It's Question Time in the Senate Impeachment Trial | Ezra Klein

Jan 29, 2020

Roy Wood Jr. reacts to the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan, the impeachment trial enters a new phase, and Vox editor Ezra Klein discusses "Why We're Polarized." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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January 29 2020

from comedy Central's World News headquarters in New York this is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah here's a dish

take a seat so much energy I'm Trevor Noah our guest tonight is the co-founder of VOX media he's here with a new book about why America is so divided and personally I can't wait to blame someone for it Ezra Klein is joining us everybody

also on tonight's episode Jared Kushner finally turns in his homework Tinder Saves a Life and an elephant might have your hotel room key so let's catch up on today's headlines

let's kick it off with some news coming out of France for months French workers have been taking to the streets to protest high fuel taxes and cuts in their pensions and yesterday things with one group of workers got a little bit out of hand it's a shocking scene of First Responders battling each other in the streets of Paris take a look tear gas fired several fights breaking out between French police and firefighters police were seen using batons and shields against thousands of angry demonstrators this is

part of a long-running protest movement demanding better pay and conditions police eventually brought in a water cannon to disperse know what are you doing cops fighting against firefighters in the street stop it you share a phone number for God's sake now the reason these French firefighters are protesting is because they want better pay and working conditions which makes sense but also sounds a little bit funny all right when they say the working condition because it makes it sound like the fireman

like I'm not going into that building it's on fire these are horrible working conditions also get why they want more money right you need to pay firefighters more when you live in a country where everyone is tossing lit cigarettes on the street every second I mean if you guys been to France even the pet smoke over there life is how you say arath rap rap

but I will say it's pretty messed up that the cops were using water hoses against the firefighters because that's their weapon you know that's like Vin Diesel being fought by somebody who's running him down with a car while shouting about the importance of family there's this full family that's his thing all right moving on to some technology news most people know 10th as an app you use to find all the people in your area who can go on a terrible date with you but now Tinder could also be the app that helps save your life Tinder is usually about finding a date right

but in this case the women in Germany use the dating app to save her life she and her fellow traveler were driving through Europe when the camper got stuck on the side of a mountain in Norway they figured it could take hours for emergency crews to get to them so her friend suggested she turned a tender since it's a location-based app so they set up an account and got a match she then told the man she was matched with about her situation and he actually came to her rescue afterwards she posted the story online calling the man a true hero

okay this is insane a stranded woman used Tinder to get rescued that shows you two things one technology is amazing and two guys will do anything to get laid

are you shitting me a guy was basically like I'm coming to the side of that mountain to get you she's like how will you get here rescue plane he's like no I'm using horniness I really do think Society could do amazing things if we could harness the power of guys horniness like if you tell men that sometimes you can find a naked woman under a piece of trash I promise you'll never see a piece of litter ever again yeah guys would be in the street just picking up her well hello ma'am oh hello

no ma'am like all there's no women under here unless there are

now a lot of people would think you know that this would be the perfect beginning so our relationship she was stranded he saved on a mountain but I think that she just leave it there and be friends because we're can a relationship go after this it's already peaked yeah because what she's going to be spending weekends like wow you used to rescue me from mountains now you just want to Netflix and chill right and finally in some travel news if you're planning a trip to Sri Lanka you might want to read the hotel reviews very carefully to see if they expect you to share a room

look at this an unexpected guest has caught on camera at a hotel this is in Sri Lanka woman spotted this wild elephant roaming the hallways even knocked down that light fixture with his giant trunk of course the hotel happens to be near a forest by the way which is also a wildlife sanctuary it is common to see the elephants on the roads temples and other places in the area it's a bit more of a rare event in to see them just kind of roaming around at the hotel okay first question why is the news saying this woman spotted

did the elephant's you do not need a Keen Eye to spot a giant animal that weighs 5 tons you don't even need eyes if you were blind you could still spot the elephant's just point to everyone is screaming there's an elephant in that hotel and fun fact this is also one of the reasons why elephants never have affairs yeah it's not that they're more loyal than other creatures you just can't sneak around when you're an elephant like this poor elephant probably tried to check into a hotel for a sexy Rendezvous and the next day it's spouse was

where were you yesterday is like you know just roaming this event that's not what Instagram says

you know it would have been amazing just for once in life is if that elephant walk past to Hotel staff having an argument and the employees like boss how come you never promote me in the bus is like oh you really going to ask me that Jerry fine let's talk about the elephant in the room the elephant is like my name is Gary all right that's it for the headlines let's move on to our top story

