidate, and Republicans descending into tampon turmoil. Plus, Troy Iwata investigates why Trump is calling Harris and Walz communists and discovers other secret commies. And, with Kamala Harris now the nominee, conservatives are breaking out their old standbys: racism and misogyny. In a new installment of "In My Opinion," Charlamagne Tha God refutes the right's claims that Harris is a DEI hire who lies about her race, and calls on the media to help filter out the bulls**t. Then, University of Michigan Law School professor and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade joins to discuss her new book, “Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.” She explains how “disinformation” — the deliberate use of lies — is different from misinformation, how tactics like declinism and nostalgia are being used by the far-right in the current election cycle, and how regular Americans can take control by advocating for social media regulations and staying media literate.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Center is America's
only source for news. This is The Daily Too, with
your host Michael Coffins.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Amorial Show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Michael Constant. We have so much to talk about tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Kamala Harrison, Tim Walls hard launch, conservatives are furious about tampons,
and Charlemagne's The God is here to talk about Kamala's race.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Spoiler alert, She's black.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
So let's get into it with another edition of Indecision
twenty twenty four. Yesterday, Kamala Garrison owns her vice presidential
pick is Tim Walls, Minnesota governor and guy who.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Just found a quarter behind your ear.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And last night she took her shiny new running mate
out for a spin at a rally in Philly.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That's not even
counting the crimes he committed.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay it with me. We aren't going back. Were aren't
going back in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
We respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make,
even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
There's a golden rule. Mind your own damn business.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Whoa a Minnesota and 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 did 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
(02:12):
dead inside? And part of this is that Tim Walts
creates excitement because he's.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
A new main character.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's like when you've had the same mailman for twenty
years and then a new guy comes around and you're like,
you know, this time, I'm gonna learn.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
This guy's name.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What can I say? I'm a good person.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So 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 Walls.
And I'm open to hearing it. I don't want to
be partisan, So Republicans, I'd like to hear a serious
critique from one of your sharpest minds.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let's bring in Scott Shelladay this morning.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
What do you think of Walts at the vice presidential pig?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Scott, I'm gonna guess this guy's response is moo.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, let's give him a chance. Let's give him
a chance.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He might have a very valid critique of Tim Wallas's policies.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Let's hear him out. Let's hear hm out.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
What do you think of Wals as the vice presidential
pick Scott.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Look story, he's not a serious candidate, all right? Not serious? Huh?
I agree.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I hate having to listen to unseerious people, you know,
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 aren't real policy issues Republicans have
been hitting Walls on, like helping undocumented immigrants get healthcare
(03:43):
and his reaction to the George Floyd protests. But they
just can't resist a story like this.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
He supports putting tampons in the boys' bathrooms for kids
as young as the fourth grade.
Speaker 8 (03:56):
He says Republicans are weird, Yet this is the governor
who put tampons in the boy's bathroom.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
A nickname for Tim Walls is tampon Tim. Tampon Tim.
We need to introduce tampon Tim to the world. Tampon Tim.
Tampon Tim.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
That sounds like a fictional character parents tell their daughter
about when she gets her first period. You know, like, look,
look what tampon Tim left under the Saint Honey super
Plus overnights. You've got your mom's flow and we couldn't
be prouder. But basically what happened is that Walls passed
(04:34):
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. You know, 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,
(04:58):
as someone who was a thirteen year old old boy,
it doesn't matter what you put in that bathroom, whatever
it is, they're gonna draw penis on it. They're gonna
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 gonna waste my time with that anyways.
Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota, which is the capital
of Alaska, doesn't seem to be overtly problematic, which is
(05:22):
why Republicans are accusing him of hiding something.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
This is a guy who hides behind his flannel jacket,
but he's actually a wolf.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
In sheep's clothing who cannot be trusted.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
A progressive in sheep's clothing. Governor Waltz is a socialist
in sheep's clothing.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He's a freak in sheep's clothing. He's a freak.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
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'm it's so good, by the way, isn't sheep's clothing
just like a wolf's letter. I love wearing sheep's clothing.
(06:03):
In the fall, I can make so many more cute outfits. Yeah,
senior portraits here on High eight. But yes, Tim Walls
maybe 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 Walls is a secret communist, and nobody is more
(06:26):
on board with this line of attack than Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 10 (06:30):
He's a very 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. Has never been a ticket like this.
This is a ticket that would want this country to
go communist immediately, if not sooner, immediately.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If not sooner, there's no sooner. That's what makes it immediately.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
If you tell someone you want something sooner than immediately,
they're gonna be late because they're going to waste their
time thinking what kind of idiot says immediately if not sooner.
By the way, yeah, 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
(07:23):
becoming more obvious that Trump's brain isn't exactly in great
shape either, and he.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Should get that looked at immediately, if not sooner. For more.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
For more on the Republican reaction to Walls, we go
live to Troy, Iwata, Troy, Troy. It seems like Republicans
are still trying to figure out how to attack Tim Walls.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, I think they figured it out.
