[theme music]
From New York City, the only city in America,
it's the show that invented news.
This is The Daily Show with your host, DL Hughley.
[applause]
[cheering]
Hey, what's going on everybody?
How you doing, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show.
I am, I am DL Hughley.
The producers wanted me to take my glasses off
because they were red, but they realized
my eyes were just as red, so.
This is the, a lot of people from the UN here.
That's great.
Give yourselves around of applause.
That's great.
It's funny, because in America, we don't know, tend to know
a lot about the rest of the world.
Like, we'll have a world championship
with just us in it.
It'll be New York versus LA for the world championship.
We've got a great show for you tonight.
We're going to talk, of course, about the news,
and PJ Morton is going to perform a wonderful song.
PJ Morton, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[applause]
But of course, first, we need to get into the headlines.
[cheering]
Uh, we're going to begin with more fallout
from the killing of Tyre Nichols,
because the story is certainly not over.
A seventh cop got suspended, and two EMTs,
and a fire truck driver.
They were fired for not helping Tyre fast enough.
But the real side of this story is not going anywhere anytime
soon, is that Tucker Carlson, the grown dude
with the bangs, this dude keeps finding stupid shit to say.
The race riots of 2020, of course,
were never about George Floyd, obviously.
That's why there are no statues of him in American cities.
This dude is so obsessed with Black people,
I'm going to start calling him sickle cell.
Look at the UN, that's not funny!
We need to be clear.
If George Floyd didn't get a statue,
it might be because to get a statue in this country,
you got to do some pretty horrible shit to Black people.
Like, you can get one for slaughtering 300 Black
prisoners during a Civil War.
You can get one for conducting medical experiments
on enslaved Black woman without anesthesia.
And the last guy, he got a statue
without killing Black people, but he did beat
the shit out of Apollo Creed.
That was Rocky, so.
In the end, Drago killed Rocky.
He got a statue.
I was just messing with you.
By the way, I'm sure it'll shock Tucker to know,
that there actually, that George Floyd does have statues
all around the country.
But you didn't recognize them, because that looks
like LeVar Burton right there.
He fell out since he didn't get that Jeopardy gig.
That's crazy.
Are y'all going to be with me or not?
Let's pick a side.
[applause]
You're the UN, you have to pick a side, that's your job.
All right, let's move on to more news.
In the tech world they were layoffs.
Of course, every tech company is letting people go.
There's Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook.
I even saw Siri begging for change in the subway
this morning.
I was like, Alexa, when you get this bitch a quarter, please!
It's crazy.
[applause]
OK, I think I know where the line is now.
And surely there's no good way to fire your employees.
But there's definitely some pretty bad ways,
as one CEO just found out.
The CEO of a tech company based in San Francisco
has posted an apology after she quoted
Martin Luther King Jr. in a layoff letter
sent to employees last week.
PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada sent
the letter to employees announcing
layoffs on Thursday.
Toward the end of the letter, Tejada
closed with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. saying
in part, I am reminded in moments like this of something
Martin Luther King said, that the ultimate measure
of a leader is not where they stand
in the moments of comfort and convenience,
but where they stand in times of challenge and controversy.
Oh!
Who gets fired with Martin Luther King quotes?
Like, I've been to the mountaintop
and they ain't hiring either.
I have a dream and you can too, because ain't
no reason for you to get up early anymore, so.
Free at last, free at last, here's your severance package,
you are free at last.
[applause]
But to be fair, she did find a way to say that she was sorry.
After facing negative feedback,
Tejada posted an apology letter to the company's website,
saying, quote, "There are a number of things.
I would do differently if I could.
The quote I included from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
was inappropriate and insensitive.
I am sorry."
After the King thing didn't work,
she went to the words of Adolf Hitler and said,
I blame the Jews, so.
Hey, come I'm not Kanye,
it's just a joke, relax.
Relax.
And speaking of Hitler, there are some people in Ohio
who are getting in big trouble for their ideas
on what to teach children.
Multiple online news sources are reporting that an Ohio
couple was supplying Nazi-approved
material for home schooling.
New details are emerging tonight
about an online channel called Dissident Home School.
The channel already has more than 2,000 subscribers.
According to Yahoo News, it includes ready-made lesson
plans on various subjects, like Confederate General Robert E.
Lee, and Martin Luther King Jr., who they say
is the antithesis of our civilization and our people.
It also includes things like printouts,
so students can learn to write Adolf Hitler
quotes in cursive, and tips to quote,
"avoid Jewish media content."
Wow.
Antithesis, I got a GED.
What does that mean?
I don't want nobody calling me a name I don't understand.