when President Trump started running for president four hundred years ago he had a lot of goals build the wall have sex with that alien they keep an Area 51 and of course bring peace to the Middle East Trump himself said he considered that the ultimate deal but the big question has been can a businessman so brilliant that he almost turned a profit on a casino pull off that ultimate deal well yesterday Trump Finally Revealed his plan and the

answer seems to be no President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared together in the White House to unveil a plan for Middle East peace but it's already been rejected by the Palestinians make no mistake about it this plan is everything is real ones especially prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu mr. Trump sold his plan as the best bet for compromise to the 70 plus year conflict my vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides but the proposal craft

goodbye President Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was considered Dead on Arrival since it was written without the Palestinians okay hold up hold up Trump crafted a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians without the Palestinians I mean right off the bat that doesn't seem like a great strategy and let's like writing wedding vows for yourself and your fiance you Janet take me Joe forever and ever my name is not Janet okay I worked on these vows would you please just give me a moment here

look it's no secret it's no secret that no president has figured out how to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians but Trump said that this time would be different because he said this time the plan was created by Jared Kushner senior presidential adviser and participation trophy husband and according to Jared it's the greatest deal of all time but we saw yesterday was Israel take a giant step towards peace and it was an accomplishment that only President Trump could have delivered on if you look at the original

no proposal the Arab peace initiative that was an 8 line proposal it was a good faith proposal passed proposals have been two to three pages this is an over 80 page Proposal with a map never been done before yeah that's right this plan has the one thing all previous plans lacked lots of paper yeah krishna's like I spent two hours at Kinkos so yeah it's a good plan I just because you draw a picture of something you want doesn't mean you're going to get it right he's like we've got a map it doesn't mean you're gonna get that map I once drew a picture of myself

riding a horse did I get a horse no I've got a monkey all right yeah the good news you can actually write a monkey yeah they don't like it but you can do it so okay maybe the plan itself got off to a rough start but who knows maybe if Jared turns on that Netflix stock a charm he can woo the Palestinians into an agreement the Palestinian leadership have to ask themselves a question do they want to have a state do they want to have a better life if they do we have created a framework for them to have it and we're going to treat them in a very

matter if they don't then they're going to screw up another opportunity like they screwed up every other opportunity that they've ever had in their existence God damn we're gonna treat them with all the respect was that respect that's a pretty harsh way to try and win someone over Jared will be the worst car salesman ever just like listen loser I want to get you in this car which you're probably going to crash the moment you got off the lot because you mess up everything you do in life because you suck as a human being so should I get that paperwork it's 80 pages long

so the question is what does this new peace deal mean for the conflict in the Middle East well we turn now to a man who's no stranger to conflict Roy wood jr. everybody thank you Trevor let's get down to business first up right what on Earth are you wearing oh this is a traditional American garment it's called a suit no no Roy I'm talking about the Maga hat stacked on your head oh

explain Trevor if there's anything Miss peace plan has shown me is that if you flatter Trump he'll give you what you want that's why Israel got such a good deal because nobody flat ass truck more than Israel's prime minister he calls Trump the best president of all time he puts pictures of the man up all over Jerusalem aunt and this is real he named a city after Trump trump hates Heights case sounds classy like you got coffee shops and let

you bring your dog inside okay but what does this have to do with you wearing Maga hats well Trevor I've learned something from Israel's prime minister if you want Trump to do something for you you have to suck up to him and then he'll give you whatever you want I'm trying to get a small business loan here's my idea of check this out small business on this my idea half Barbershop have operating room people are already asleep during surgery you might as well get a fade

Royce you are not a surgeon and you are not a barber yeah and you are a hater all I'm saying is that even if the Palestinians don't like Trump they need to start playing the game if Israel puts Trump name on a city the Palestinians should put Trump's name on their whole country just title it like like do like a Tyler Perry movie Donald Trump presents the Palestine or maybe even change the flag just just make your flag a picture of Donald Trump with a six-pack

abs and at the thing you know the V the thing when you drink a lot of smoothies you get the V thing but Roy if the Palestinians start praising Trump won't Israel Just Praise Trump even harder exactly and then the Palestinians praise Trump even harder than that yeah but then Israel will just praise Trump even hotter than that and then the Palestinians will praise truck even harder than that boy all that's going to happen is both countries will just be filled with people wearing Maga hats praising Donald Trump 24/7 exactly