Speaker 11 (07:52):
Tim Walls is a communist Sheep, a radical left wing
Marxist socialist who is also a s.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Okay, so Republicans think Kamala should have picked a more
moderate VP like Josh Shapiro.
Speaker 11 (08:06):
No, he is also a communist, a Marxist communist coach, sure, Sheep.
He's exactly the type of socialist that Democrats love to
pick instead of blue collar heartland people like Tim Walls.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Well, Troy, they did pick Tim Walls.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
I know it was a big mistake picking that Marxist socialist.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
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.
Speaker 11 (08:35):
Guy who fought Hitler like Joseph Stalin. Sounds like a
communist to me.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
What about mister peanut.
Speaker 11 (08:44):
Okay, every peanut is the same same color, same shape,
same taste, communist.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
What about the Geico gecko, anyone.
Speaker 11 (08:54):
That sells insurance as a communist, it's a shared risk.
The gecko from State Farm, Limu, EMU and Doug all communists. Okay,
And don't even get me started on Flow from Progressive. Okay,
she's progressive and her name is Flow. She is definitely
putting tampons in boys bathrooms?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So what about what about Pepa Pig? What about Pepa Pig.
Speaker 11 (09:22):
That pig in a red dress who teaches kids about
sharing as a communist?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Uncle Sam?
Speaker 11 (09:29):
You know who Sam is the uncle to?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Now say dong?
Speaker 11 (09:32):
Come on, look it up, it's on my substack, Troy?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Aren't these attacks? Are these attacks getting old?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Republicans do this every Democratic candidate.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Can't they find something new to say?
Speaker 11 (09:43):
It's not the Republican's fault that everyone who doesn't agree
with them in all of history has been a communist?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Michael.
Speaker 11 (09:49):
Okay, if they picked a normal person, Republicans would call
them normal.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
All right here here? What if the Dems say their
VP is Donald Trump? Donald Trump?
Speaker 11 (09:59):
You mean com free money during COVID, best buds with
Putin married to an Eastern European.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Troy, Troy, come on, not everyone is a communist. What
about you and me? Wake up? Costa?
Speaker 11 (10:14):
You and me work at comedy Central. I No, I'm
not a communist. You're not neither, am I? Comrade bink binc?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Troy? Awanta? Everybody? I mean, when we come back, Charlemagne
m Good is joining us.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
So don't go away, Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
We all know I've got great opinions, but I'm not
the only one. Studies show that other people also have opinions.
So here with another installment of in my opinion is
our good friend Charlemagne the God.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
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 of sess.
Democrats picked someone just because of their race, Enginder.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Tim Watz was a balancing choice for her. He's white,
he's male.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
We do know that they wanted to get a white
male in the ticket, so he's going to be that one.
Here's a really important one.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He's an old white dude.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
In about seventeen days.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Okay, I'm glad white men are finally getting that moment
in the sun.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Just to make sure to wear.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Enough stf All right, now you all know what's really
going on. According to Republicans, Tim Walls isn't the DEI
higher 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.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
She's a diversity hire.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of course, she's a DEI higher.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
She was a DEI, an incompetent diversity higher.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
This woman, this disaster, whose early qualification was having a
vagina and the right skin color.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
That's right, having dark skin in a vagina is an
instant path to.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
The Oval office.
Speaker 10 (12:38):
All Right.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
If you don't believe me, take it up with Ronald
Reagan's black pussy. Listen, man, this argument is so stupid
to me. If being a woman or a minority with
the golden ticket to get in the head in politics,
and President Andrew Yang would have already done universal basic income,
(13:03):
and President Kanye West would have already changed the national.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Anthem to gold digger.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Okay, I mean, I've looked at pictures of the last
forty six presidents, and it sure seems like there's one
identity in particular that gives you a leg up.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
White man, I'm just saying.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
Donald Trump would not have gotten the job if his
first name was Donelle. All Right, He'd be evicted himself.
He'd be evicted himself from 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.
(13:42):
She still had to do something with it on her own.
And Kamala has done a great job as vice president.
Remember that one big thing she did? Me and neither Okay,
And that's exactly what you want in a VP, someone
who doesn't make the news. A VP is like a
carbon monoxide detective. You want to have one, but if
(14:02):
it makes any noise, something's going something's gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
In fact, in fact, the last time I remember a
vice president doing anything that made the news, it was.
Speaker 10 (14:19):
This vice president of Dick Cheney apparently broke the number
one rule of hunting this weekend when he accidentally shot
a friend in the face.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, accidentally, just like he accidentally invaded the
wrong country after nine to eleven. Yeah, now that I
think about it, Dick Cheney made the news a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Don't be like Dick Cheney.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
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 went eighteen sixty 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.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
Earlier in her career she identified as South Asian.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Now she is considered an African American woman.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
Is she black?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Is she Indian?
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Nobody knows Pamala's Indian, black heritage, or whatever it is
she wants to be today.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
One year she's black, the next year she's of South
Asian descent.
