'cause... - what the... [rats squeaking] - oh, ho, ho, ho. gross. [laughter] ♪ ♪ >> announcer: from the most trusted journalists at comedy central... it's america's only source for news. this is "the daily show" with your host, jon stewart! [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪

[cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ [cheers and applause] >> jon: hey, everybody! welcome to "the daily show!" my name is jon stewart. so nice to see you tonight. we have an unbelievable show for you tonight. next week, we're going to have our big debate show, but tonight, we are going to get a quick state of play on this incredibly consequential presidential election. i guess the election has basically boiled down to each candidate accusing the other of having soup where there should be brain. there's plenty of fodder for the attacks. for instance, for president biden, it is his habit of seemingly staring at what can only be considered ghosts or

out of frame paratroopers. and then, when pulled back into frame, somehow giving the impression that someone has just quantum leaped into his body. no, don't look directly at the sun, sir. and as for trump, it's him tripping over his own dick any time he tries to capitalize on biden's age. like this weekend, trump appeared at the herbalife of political conventions, "turning point usa." where trump articulated his case for having best brain-ful neurons smart. >> joe biden has no plan. he's got absolutely no plan. he doesn't even know what the word "inflation" means. >> jon: oh! oh, you did it! no! oh! joe biden's so dumb! he thinks inflation is a rise in

the overall price level for goods and services in the economy as measured by the consumer price index over time! oh, shit! [cheers and applause] turns out, that is what it is, sorry. i'm being told that is what it actually is. but still, you tell him, donny t! the case he's making to the american public is that he's the sharpest tool in the shed. see if you can find the flaw in his logic just one sentence later. >> i don't think, if you gave him a quiz -- i think he should take a cognitive test like i did. i took a cognitive test and i aced it. doc ronny, doc ronny johnson. does everyone know ronny johnson, congressman from texas? >> jon: ronny johnson! acing that cognitive test is a great point, if only his doctor

was actually named ronny johnson and not actually named ronny jackson. he got the guy's name wrong on his cognitive test! [laughter and cheering] i don't even know what to say. well, here is the problem, the sad thing is, under maga law, his name is now ronny johnson. this is the way. those aren't the only comments trump seems to have spit the bit on. just weeks before he heads to the republican national convention in milwaukee, he called milwaukee, quote, "a horrible city." forcing liberals around the country to defend milwaukee! a city they then had to pretend

to have been to! "oh, milwaukee is the finest city in... i want to say indiana?" but don't worry, because donald trump cleared the whole thing up. >> well, i think it was very clear what i meant. i said, we are very concerned with crime. i love milwaukee. i have great friends in milwaukee, but it's -- as you know, the crime numbers are terrible and we have to be very careful. >> jon: yes, lots of criminals in milwaukee. are you talking about now, sir, or when you and your felonious friends come to town? [cheers and applause] [laughter] this script, it just says "jon

turns and makes dumb face." that is what i did. i made a dumb face. [cheers and applause] anyway! it's a good save by former president trump. the city's great, he loves it! it's the dang democrat-encouraged crime. it's one of the right's favorite talking points not just for milwaukee, but for all democratic-run cities. that those cities are crime-infested shitholes where life is miserable and everyone hates everybody. but people who live in these cities know that this rhetoric is only kind of true. and when people who don't live in these cities say it, it's very annoying. and by the way, it does turn out that crime is actually down! >> the fbi reporting the nation's violent crime rate has dropped dramatically this year. >> overall violent crime down 15% from last year. murders down 26%. by every national metric, crime is down.