Like, home school kids are already weird enough.
You want to add goose-stepping to the program.
That's crazy.
All right, so for more on this school,
let's go to Desi Lydic, who's live in Ohio.
Desi, how are the parents feeling about this story?
[applause]
[cheering]
They are furious, DL, as am I. These lesson
plans are shocking.
They teach hate.
They teach racism.
They teach cursive!
It's disgusting.
Wait, what, was that last one cursive?
I know!
I know.
Can you imagine in 2023, American children
learning cursive?
It's useless!
The only acceptable time to use cursive
is when you're forging a bank signature.
Wait a minute.
Your problem with the Nazi school
is they're teaching cursive?
Well, I mean, it's not my only problem.
Nazism is one of the world's most evil ideologies.
Yes.
But have you seen cursive, DL?
I mean, look at how you're supposed
to write a Q. What is that?
It's not a Q, it's a 2.
All these Nazis are going to accidentally join 2Anon.
[applause]
And look at the G. It looks like a diagram of my least
favorite sexual position.
You all know the one.
Desi, I think the bigger danger is that the school
is spreading Nazi ideas.
Not if they're writing those ideas out in cursive.
I mean, that's not going to get the message out.
Here, look what I wrote about the Jews.
All I'm saying here is, squiggle,
loop, loop, reverse cowgirl.
What?
Oh, I'm the only one.
Desi.
[applause]
Desi, I don't think cursive is the problem.
I know how to write in cursive.
[gasps]
Like a Nazi?
DL, for your sake, I really hope you've just
been forging bank signatures.
You know what?
Forget it.
Desi Lydic, everyone.
[applause]
We're going to take a quick break, but when we come back,
Jordan Klepper will check in on Trump's new campaign,
and you don't want to miss it.
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Now, of course, last weekend, Donald Trump
made his first campaign stops of the 2024 presidential race.
Jordan Klepper followed him there for another episode
of "Fingers the Pulse."
JORDAN KLEPPER: This past weekend, Donald Trump finally
hit the campaign trail.
So I headed down to South Carolina
for what was originally permitted as a MAGA rally,
but later downgraded to an "intimate event."
What is this event?
It's a Trump rally.
- It is a rally? - I'd say it was.
It's not a rally.
It's somewhat of a rally, but it's not a big rally.
Now, I thought it was a rally.
It's not a rally.
It's a bunch of people standing in line.
It's an event.
It's a list.
It's invited list only.
This is a private event that VIPs have been invited to.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, only heavily vetted VIPs
were invited, like this guy.
Sombrero Trump, Jim Yates, from Laurens, South Carolina.
- Sombrero Trump. - Yes.
It's not a rally.
It's a leadership forum, forming leadership teams.
I see a guy like this.
I think, this guy has got two dates
circled on his calendar--
Cingo de Mayo and January 6.
Yeah.
JORDAN KLEPPER: This kickoff was packed with classic style
and classic takes.
Donald Trump is president right now.
He's currently the president?
Absolutely.
He is still president.
There's a lot of things that this Biden person does not
have, like the presidential seal and things like that,
that are pretty obvious.
Biden doesn't have the presidential seal?
When he speaks, there's a presidential seal
in front of him. - It's not real.
JORDAN KLEPPER: What is he doing as president?
He is in charge of the military.
Great.
The military is in charge of this whole thing.
The military were put in charge in 2018
when President Trump signed an executive order.
The American military arms that are going to Ukraine--
we have Donald Trump to thank for that?
- No. - No.
That's-- [confused chatter]
There's--
There's two-- there's two militaries?
There's the good and the bad.
So there's two militaries.
Donald Trump is in charge of the good one.
Yes.
Biden's in charge of the bad military?
That's exactly right.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Fortunately, there were some supporters who
still believe an election cycle is actually
necessary and were serious about planning
for a long campaign.
We've just been doing a lot of preparations,
a lot of testing the waters, and just what's normal.
Talking to advisors?
Yeah, pretty much.
Nick Fuentes, Kanye West, like the minds
that are going to shape the point of view
of this whole campaign.
Yeah.
JORDAN KLEPPER: The original Trump brand is still strong.
Sweet as honey, that guy, huh?
Yeah.
Mr. "When the looting starts, that's
when the shooting starts." - Exactly.
[laughs]
JORDAN KLEPPER: But a new election cycle
could mean a different tone.
What are you seeing that is different about Trump
and his tone with this kind of an event?
I think it's more elevated.
He's at a more kind of a mature level.
How everybody's got all their advisors?
It's almost like he's finally listening to his a little bit,
as far as--
toning the comments down.