Speaker 10 (15:28):
She was Indian all the way, and then all of
a sudden she made a turn and she went she
became a black.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Just to be clear, I don't know if you noticed
or not, but you can be both.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Don't want to break your brains. But two isn't even
the most racist a person can be. Yeah, Bruno Mars
is the most racist a person can be.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And we know what's going on here.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
All of these attacks are the pink Kamala as just
one big phony.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Going to Georgia two days ago and putting on a
fixed Southern accent when you were raised in Canada.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
Whoa So wait, she's faking being black and she's Canadian. Well,
that's the worst thing you can call somebody.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
This year, Drake, And it's been a rough hair for Drake.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And if I were a white Republican, I'd be a
little worried about Democrats flipping this on me. If Republicans
are appointing themselves the black police, dims could become the
white police, because not all whites or maga whites. You
got kombucha whites, you got cargo short whites, you got
Stanley Cup whites, both kinds of Stanley Cup, hockey and beverage.
(16:50):
You've even got whatever kind of white Jojoe c Why
is white people around the country watch that clip like
she not like us?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
She not like us.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
But honestly, I'm not even mad at Republicans from 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.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Been in the news.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Identity heritage is newly injected into the race. Why is
foreimer President Trump question with vice president's racial identity.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
Talk about racial identity dominated the headlines.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
The claims about Vice President Harris's identity will probably make
the most headlines.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
What do you mean these claims will make the most headlines, CNN, MSNBC, ABC.
You're the ones who decide what the headlines are.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
These issues don't make headlines unless.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You put it in the headline.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And none of these issues should be a headline.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
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 sat it. I'd be like, well,
God bless you, sir. Here's two dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I gotta go.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Okay, right, 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 road kill bear, cub.
Those are things that we need to be talking about, Okay,
are maybe spend some time looking at how the GOP
(18:40):
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 annointed Donald
trumpet King, so now they can overturn the results of
the election to declare him the winner and exchange for
new RV.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
But hey, man, what do I know?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's just my opinion?
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Or man the guy?
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Will we come back?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Barbara McQuaid will be joining me on the show, so
don't go away. Welcome back to the Dalla Show.
Speaker 8 (19:32):
My guest tonight is the 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?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Please welcome Barbara McQuaid.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Right, look at this. Look at that.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
There's a fist on the cover, coming out of the
center of America. And I'm like, is that where the
attack is coming from? Is it Nebraska right there?
Speaker 10 (20:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:11):
No, but it is a white, right handed fist. That's
where the attack is coming from.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Well, you know where are we in the disinformation in America?
What does that mean? What is misinformation? What is disinformation? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Well, disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate
people in advance an agenda. Misinformation is kind of its
unwitting cousin. We hear something, we think it's true, but
it's a lie, and we amplify the claim exponentially.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Disinformation is done on purpose.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Yeah, 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?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, I think it is.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
You know, I spent my career as a federal prosecutor
prosecuting national security cases each a course on national security
law at Michigan Law School, And historically we have thought
about information warfare and propaganda is coming from outside our words,
from hostile foreign adversaries.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
But now we are.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
Seeing it, I think, as a political tactic within our
own country. So these attacks that we hear about Kamala
Harris being a DEI higher, or that you know she
recently happened to become black, these are deliberate efforts to
stoke division in society.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
What are some of the.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Other tactics, because man, as consumer of news and media,
I should know what these are.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Absolutely, And there is a list of some of the
tactics in the book. But you know, one of them
is this idea of declinism. Society is going downhill. Everything's awful,
cities in ruins, American carnage.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Sound like a Trump speech.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
These are some of the.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
Same tactics that Hitler talked about in mindkomf and used
in Nazi Germany in the nineteen thirties. And in fact,
if you look at the data, you know, crime rates
are down, economy is up, all of the indicators are
actually on the upswing. And yet if we can talk
about this society as being down, then it allows us
to say, well, these extreme times call for extreme measures,
(22:14):
and people believe these things. It allows scapegoating of other
people in society and demonization of others.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
One thing that really resonated to me is tribe over truth.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Explain that more to me.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
So, one of the things we've seen in our deeply
polarized times is that people identify with their political tribe,
their team. It's almost like, you know, Michigan versus Ohio State.
We care about being loyal to the team.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
One of those teams is legit.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Well, that's true, Michigan.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
We know, we know that.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
But if it all becomes just a sport.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
What I just said it was a joke.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
But then I realized I probably just perpetuated this thing
you're talking about.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
But loyalty to the team becomes more important than truth,
and that just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And it's democracy.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
We will never resolve anything if all we care about
is advancing our team winning, dunking on our opponents. And
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.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So you know, stop the steal.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Wrong prop the steal. One thing that really resonated with
me was, and I didn't think about it, was the
use of nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Man, I'm a sucker for that.
Speaker 11 (23:28):
Sure, you know me too.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah, And you say in here, if you've ever seen
a car commercial or I like, you know, the fonts,
I always find myself gravitating doors, a font that reminds
me of a simpler time in my life. Our authoritarian
politicians using nostalgia this.
Speaker 7 (23:43):
Way absolutely, because all of us love that, right, I mean,
good basis, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie. Right, you know,
for me, when I think about nostalgia, my childhood I
think about the happy times.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It was nineteen sixty eight, right.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
War was raging in Vietnam. We have assassinations of our leaders.