>> jon: solid trend. crime is down. it's all a misunderstanding. but now that the fbi numbers are out, i'm sure the right wing media will adjust accordingly. >> quality of life is not captured in any of the fbi numbers. and if you live in a blue city, walk outside and use your eyes. >> jon: you should use your [bleep] eyes! do you even see over your shoulder? do you see they're doing double donuts in a parking lot? that's the cirque du soleil of automobiles! that's not crime. that's art. oh, but i'm sorry, you were downplaying the crime statistics? >> now they say that there's no crime wave, but do you feel safe? >> doesn't feel that way. >> it certainly doesn't feel that way for the average american today. >> democrats will say, well, but crime is down. that's not how people feel. >> jon: yeah, as the right always famously says: feelings don't care about your facts! [bleep] your facts!

isn't that the slogan on the right? [cheers and applause] it does bring up a good point, though. if crime is down so much, why do people, especially on the right, feel like it's up? ♪ ♪ [dramatic music] oh. the crime graphic is... i haven't really calculated slope in a while, but it seems like the x-axis is moving into the nosebleeds while the y-axis is being tied down and sodomized. i'm sure that's just a one-off and not your network's entire programming. >> another day, another stream of brazen, violent crimes. >> the havoc being wreaked upon america, undoubtedly coming to a town or city near you. >> blatant and outrageous crimes occurring on a daily basis coast-to-coast. >> you're seeing that in chicago, in new york, you know, these democrat-run cities. >> there is so much crime in the

city. i can't comprehend how people live there. >> new york is now this dystopian hell hole of crime and violence. [laughter] >> jon: is now a dystopian hell hole? you're just figuring that out now, you big puss? oh, i'm sorry, is times square elmo too scary for you? because times square elmo, he comes at you? are you scared of times square elmo because he punches back? unlike the other elmos who allow you to tickle them with no consequences? yeah, new york's a dystopian hell hole! that and the bagels and pizza is why we move here! [cheers and applause]

of course, there is one particular type of crime that conservatives seem especially scared about. >> mark, why do i keep seeing people pushing other people onto the train tracks? >> jon: not that, that's that's not a crime -- that's okay. i get that. so the pushing onto the train tracks, that is just a misunderstanding. here is what is happening. so we do have people in the subways who are there to try to help other passengers onto the train. but sometimes the train isn't there yet. it's not malevolent. it's just early. but i was actually talking about another type of crime. >> people are getting shot in the face every single day. >> you can literally get shot anywhere in the city. >> we have people getting shot in the subway. >> people are getting shot out

on the streets. >> you go out for a loaf of bread, you end up getting shot. >> jon: "yeah, you get shot! new yorkers haven't had a sandwich in 12 years! just an eggplant parm loose in the hands!" first of all, i'm surprised trump is scared of guns at all considering he thinks they sound like this. >> we had our beautiful marines standing there, bing, bing, bing, bing. >> you know in old days -- bing, bong. [laughter and applause] >> jon: bing, bong, bing, bong. bing, bing, bing. i would pay money to hear him describe the opening scene of "saving private ryan." "bing, bing, bing! and then the nazis go bong, bong, bong!" bong, bong! no one can get brad!

bing, bing, bong, bong. but the point is, if you leave your home in new york, you will be shot dead. to all of our audience members, i'm glad you chose to have your last moments with us. [cheers and applause] sadly, i must bid you a melancholy bing bong. bing, bing, bing. now all of this is not to say that gun crime does not exist. of course it does! and some cities are worse than others. but here's the thing, and i say this with all due respect: the balls of these right wing mother[bleep]! talking about how there's too much gun crime and chaos in our democratic cities, when republicans are the ones who have enabled the flood of

illegal weaponry into our cities in the first place. [cheers and applause] so don't get your little panties in a bunch. here is something you want to know: 93% of the illegal guns used in crimes in new york city aren't from here! they, like theater majors, have come here to make a name for themselves. the guns come from states like florida and georgia and south carolina, where the gun laws are lax. and trust me, florida's not sending us their best guns. they're bringing guns for drugs and crime and rapists, and some i assume, are good guns. and try as we might to put up some border controls to stem this invasion, this flood of literally undocumented weapons, republicans fight every attempt