Are you noticing even the MAGA community being--
Oh, they're great.
--more serious and respectable?
If you watch the conservative rhetoric,
it looks like you still love America.
Conservative rhetoric still respects positions
of power in this country.
Our police, our military.
- Our executive branch. - Exactly.
What's your hat say?
[laughs] I don't remember.
I could shit a better president.
[laughs]
JORDAN KLEPPER: This campaign is already attacking
Biden's approach to the war in Ukraine,
while lauding Trump's brilliant-yet-still-theoretical
approach.
Putin would have never, ever gone in.
And even now, I could solve that in 24 hours.
Trump says he could pick up the phone
and end this thing in 24 hours.
What actually would he say?
Knock it off.
He'd kind of be that kind of tone to him.
You think, totally, "knock it off,"
might cower Vladimir Putin?
Because he knows Trump stands up and says,
hey, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it.
You wish Biden would threaten nuclear war?
No, no.
No.
Strong stance of "hey, stop doing this."
OK.
Or?
You got to have a rattle behind that saber.
Right, which is?
Troops.
But you don't want to do troops,
because then you have all that war.
Right, so what would it be?
- Threat of it. - Threat of troops?
Correct.
So you want Trump to get into office and promise
to put troops into that war.
No.
I want him to stop it verbally.
Because you don't want military into it.
Because then, it escalates. - Right.
You said, verbally, you have to have some sort of backup.
Correct.
So you want Trump to have that backup,
which would be not troops.
No, he has the troops.
So you would support troops being sent in?
You don't want to send troops in.
It seems like a complicated situation.
It is. Very complicated.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Fortunately, for some
of these non-rallygoers, it doesn't
have to be that complicated.
I haven't seen any news reports about
this terrible war in Ukraine.
Where do you get your news?
On Newsmax.
And they haven't covered it at all?
I think that there's no war to cover.
I think the whole thing is fabricated,
and I think that Zelenskyy, who is the president of Ukraine--
I believe that this is all extortion money.
I spent a little time in Hungary,
and I met people who were coming from Ukraine
to try to find safe haven.
They were actual refugees fleeing
what they said was a war zone.
Were they lying?
I just think they might be actors, as far as I know.
I believe that they might be actors.
All of those people I met in Hungary-- those are refugees?
I believe that the government is paying them to do that.
That's a lot of actors.
That that's a SAG gig that's going to cost you billions.
And if this is the Trump campaign's
first round of invites, America is in for a sweet, sweet ride.
Thank you, Jordan.
All right. stay tuned because when we come back,
PJ Morton will be joining us on the show,
and you do not want to go away.
[cheering, applause]
[applause]
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My next guest is a Grammy award-winning songwriter,
singer, producer, and keyboardist for Maroon 5,
here to talk about his latest solo album, Watch the Sun.
Please welcome PJ Morton.
[applause]
Hey, hey, my man.
All right.
You know, I don't need to remind you, the UN is here,
so the world is watching right now.
Wow, literally, literally.
You are, you've got a lot of jobs, right,
so you're going to work no matter what.
So you-- - Suppose so.
Singer, songwriter, producer.
Out of all of them, which one is your favorite?
Um, you know, performer.
I really love--
Of course, of course.
--getting in front of people and seeing all the work
and all the, you know, you put all of this into the songs,
really seeing it in real life and real time, performing
always be my favorite I think.
But you, in a couple different genres.
One is, of course, R&B.
Yes.
And the other is gospel.
What's the difference between, like do
you just like put Jesus in more songs?
Like how do you?
Yeah, you know, I actually consider myself a soul artist,
you know, soul music, which I think
that foundation of church.
Right.
I don't necessarily as an artist
do explicitly gospel songs.
Do when a song is going to be a gospel song as opposed
to one that's more secular?
That's the thing.
It comes from the same place for me.
Talking about a love for a person and love for God
comes from the same place for me.
So it's not until I start saying, you know,
what I'm saying.
Right.
That's when I know what it is.
But, no, it doesn't start that way,
like something sounds gospel can
easily be an R&B song for me.
Because, I mean, I don't go to church, because the cover
charge is too high.
Oh, man.
Yo, you need Jesus.
I do, I do, yeah.
But they got--
I got that from you.
Yeah, I stopped going to church
when church came on TV on Sunday.
Like, I can stay right here in the game.
But I think it's important, because I think that one
of the things that happens with music,
whether it's secular or gospel, is that it inspires you.
Like if it's supposed to be great music,
it makes you want to dance.
That's a classification.
But if it makes you want to praise the Lord,
then that's a different thing. - Beautiful thing.