But in my little world, everything was wonderful. So when
I see you know, a backyard barbecue with you know,
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
(24:18):
the party that's going to make you safe because we're
preying on your fear, and so if we can bring
you back to that idea of tradition and nostalgia, we
can make you feel safe.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We talk about Trump in here, but is it just
one side that's doing this? Is it everybody? Is it
both sides?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I don't like to both sides.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
When it is one, I would say that it is
a tactic that can be used by anybody. And so
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.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, yeah, what.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
What can we do in a bigger sense?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
And what can I do, Michael, Let's start with the
bigger sense.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
What can we do as a country?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Yeah, So I think there are a number of things
we can do in terms of reforms. So social media
certainly is a place where lots of disinformation is spewed.
We have power like we've never had before, and 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,
And the answer is no. I'm a big advocate for
(25:31):
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 reforms. So, 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
(25:52):
we can be micro targeted, that is something that we
could regulate.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I mean, disinformation is pretty profitable, no, I mean, you
know a podcast about conspiracy theories a lot of people
listen to, you know, podcasts like mine, the Tennis Anyone
podcast with Michael Costa talks more about life and tennis.
There's not really a question there, Barbara. That was just
me wanted to quition. But when I okay, this weekend,
(26:24):
I've grabbed my phone talking about social media. The first
thing I see was trans boxer makes her opponent defaults,
and I go, holy shit, that's a crazy headline. And
then you kind of and I come to work on
Monday and you start unpacking.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's like, that's not at all what this was. So
what can we do? You know?
Speaker 4 (26:43):
That's I think I have my head on straight. I
think I can figure out a fact from fiction. But
that's it's 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?
Speaker 7 (26:56):
Yeah, and you know, this is the kind of lie
that I think 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. So as
a country, we could teach it in schools, we could
teach it to adults th civic organizations. But there are
some best practices that we can do to help us
build resilience against that kind of false claim.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And the reason.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
People use that is, of course, people who want to
divide us, people who traffic and disinformation, exploit an opportunity.
They say, oh, here's a chance to really stick it
to the LGBTQ community. Right, so 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, you know, not just the tweet that someone
(27:40):
with you know, they usually have a handle like you know,
Patriot Girl, right or.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Something like that.
Speaker 7 (27:45):
Probably not a real person, probably a Russian, you know,
sitting in a boiler room somewhere who just says, you know,
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
(28:07):
the basis for people saying that this is not a woman,
And 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 as a man,
and so these claims are really made out of whole cloth.
And so I think that if we educate ourselves in
that way by doing a little bit of homework, skeptical exactly,
(28:30):
and be a critical thinker. Just don't accept at face
value what you read the.
Speaker 9 (28:35):
Yeah you clap, you.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Crap, but you better do it. You better do it.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
You better not sit on the kitchen table. I'm I
all scroll on Facebook and just repeating everything you say.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We better all do it.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
The First Amendment is this amazing special amendment that we
have that two hundred and sixty years ago the forefathers
wrote down.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But man, has it got us in a world of shit? Sometimes? Huh?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Is there a way to reframe it so we think
about it differently? Are you allowed to say whatever you
want whenever you want?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
What I mean?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
I just I found it so interesting when you talked
in here about how America is particularly susceptible to disinformation.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Explain that against me.
Speaker 7 (29:13):
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, and just because you can
doesn't mean you should.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
It is also the case.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
That like all other amendments, like the Second Amendment and
every other right we have in the Constitution, it is
not unlimited.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
The Supreme Court has said the Bill of Rights is.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Not a suicide pact, and we can't have reasonable limitations
on things. You know, 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. So,
for example, you can't threaten to kill somebody online. It
turns out that's frowned upon crime.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Good. You can't got that one right.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
You can't commit perjury, right, that's free speech, but you
can't say that. You can't yell fire in a crowded
daily shows.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Don't do that. We'll try that.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
So 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.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You know.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
One of the things I'm most concerned about that's coming
down the pike is AI generated this information. You know,
there's this ad going around now, ad going around now
with you know, Kamala Harris in her own voice saying
things disparaging to herself. And so how do we combat that?
You know, people can create it, people create satire and that.
(30:46):
But I think labeling is a way for us. You know,
more speech is the response. Labeling so people know that
the ad was generated with AI or it's something satire
or party.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I think is the best way to address.
Speaker 7 (30:57):
That because I wouldn't want to do anything that that
cuts back on our First Amendment rights.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
When you read the book, so much of what I
was reading was going, oh my god, yeah now that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Oh yeah, that speech makes sense. Oh yeah. So it's
very helpful.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
And I say every three to four years, Americans should
have to get some media literacy license and there's gonna
be some required reading.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I mean, you need a license to drive, and then.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
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 spitballing here. And then
if you have a speech accident, you shift to.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Thank you for writing this book. It's a great book.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Attack from Within is available now and check out our
podcast hashtag Sisters in Law Barbara McQuaid, and you take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You're right back after this.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's our show up for tonight out here. It is
your moment of ze.