to bring some kind of order. and even pass laws to increase the chaos! look at all the laws and think they have done! in 2005, they passed a law that effectively protects gun dealers and the gun manufacturers from being held liable for where their guns end up. they also try and make sure that terrorists and felons could still get guns. and just recently, they made sure that they can turn those guns into machine guns with bump stocks! they make it impossible to study the effects of guns! to track these illegal guns! they fight [bleep] everything! you want to know how cynical it is? remember this guy? this guy. congressman andrew clyde from georgia loves to go on tv and talk about crime in democratic cities. >> republicans have always been the party of law and order, and what you have seen is the massive increases in crime have been primarily at democrat-run cities. >> jon: yeah, turns out, while he was complaining about the uptick in gun crimes in new york city, he himself was fighting added scrutiny on gun stores like the two that he

owns that have been implicated in over 25 gun crimes since 2020. why would they do this? there must be a reason, right? because the right always tells us there is no coincidences, right? isn't that what we are told all the time? it's almost as though republicans must have a secret plan funded by their billionaires to flood our cities with illegal, undocumented guns, pouring them over our state borders, in the hopes of killing off reliable democratic voters. the "great displacement theory." that is obviously what's happening, and no honest person would think otherwise. so there's only one real solution. unfortunately, for the borders of florida, georgia, and south carolina, we have to: what's the word? >> [chanting "build the wall!"] [cheers and applause] >> jon: bing bong! when we come back, reverend william j. barber will be joining me on the show. don't go away.

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people call it the biggest smalltown festival in minnesota. and we came up with the idea of creating a community s'mores table. the hershey company got wind of this and sent 40,000 candy bars. made my day a hundred times better. i love s'mores so much. with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles. mountain climbing tina at a cabin. or tree climbing tina at a beach resort. nice! booking.com booking.yeah. ♪ higher love ♪ by: whitney houston summertime back then looked a little different.

♪♪ but while summer may change, it always tastes great. ♪♪ so reach for your favorite chips and sips and taste more summer. [man grunting] ♪ “kariye pyar” by nahid akhtar ♪ ♪ ♪ indistinguishable vocalizations ♪ [camera click] ♪ indistinguishable vocalizations ♪ [camera click] [camera click] [camera click] ♪ indistinguishable vocalizations ♪ ♪ [water splashing] [cheers and applause] >> jon: welcome back to "the daily show." my guest tonight is a protestant minister, social activist, and yale divinity school professor whose latest book is called, "white poverty: how exposing myths about race and class can

reconstruct american democracy." please welcome to the show reverend dr. william barber. sir! [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ >> a pleasure! a pleasure! >> jon: the book is called "white poverty." you, sir, are famously not white. >> [laughs] well -- >> jon: so why write "white poverty"? >> well, actually, i come from caucasian, black, and tuscarora descendant. >> jon: wow. >> my people are free people in eastern north carolina, a lot of north carolina. in some ways, this book is me. so to deny any part of my reality would be to deny myself. but here is the problem i'm concerned about. the way we measure poverty in this country is not only a lie, but i can say on this show, it is a damn lie. >> jon: sir, you can do more if you want. >> okay. >> jon: we've got plenty more room for that. >> i only use the ones that are in the bible. >> jon: you are a reverent. >> so we say, we use the

official poverty measure, says that poverty come if you make a book $13,000 a year, you are no. >> jon: if you make about $13,000 a year, you are not poor, you are in the lower, lower middle class. >> jon: when was the last time they adjusted? >> it's been since the '60s in some ways. what happens with that is, we marginalize poverty, and then we racialized it. whatever we have a brief discussion about poverty, because we very seldom have it, in the news, and political arenas can we put up a black woman on welfare, which rationalizes it and means black people but then it dismisses tens of millions of white poor people. >> jon: you are right. 66 million -- >> of the 135 million poor and low wage people in this country, 60% of black people are poor, 26 million. 30% of white but that it 66 million, 40 million more. this book says, we need to face all of our poor and recognize

that we have something what desmond, an author out of princeton calls "poverty by america." on the poverty in america but the particular kind of poverty in america that is unnecessary and abolishable because it makes no sense in the richest nation of the world. we have over 135 million poor, low wage people come over 41% or population, and over 50% of our children. and it is unnecessary. so white poverty says, we are not playing the game anymore. >> jon: let's not look at this through the prism of race. let's look at it through class. do you think of that division was a purposeful one? >> i think so. and to expand race, you have to deal with race in america. but what you cannot allow someone to do for something this serious, where 295,000 people are dying a year from poverty and low wage. >> jon: how many? >> 295,000, 800 people a day. >> jon: are dying. >> poverty is the fourth cutting