and then everyone will be on the same page and that's when we'll have peace in the Middle East hang on hang on Jimmy what's up you still want to hit replacing the cornrows all right I can get here later today I got to run hater wut your waste of time where would you and everybody will be right back

welcome back to the Daily Show impeachments it's like a lint brush but for presidents today was day 9 in the impeachment trial of President Donald Jessica Trump so let's check in on the latest developments in another installment of the magical wonderful road to impeachment

today we entered a new phase of the impeachment trial question time this is where Senators say the same thing they've been saying for weeks but this time in the form of a question for this entire impeachment trial Senators have been in a listen-only mode while today they will get to weigh in through written questions Senators have to write their questions down on these cards

look at this six lines each ultimately these cards get submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts who will read them out loud to the house managers and also to the president's defense team this is a process that will last 16 hours over two days damn 16 hours of questions that sounds like every road trip I take with my little nephew there's like but why are their colors I don't know because someone invented them who invented them I did okay I invented the colors and I'll take them away if you don't shut up

up

that's right I'm a horrible babysitter that's right for this stage of the impeachment trial sentences get sauce questions to the lawyers well because Senators on a lot of speak they have to write the questions down on a card and then there are no limitations on what these questions can be can be anything they want as long as they write sit down for instance Senator capito asked when did Ukraine learn that the aid was frozen Senator Pete has asked does impeachment require a criminal violation and Ted Cruz asked does this look infected to you

oh and and writing the questions down on a special card isn't even close to being the most elaborate part of this process because after the card is filled out they have to pass it forward to the parliamentarian who then has deposited to Chief Justice Roberts who then has to read it out and if you think that process sounds slow that's because it is the senator from New Hampshire mr. chief justice I send a question to the desk

Senator Shaheen asks the house managers no one of this thing takes 16 hours the Senators communicating through note passing like they're back in middle school that's what that was Senator McConnell has a question for Adam Sheriff will you go to the dance with Sheila Yes No Maybe

the whole process makes no sense if the Senators have a question why not just let them ask the question or if chief justice is going to have to read it out I mean then he should at least have to do an impression of the senator who asked the question then it makes it fun yeah then it will be more interesting if there's like this next question is from Senator Sanders from Vermont why don't all shoes clothes with velcro it's faster all right next question that would be interesting now I'm not going to lie I'm not gonna lie

for most of the day sentences just ask questions to their own side that gave them another chance to repeat their talking points Democrats asked Donald Trump is guilty isn't he and Republicans are asked what is it that makes Donald Trump's so innocent and handsome but there was one moment it was one moment from The Trial that caught everyone's attention and it came from Trump's attorney Alan dershowitz this afternoon in a stunning argument when a President Trump stop lawyers claimed any president has almost unlimited power

his election is in the public interest and so he said Trump cannot be impeached every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest and if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment ladies and gentlemen

we have finally arrived first it was there was no quid pro quo then it was maybe there was a quid pro quo but it was to help the country not Donald Trump and now it's like a men the Donald gonna do what the down gonna do your little bitch ass is need to shut the hell up

so just to be clear

the Trump teams argument is now that anything Trump does to get himself re-elected is fine because his re-election in his mind is good for the country and then it's not impeachable anything yeah so Trump can collude Trump can obstruct and it's all good hell he can even lock all the Democratic candidates in a room with Eric and just be like at some point one of you will eat the other and either way I win this this whole idea it just seems like more of like a like a monarchy or something it seems oh I'm sorry hold on I'm getting a

notes oh it's a question

for Alan dershowitz it says get the fuck out of here we'll be right back

welcome back to the Daily Show my guest tonight is the co-founder and editor of Vox host of the podcast the Ezra Klein show and author of the new book why we are polarized please welcome Ezra Klein

welcome back to the show thank you I'm glad to be here this is a very simple title on the book why we're polarized Donald Trump right no yes maybe now Donald Trump is symptom not cause so Donald Trump comes as part of a long period where you lose the ability to actually have parties act in a way that hold themselves accountable so back in the day if you nominated somebody like Donald Trump what would happen is one of two things one they don't get to a party convention right that's back when parties actually control who they nominate but later on or even both before

and after that for some period if you nominate somebody who's out of the Norms what will happen is people will switch over to the other party happened to Barry Goldwater happen to George McGovern right but is it part has become much more different ideologically demographically you get locked in place by what's called negative partisanship so the fear of the other side winning becomes big enough that you will accept anything your side does so majority of Donald Trump voters say they were actually voting against Hillary Clinton and so Donald Trump can only win in American politics in a time of super high polarization do I think it's actually important to go before