Speaker 12 (32:02):
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, and I gotta tell you, I can't wait
to debate the guy, that is, if he's willing to.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Get off the couch and show up. So you see
what I did there.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
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 eleven ten Central on Comedy Central,
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Plus Paramount Podcasts
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Center is America's
only source for news. This is The Daily Too, with
your host Michael Coffins.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Amorial Show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Michael Constant. We have so much to talk about tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Kamala Harrison, Tim Walls hard launch, conservatives are furious about tampons,
and Charlemagne's The God is here to talk about Kamala's race.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Spoiler alert, She's black.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
So let's get into it with another edition of Indecision
twenty twenty four. Yesterday, Kamala Garrison owns her vice presidential
pick is Tim Walls, Minnesota governor and guy who.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Just found a quarter behind your ear.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And last night she took her shiny new running mate
out for a spin at a rally in Philly.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That's not even
counting the crimes he committed.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay it with me. We aren't going back. Were aren't
going back in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
We respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make,
even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
There's a golden rule. Mind your own damn business.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Whoa a Minnesota and 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 did 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
(02:12):
dead inside? And part of this is that Tim Walts
creates excitement because he's.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
A new main character.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's like when you've had the same mailman for twenty
years and then a new guy comes around and you're like,
you know, this time, I'm gonna learn.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
This guy's name.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What can I say? I'm a good person.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So 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 Walls.
And I'm open to hearing it. I don't want to
be partisan, So Republicans, I'd like to hear a serious
critique from one of your sharpest minds.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let's bring in Scott Shelladay this morning.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
What do you think of Walts at the vice presidential pig?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Scott, I'm gonna guess this guy's response is moo.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, let's give him a chance. Let's give him
a chance.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He might have a very valid critique of Tim Wallas's policies.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Let's hear him out. Let's hear hm out.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
What do you think of Wals as the vice presidential
pick Scott.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Look story, he's not a serious candidate, all right? Not serious? Huh?
I agree.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I hate having to listen to unseerious people, you know,
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 aren't real policy issues Republicans have
been hitting Walls on, like helping undocumented immigrants get healthcare
(03:43):
and his reaction to the George Floyd protests. But they
just can't resist a story like this.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
He supports putting tampons in the boys' bathrooms for kids
as young as the fourth grade.
Speaker 8 (03:56):
He says Republicans are weird, Yet this is the governor
who put tampons in the boy's bathroom.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
A nickname for Tim Walls is tampon Tim. Tampon Tim.
We need to introduce tampon Tim to the world. Tampon Tim.
Tampon Tim.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
That sounds like a fictional character parents tell their daughter
about when she gets her first period. You know, like, look,
look what tampon Tim left under the Saint Honey super
Plus overnights. You've got your mom's flow and we couldn't
be prouder. But basically what happened is that Walls passed
(04:34):
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. You know, 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,
(04:58):
as someone who was a thirteen year old old boy,
it doesn't matter what you put in that bathroom, whatever
it is, they're gonna draw penis on it. They're gonna
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 gonna waste my time with that anyways.
Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota, which is the capital
of Alaska, doesn't seem to be overtly problematic, which is
(05:22):
why Republicans are accusing him of hiding something.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
This is a guy who hides behind his flannel jacket,
but he's actually a wolf.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
In sheep's clothing who cannot be trusted.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
A progressive in sheep's clothing. Governor Waltz is a socialist
in sheep's clothing.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He's a freak in sheep's clothing. He's a freak.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
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'm it's so good, by the way, isn't sheep's clothing
just like a wolf's letter. I love wearing sheep's clothing.
(06:03):
In the fall, I can make so many more cute outfits. Yeah,
senior portraits here on High eight. But yes, Tim Walls
maybe 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 Walls is a secret communist, and nobody is more
(06:26):
on board with this line of attack than Donald Trump himself.
Speaker 10 (06:30):
He's a very 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. Has never been a ticket like this.
This is a ticket that would want this country to
go communist immediately, if not sooner, immediately.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If not sooner, there's no sooner. That's what makes it immediately.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
If you tell someone you want something sooner than immediately,
they're gonna be late because they're going to waste their
time thinking what kind of idiot says immediately if not sooner.
By the way, yeah, 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
(07:23):
becoming more obvious that Trump's brain isn't exactly in great
shape either, and he.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Should get that looked at immediately, if not sooner. For more.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
For more on the Republican reaction to Walls, we go
live to Troy, Iwata, Troy, Troy. It seems like Republicans
are still trying to figure out how to attack Tim Walls.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, I think they figured it out.
Speaker 11 (07:52):
Tim Walls is a communist Sheep, a radical left wing
Marxist socialist who is also a s.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Okay, so Republicans think Kamala should have picked a more
moderate VP like Josh Shapiro.
Speaker 11 (08:06):
No, he is also a communist, a Marxist communist coach, sure, Sheep.
He's exactly the type of socialist that Democrats love to
pick instead of blue collar heartland people like Tim Walls.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Well, Troy, they did pick Tim Walls.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
I know it was a big mistake picking that Marxist socialist.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
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.