leaves of death in the country, higher than respiratory disease. >> jon: it even impacts respiratory disease because if you are low-wage and living in an area, chances are that pollution and toxins are higher where you live. >> all of those things. here we have something that is the fourth leading cause of death, 800 people a day. when seven people die from vaping, it was a congressional hearing. it was presidential level. >> jon: [laughs] >> right? imagine if 800 politicians were dying a day. >> jon: oh, i have. [applause] >> [laughs] well, i can't do that. but my point is, how everybody would just be up in arms there at 800 middle-class people. 800 wealthy people. >> jon: that is clearly epidemic. >> you just talked about crime. that is a crime. especially when it is unnecessary. it does not have to be. >> jon: and entrenched. it seems, and a lot of communities, it just is a cloud that never lifts. >> welcomed the thing about it is, jon, it is in every community. that is the point we are making

in the book. whether it is appalachia where i met women in west virginia who have to sell tacos on tuesdays so they have a community fund to help women deal with their monthly issues or whether it is out in eastern kentucky where i met black and white coal miners who watch the minds be taken over by multinational companies that moved to the union rights out of it, or whether it is in the delta, it is everywhe. there is not a county in this country now where a person making $7.25 -- that is with the minimum wage. the federal minimum wage of $7.25, it has been like that for 14 years, jon, it has not been reached for my 14 years. >> jon: when they try to raise it in 2015, the fight is, everywhere you go, a huge fight to raise it to $15, it's going to kill other jobs. >> which is a lie. three nobel pete economists said it would not kill jobs, it will

put more money in the economy and it would actually expand drops. here's the thing, we had 15 proposed in 2020. eight democrats and all republicans stood against 55 million people -- 52 million people who make less than a living wage, $50 an hour. here's the thing. in '63, the march on washington called for raising the minimum wage to $2 which indexed with inflation would be over $50 a day. >> jon: really? people forget that the march in washington was subtitled for job injustice. >> it wasn't just about black civil justice. it was a broad, broad, inclusive of a just filled democracy here we are, in this reality, and people are hurting everywhere. there is not a county where you can work a minimum wage job and before the basic choker bedroom apartment. and waiters and waitresses -- >> jon: on minimum wage. >> jon: not accounting the country if you had to be minimum wage job, there is not a county in the country where you could afford it. >> not a federal come i don't.

>> jon: this is the working poor. i think in the country there is a sense of, it's an entitlement mentality, that is why there is a certain character flaw that keeps you there. these are people that are working. >> yeah, the entitlement is in the politicians to keep raising their wages and giving corporations tax breaks but they won't help the working people. that is the entitlement. [cheers and applause] so -- and we are talking about, during covid -- covid did not exacerbate poverty, it exposed it. >> >> jon: right. >> we did a study called the death during covid and we found that whether you were in a poor county of west virginia, or poor county and the delta, poor people died at a rate 3-5 times higher during covid because of their poverty. not because of the germs somehow discriminated. but we did. >> jon: access to good health care. >> so far, one study said from the lack of health care. and if you don't face this, jon, this is the point of the book.

we have to face this. we have to look at it. we had 15 presidential debates the last election. 40% of the adult population poverty, 800 people dying a day, not one debate was focused on it. we have not had an over office discussion. >> jon: why don't politicians value what is an incredibly large population in many different, i am sure, and swing states? so why don't they -- to poor people need better lobbyists? what is it that can be done to get a politician to listen? >> well, i think that what we are seeing now is, we just had a study. i asked for it to be done as part of our movement, waking the sleeping giant. and this is what we found out. that all of these numbers also tell us that poor, low wage people now represent 30% of the electorate in the country. >> jon: 30%. >> and over 40% in states where