But they all come from this wellspring.
Like you have this wellspring.
Is that based on experiences, or do you just--
Yeah.
--kind of?
For me, I like the songs to be a reflection of life,
you know.
And my life entails all of that.
It entails love, it entails the weather being nice.
Right, right.
You know?
It entails my faith.
So I talk about all those things
and pull from them as I see fit,
or really, I say the music tells me what to say,
you know.
So you already know what the music is.
Yeah.
Once I start with the music and start to hear the melody,
then it starts kind of tell me what it's saying, you know.
And I'm just a vessel at that point,
trying to say what I feel in here.
You were, you talked about how
you were inspired during the quarantine, like doing that.
That was a really rough time for a lot of people.
Like spending that much time with
your [laughs]
You know, because they're strangers.
I don't even know you.
Spending that much time away from everything,
being with your family off the stage,
not being able to go to a studio,
some people didn't have, for some people,
there wasn't a creative track to take.
But you found it to be--
No, I feel, I feel like it's a cheat code.
Like, sometimes I feel guilty for having that ability
to release like that.
I mean, I was able to go inward in such a tough time.
But then I think the flipside of that
is, I'm able to speak for a lot of people
who were going through that and be a voice for them.
And that's what I feel like my job is.
So I do have an advantage in having that release,
but then I share that advantage with the world.
I write jokes, I write books, but one thing
about songwriters, being a songwriter
is like describing a sound.
Yeah.
And it's something, like, I can't even understand
where it comes from.
But when you think of all the songs you've written,
and the places you were in all those songs, what
is the most inspirational one?
What did you know, like the song was already ready, you
knew where everything went, like you knew
that this was going to be, go to this thing
and be in this place?
Yeah, I mean, well I mean, currently I'm up for R&B
song of the Year at the Grammys.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
[applause]
And I will say, you know, it was the first song that I
wrote on this specific album.
And it kind of wrote itself.
It was one of those where it's like, it's going so fast,
this can't be me.
This can't just be me, you know.
It was a rhythm, so "Please Don't Walk Away"
is the name of that song.
And it's a special one.
Just, I knew it immediately.
Why, why, why is it special?
Yeah, I knew it before it had, before it had lyrics,
it started, it was speaking.
Like, we knew in the studio that it was special.
Then the first thing I said, it was like chills, you know.
So it was one of those that just was moving on its own.
And I'm always super grateful when that happens.
Would you say it's your favorite song
you've ever done? - Favorite ever?
I mean, right now, favorite ever is the one I'm
doing here, "Be Like Water."
Right. Because--
Bruce Lee said that!
Wait a minute, didn't he say that?
He did.
It's inspired by that, and really inspired
by that overall concept.
But Stevie Wonder is my hero, and he's on that song with me.
Yeah, I like it.
Yeah.
And that would have been enough,
but then Nas is also on that song with Stevie.
So right now, that's my, that's my favorite song.
Wait, wait, you got Nas, Stevie and Jesus.
You can't lose, baby.
Yeah, man, it was a dream team, it's a dream team.
"Watch the Sun" is available now.
OK, when we come back, we're going to take a quick break,
and we're going to be right back with PJ.
He's going to perform for us.
You don't want to miss that.
[applause]
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Now to play Be Like Water from his album Watch the Sun,
here's PJ Morton.
[pj morton, "be like water"]
(SINGING) Be like water.
Let it flow, water.
Just let go.
Be like water.
Where it'll end up, we don't know.
Water, just let it flow.
I think by now you should know things
won't always go your way.
Can't change things you can't control,
so those words wash away.
Be like water.
Let it flow.
Water, just let go.
Be like water, where it'll end up, we don't know.
Water, just let it flow.
Obstacles seem to be everywhere.
The elevator's out of order, use the stairs.
But don't you ever let it make you question your path.
Be that still and quiet or as load as a crash.
Be like water.
Let it flow.
Water, just let go.
Be like water.
Where it'll end up, we don't know.
Water, just let go.
(SINGING) Be like water.
Let it flow.
You are a seed that has been sown.
And even if you feel buried in the middle of the desert
to waiting on the water or like our ancestors wading
in the water, know that you were not
buried to die but rather to testify,
that the troubled water is what made Jonah, who Jonah was.
And the troubled water made Joseph who Joseph was.
So imagine Joseph with no well.
Imagine Jonah with no well.
Even if you don't study the prophets,
know well that the true believer takes no L,
the true believer takes no L.
(SINGING) Be like water, let it flow.
Water, just let go.
Be like water.
Where it'll end up, we don't know.
Water, just let go.
Ooh.
[applause]
MTV.