Speaker 11 (08:35):
Guy who fought Hitler like Joseph Stalin. Sounds like a
communist to me.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
What about mister peanut.
Speaker 11 (08:44):
Okay, every peanut is the same same color, same shape,
same taste, communist.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
What about the Geico gecko, anyone.
Speaker 11 (08:54):
That sells insurance as a communist, it's a shared risk.
The gecko from State Farm, Limu, EMU and Doug all communists. Okay,
And don't even get me started on Flow from Progressive. Okay,
she's progressive and her name is Flow. She is definitely
putting tampons in boys bathrooms?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So what about what about Pepa Pig? What about Pepa Pig.
Speaker 11 (09:22):
That pig in a red dress who teaches kids about
sharing as a communist?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Uncle Sam?
Speaker 11 (09:29):
You know who Sam is the uncle to?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Now say dong?
Speaker 11 (09:32):
Come on, look it up, it's on my substack, Troy?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Aren't these attacks? Are these attacks getting old?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Republicans do this every Democratic candidate.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Can't they find something new to say?
Speaker 11 (09:43):
It's not the Republican's fault that everyone who doesn't agree
with them in all of history has been a communist?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Michael.
Speaker 11 (09:49):
Okay, if they picked a normal person, Republicans would call
them normal.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
All right here here? What if the Dems say their
VP is Donald Trump? Donald Trump?
Speaker 11 (09:59):
You mean com free money during COVID, best buds with
Putin married to an Eastern European.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Troy, Troy, come on, not everyone is a communist. What
about you and me? Wake up? Costa?
Speaker 11 (10:14):
You and me work at comedy Central. I No, I'm
not a communist. You're not neither, am I? Comrade bink binc?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Troy? Awanta? Everybody? I mean, when we come back, Charlemagne
m Good is joining us.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
So don't go away, Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
We all know I've got great opinions, but I'm not
the only one. Studies show that other people also have opinions.
So here with another installment of in my opinion is
our good friend Charlemagne the God.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
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 of sess.
Democrats picked someone just because of their race, Enginder.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Tim Watz was a balancing choice for her. He's white,
he's male.
Speaker 7 (11:33):
We do know that they wanted to get a white
male in the ticket, so he's going to be that one.
Here's a really important one.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
He's an old white dude.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
In about seventeen days.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Okay, I'm glad white men are finally getting that moment
in the sun.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Just to make sure to wear.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Enough stf All right, now you all know what's really
going on. According to Republicans, Tim Walls isn't the DEI
higher 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.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
She's a diversity hire.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of course, she's a DEI higher.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
She was a DEI, an incompetent diversity higher.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
This woman, this disaster, whose early qualification was having a
vagina and the right skin color.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
That's right, having dark skin in a vagina is an
instant path to.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
The Oval office.
Speaker 10 (12:38):
All Right.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
If you don't believe me, take it up with Ronald
Reagan's black pussy. Listen, man, this argument is so stupid
to me. If being a woman or a minority with
the golden ticket to get in the head in politics,
and President Andrew Yang would have already done universal basic income,
(13:03):
and President Kanye West would have already changed the national.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Anthem to gold digger.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Okay, I mean, I've looked at pictures of the last
forty six presidents, and it sure seems like there's one
identity in particular that gives you a leg up.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
White man, I'm just saying.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
Donald Trump would not have gotten the job if his
first name was Donelle. All Right, He'd be evicted himself.
He'd be evicted himself from 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.
(13:42):
She still had to do something with it on her own.
And Kamala has done a great job as vice president.
Remember that one big thing she did? Me and neither Okay,
And that's exactly what you want in a VP, someone
who doesn't make the news. A VP is like a
carbon monoxide detective. You want to have one, but if
(14:02):
it makes any noise, something's going something's gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
In fact, in fact, the last time I remember a
vice president doing anything that made the news, it was.
Speaker 10 (14:19):
This vice president of Dick Cheney apparently broke the number
one rule of hunting this weekend when he accidentally shot
a friend in the face.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, accidentally, just like he accidentally invaded the
wrong country after nine to eleven. Yeah, now that I
think about it, Dick Cheney made the news a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Don't be like Dick Cheney.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
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 went eighteen sixty 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.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
Earlier in her career she identified as South Asian.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Now she is considered an African American woman.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
Is she black?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Is she Indian?
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Nobody knows Pamala's Indian, black heritage, or whatever it is
she wants to be today.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
One year she's black, the next year she's of South
Asian descent.
Speaker 10 (15:28):
She was Indian all the way, and then all of
a sudden she made a turn and she went she
became a black.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
Just to be clear, I don't know if you noticed
or not, but you can be both.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Don't want to break your brains. But two isn't even
the most racist a person can be. Yeah, Bruno Mars
is the most racist a person can be.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And we know what's going on here.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
All of these attacks are the pink Kamala as just
one big phony.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Going to Georgia two days ago and putting on a
fixed Southern accent when you were raised in Canada.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
Whoa So wait, she's faking being black and she's Canadian. Well,
that's the worst thing you can call somebody.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
This year, Drake, And it's been a rough hair for Drake.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And if I were a white Republican, I'd be a
little worried about Democrats flipping this on me. If Republicans
are appointing themselves the black police, dims could become the
white police, because not all whites or maga whites. You
got kombucha whites, you got cargo short whites, you got
Stanley Cup whites, both kinds of Stanley Cup, hockey and beverage.