the marginal victory was less than 3%. and in texas, where it was less than 5%. where we are saying to poor and low-wage people of every race, it is time to mobilize your vote. there is not a state where 20% of poor, low-wage voters that didn't vote at 57 million voters, 30 million didn't in the last election. but if 20% that didn't vote move, they could change every election. under most states, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, florida, it is less than 4%. so what we are doing is organizing a massive movement. in fact, on june 29th in washington, d.c., we have a massive four people low-wage workers assembling on the ball march on d.c. and to the polls, saying that poor and low-wage people have to find themselves, white, black, brown, asian, native, and unite around attacking what we call five interlocking injustices, systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological destination,

health care, and the religious nationalists. and j jon come in our agenda, we are saying to the politicians, if you want these boats, bring them in at the top level. president biden, bring a group poor folk and low-wage -- >> jon: what has the response been when you reach out to our political class? what has a response been? >> well, because we have been lied to so much, at first, they says it is not that big. and then we prove that it's actually 135 -- and then they don't expect to have people are going to organize. you know, in a democracy, you have to engage in agitation, legislation, litigation, and voter participation. so what we are saying to poor and low-wage folk -- [applause] let's use this power. so we are having this gathering but for the conventions, we are going to touch 15 million poor and low-wage voters with the facts on where people stand,

where they stand on the issues and say, let's mobilize, and because that is the true swing vote. so linda lake, who is a major pollster, says the truest, most powerful, bigoted swing vote right now is poor and low-wage people. you know, jon, folk often asked me, you and i have often talked about this, does our current society require that things be like this? >> jon: this was the real crux of the issue. >> what this book as is, well, it is kind of like, put your hand in an electric socket that is connected. it requires that you get shocked. because you put your finger there. you don't have to do it. but if you keep doing things the way you are doing it, you are going to get shocked. if you keep paying less than a living wage, if you keep denying people health care, if you keep giving greedy, wealthy folk trillion, $2 trillion tax cuts but you won't even spend the money to fully fund public education, if we keep doing what we are doing, we are going to keep having the level of poverty

that we are having. and we don't have to do it. it is actually, i believe, criminal, a form of a policy violence, to continue down the road. >> jon: doesn't it weaken the system as a whole? you can almost make a case that if the system is requiring a permanent, entrenched underclass, that it makes itself ripe for instability, and i'm wondering, is there a way to change the mind-set? because the mind-set in america is, there is a moocher class. these poor people are moochers. we work hard and poor people get health care, they get food, they get whatever they need. i don't get it. is there a way to change the mentality to view things not as entitlements, but investments? it may be to get labor, not to get viewed as shareholders, that corporations have to view labor, not as a means to an end, but as shareholders in the act,

and cannot change the dynamic? >> it can. but one of the first things we believe we have to do, we talk about moral fusion organizing, first of all, we should be examining every policy, not by the color of a presidents hair or how many porn stars he touched or what is the gate of his walk. does the policy you propose, do they line up with establishing justice? do they line up with providing for the the common defense and promoting the general welfare? do they line up with eric deepest moral interest? secondly, we must expose the level of death that is happening. this is not benign. third, we must make sure that folks see at all, it is not one group of people. we have been lied to so much about this is an anomaly, this is a small group. we cannot allow this to be marginalized anymore. and then we must have massive organization of poor and low-wage people of every place, every geographic, and every race, and in doing that, we can

put poverty and low wages at the center of the discourse. and then, yes -- >> jon: is into that america first? isn't that making america great again? if you hollow out the country, how can you expect it to be strong? [applause] wouldn't that be the absolute acme of strengthening a country from the bottom up as opposed to the top down? >> you would think it would be. but if you've got people that are still living when they first wrote the constitution and said even poor white men that didn't own jobs, didn't own land couldn't go. if you have people with that kind of mentality, that they should be an exclusive democracy rather than inclusive but listen, the numbers tell us, though, there are more of us. the thing is, you can't be lazy in a democracy. you've got to fight like heaven -- [laughs] [cheers and applause] >> jon: you caught yourself on