for him to try to understand what's going to come after him it's interesting that you say that because the conversation in America for a while has been you know if we can just get rid of Donald Trump you know then we can go back to the way things were you know a time when Republicans and Democrats could speak to one another time when people could handle opposing views was this such a time and when was it so there was but it wasn't as good as people now like to pretend so Joe Biden speaks about the time when he could work with segregationist it was actually a lot packed into that attic though because we did have a depolarization

political system for some time well you have to basically for parties in the 20th century the Democrats southern Dixiecrats which were conservative very racist party Liberal Republicans and conservative Republicans and in that world where you had conservatives in them chronic party liberals liberals in the Republican Party conservatives you had a lot of cross-party coalition's people working together but all that was built on this Legacy of the Civil War where the liberal party in this country had this rump conservative wing and that actually was built on a compromise around

aggregation but the fact that it's hard to get compromised in that system it's rational because of parties are much further apart they disagree much more deeply but is that something that's unique to America because of a two-party system was it always going to be this way because as you said there was a time when it was essentially for parties now it's gone down to two and so one thing I've always noticed is if there are two then you always have to choose the one which seems like a dumb thing to say but unfortunately locks you into and like a fixed polarization you

you can move between ideas is this something that can be fixed in America or is this just where the two party system takes the country you could fix it in part so here's I think one of the keys I don't think polarization itself is necessarily bad thing and we see it in other countries both in two-party systems and in multi-party system there's an argument that multiparty democracy is better I'm more or less by that argument but you don't have to have what we have which is a system where when you actually win power it does not mean you win the power to govern the American system is internationally quite unique we're the only

system like ours that has not collapsed into total chaos because the way we elect people you'd have elect a yeah fair enough you can elect a president and then majority leader in the Senate say by the other party and there's no way to actually resolve that difference so in other systems when you get elected even if you're polarize you have the power to govern so the problem really isn't it that we have parties at disagree the problem is that when parties win elections in this system they need bipartisanship that the other party does not want to provide I think we should have a system where public majorities popular majorities

I actually take power and then can govern it's a note about our system White House is run by the guy who won fewer votes a senate is run by the party that one fewer votes supreme court because of that is run by the party that one fewer votes in the relevant knowledge elections we are not in any way a democracy and that means one party actions about the power with minority rule it's not a great incentive structure here's here's a question though some may argue you know many conservatives might say of course you would say that as Ryu lean liberal you know as a co-founder of vocs of course you would want this to change because

I want liberals to have more of a voice I've seen I've seen this you know idea shared amongst many people online on TV where people say that's why the founders created the system that's why it was created this way to make sure that the liberal elites on the coast couldn't dictate how the country was run by those who grow up in the middle of America and on the farm its Founders were very concerned about California they did not like those liberal California at least two things one the founders did not create this system or really anything like it they wanted to system that did not have political parties the other point you bring up which is

totally fair and people do bring it up is this idea that democracy the idea that we should run the country based on who represents the people has now become associated liberalism it wasn't always that way it doesn't need to be that way and it's very dangerous for it to become that way like there were times in this country when the Republican Party rapidly expanded the franchise the Civil Rights act itself had a higher proportion of Republicans voting for it in Congress than Democrats the idea that one party now sees its future in democracy and the other party has become committed to a version of

role that requires restricting the franchise that's very dangerous for a political system if you actually opened it up and by the way I don't think we're going to it so this is somewhat pessimistic analysis but if you actually open it up like Republicans couldn't compete you have Republican governors in blue States who are very popular the point is if you don't open it up they don't have to people don't have to compete and if they don't have to compete then they're not serving the constituents in the areas who didn't vote for them essentially exactly or even the people who would need to vote for them look it would be a better

better if we had had an election in 2016 and the Republican Party had lost it in a recollection because Donald Trump got 3 million fewer votes and Hillary Clinton the people who had been fighting in the Republican party to open it up to make it more loose like that makes out to people who don't already vote for it they would have been empowered and the trumpets wing of the party would have been discredited right instead we got the opposite because of the weird different nations of the system so what you're saying is America's screwed what I'm saying is the political system does not function

chin under these conditions and yeah basically for now America is a bit screwed that makes a lot of sense so you're saying America is screwed but Jules explaining why America is screwed yes and what could be done about it if people were willing to focus on which won't happen because America is screwed thank you so much for being on the show painful but true why we polarize is available now a fascinating read as a planet everybody

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