(16:50):
You've even got whatever kind of white Jojoe c Why
is white people around the country watch that clip like
she not like us?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
She not like us.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
But honestly, I'm not even mad at Republicans from 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.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Been in the news.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Identity heritage is newly injected into the race. Why is
foreimer President Trump question with vice president's racial identity.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
Talk about racial identity dominated the headlines.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
The claims about Vice President Harris's identity will probably make
the most headlines.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
What do you mean these claims will make the most headlines, CNN, MSNBC, ABC.
You're the ones who decide what the headlines are.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
These issues don't make headlines unless.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You put it in the headline.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And none of these issues should be a headline.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
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 sat it. I'd be like, well,
God bless you, sir. Here's two dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I gotta go.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Okay, right, 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 road kill bear, cub.
Those are things that we need to be talking about, Okay,
are maybe spend some time looking at how the GOP
(18:40):
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 annointed Donald
trumpet King, so now they can overturn the results of
the election to declare him the winner and exchange for
new RV.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
But hey, man, what do I know?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's just my opinion?
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Or man the guy?
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Will we come back?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Barbara McQuaid will be joining me on the show, so
don't go away. Welcome back to the Dalla Show.
Speaker 8 (19:32):
My guest tonight is the 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?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Please welcome Barbara McQuaid.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Right, look at this. Look at that.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
There's a fist on the cover, coming out of the
center of America. And I'm like, is that where the
attack is coming from? Is it Nebraska right there?
Speaker 10 (20:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:11):
No, but it is a white, right handed fist. That's
where the attack is coming from.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Well, you know where are we in the disinformation in America?
What does that mean? What is misinformation? What is disinformation? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (20:23):
Well, disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate
people in advance an agenda. Misinformation is kind of its
unwitting cousin. We hear something, we think it's true, but
it's a lie, and we amplify the claim exponentially.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Disinformation is done on purpose.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Yeah, 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?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, I think it is.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
You know, I spent my career as a federal prosecutor
prosecuting national security cases each a course on national security
law at Michigan Law School, And historically we have thought
about information warfare and propaganda is coming from outside our words,
from hostile foreign adversaries.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
But now we are.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
Seeing it, I think, as a political tactic within our
own country. So these attacks that we hear about Kamala
Harris being a DEI higher, or that you know she
recently happened to become black, these are deliberate efforts to
stoke division in society.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
What are some of the.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Other tactics, because man, as consumer of news and media,
I should know what these are.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Absolutely, And there is a list of some of the
tactics in the book. But you know, one of them
is this idea of declinism. Society is going downhill. Everything's awful,
cities in ruins, American carnage.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Sound like a Trump speech.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
These are some of the.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
Same tactics that Hitler talked about in mindkomf and used
in Nazi Germany in the nineteen thirties. And in fact,
if you look at the data, you know, crime rates
are down, economy is up, all of the indicators are
actually on the upswing. And yet if we can talk
about this society as being down, then it allows us
to say, well, these extreme times call for extreme measures,
(22:14):
and people believe these things. It allows scapegoating of other
people in society and demonization of others.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
One thing that really resonated to me is tribe over truth.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Explain that more to me.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
So, one of the things we've seen in our deeply
polarized times is that people identify with their political tribe,
their team. It's almost like, you know, Michigan versus Ohio State.
We care about being loyal to the team.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
One of those teams is legit.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Well, that's true, Michigan.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
We know, we know that.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
But if it all becomes just a sport.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
What I just said it was a joke.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
But then I realized I probably just perpetuated this thing
you're talking about.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
But loyalty to the team becomes more important than truth,
and that just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And it's democracy.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
We will never resolve anything if all we care about
is advancing our team winning, dunking on our opponents. And
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.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So you know, stop the steal.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Wrong prop the steal. One thing that really resonated with
me was, and I didn't think about it, was the
use of nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Man, I'm a sucker for that.
Speaker 11 (23:28):
Sure, you know me too.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah, And you say in here, if you've ever seen
a car commercial or I like, you know, the fonts,
I always find myself gravitating doors, a font that reminds
me of a simpler time in my life. Our authoritarian
politicians using nostalgia this.
Speaker 7 (23:43):
Way absolutely, because all of us love that, right, I mean,
good basis, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie. Right, you know,
for me, when I think about nostalgia, my childhood I
think about the happy times.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It was nineteen sixty eight, right.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
War was raging in Vietnam. We have assassinations of our leaders.
But in my little world, everything was wonderful. So when
I see you know, a backyard barbecue with you know,
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
(24:18):
the party that's going to make you safe because we're
preying on your fear, and so if we can bring
you back to that idea of tradition and nostalgia, we
can make you feel safe.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We talk about Trump in here, but is it just
one side that's doing this? Is it everybody? Is it
both sides?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I don't like to both sides.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
When it is one, I would say that it is
a tactic that can be used by anybody. And so
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.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, yeah, what.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
What can we do in a bigger sense?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
And what can I do, Michael, Let's start with the
bigger sense.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
What can we do as a country?
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Yeah, So I think there are a number of things
we can do in terms of reforms. So social media
certainly is a place where lots of disinformation is spewed.
We have power like we've never had before, and 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,
And the answer is no. I'm a big advocate for
(25:31):
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 reforms. So, 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
(25:52):
we can be micro targeted, that is something that we
could regulate.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I mean, disinformation is pretty profitable, no, I mean, you
know a podcast about conspiracy theories a lot of people
listen to, you know, podcasts like mine, the Tennis Anyone
podcast with Michael Costa talks more about life and tennis.
There's not really a question there, Barbara. That was just
me wanted to quition. But when I okay, this weekend,
(26:24):
I've grabbed my phone talking about social media. The first
thing I see was trans boxer makes her opponent defaults,
and I go, holy shit, that's a crazy headline. And
then you kind of and I come to work on
Monday and you start unpacking.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's like, that's not at all what this was. So
what can we do? You know?
Speaker 4 (26:43):
That's I think I have my head on straight. I
think I can figure out a fact from fiction. But
that's it's 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?
Speaker 7 (26:56):
Yeah, and you know, this is the kind of lie
that I think 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. So as
a country, we could teach it in schools, we could
teach it to adults th civic organizations. But there are
some best practices that we can do to help us
build resilience against that kind of false claim.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And the reason.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
People use that is, of course, people who want to
divide us, people who traffic and disinformation, exploit an opportunity.
They say, oh, here's a chance to really stick it
to the LGBTQ community. Right, so 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, you know, not just the tweet that someone
(27:40):
with you know, they usually have a handle like you know,
Patriot Girl, right or.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Something like that.
Speaker 7 (27:45):
Probably not a real person, probably a Russian, you know,
sitting in a boiler room somewhere who just says, you know,
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
(28:07):
the basis for people saying that this is not a woman,
And 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 as a man,
and so these claims are really made out of whole cloth.
And so I think that if we educate ourselves in
that way by doing a little bit of homework, skeptical exactly,
(28:30):
and be a critical thinker. Just don't accept at face
value what you read the.
Speaker 9 (28:35):
Yeah you clap, you.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Crap, but you better do it. You better do it.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
You better not sit on the kitchen table. I'm I
all scroll on Facebook and just repeating everything you say.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We better all do it.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
The First Amendment is this amazing special amendment that we
have that two hundred and sixty years ago the forefathers
wrote down.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But man, has it got us in a world of shit? Sometimes? Huh?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Is there a way to reframe it so we think
about it differently? Are you allowed to say whatever you
want whenever you want?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
What I mean?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
I just I found it so interesting when you talked
in here about how America is particularly susceptible to disinformation.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Explain that against me.
Speaker 7 (29:13):
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, and just because you can
doesn't mean you should.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
It is also the case.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
That like all other amendments, like the Second Amendment and
every other right we have in the Constitution, it is
not unlimited.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
The Supreme Court has said the Bill of Rights is.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Not a suicide pact, and we can't have reasonable limitations
on things. You know, 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. So,
for example, you can't threaten to kill somebody online. It
turns out that's frowned upon crime.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Good. You can't got that one right.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
You can't commit perjury, right, that's free speech, but you
can't say that. You can't yell fire in a crowded
daily shows.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Don't do that. We'll try that.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
So 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.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You know.
Speaker 7 (30:24):
One of the things I'm most concerned about that's coming
down the pike is AI generated this information. You know,
there's this ad going around now, ad going around now
with you know, Kamala Harris in her own voice saying
things disparaging to herself. And so how do we combat that?
You know, people can create it, people create satire and that.
(30:46):
But I think labeling is a way for us. You know,
more speech is the response. Labeling so people know that
the ad was generated with AI or it's something satire
or party.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I think is the best way to address.
Speaker 7 (30:57):
That because I wouldn't want to do anything that that
cuts back on our First Amendment rights.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
When you read the book, so much of what I
was reading was going, oh my god, yeah now that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Oh yeah, that speech makes sense. Oh yeah. So it's
very helpful.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
And I say every three to four years, Americans should
have to get some media literacy license and there's gonna
be some required reading.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I mean, you need a license to drive, and then.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
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 spitballing here. And then
if you have a speech accident, you shift to.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Thank you for writing this book. It's a great book.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
Attack from Within is available now and check out our
podcast hashtag Sisters in Law Barbara McQuaid, and you take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You're right back after this.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's our show up for tonight out here. It is
your moment of ze.
Speaker 12 (32:02):
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, and I gotta tell you, I can't wait
to debate the guy, that is, if he's willing to.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Get off the couch and show up. So you see
what I did there.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
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 eleven ten Central on Comedy Central,
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount
Speaker 3 (32:43):
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