Roy_Wood_Jr._asks_if_presidential_debates_are_just__a_place_to_see_who’s_less_crazy
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00:00We've got some special guests at the table tonight, but first, I have some beef with
00:05one of you.
00:06Watch.
00:07Have I got news for you, it's coming to CNN this fall.
00:11Pros and cons list.
00:12Pro, hosted by Roy Wood Jr.
00:15Pro, with Amber Ruffin.
00:16Pro, with Michael Ian Black.
00:18Con, people might confuse you with Abby Phillip.
00:21Pro, people might confuse me for Abby Phillip.
00:24Are you not Abby Phillips?
00:25Pro, you know I'm not.
00:27I was told this was going to be with Abby Phillips.
00:29I love her.
00:30It's Abby Phillip.
00:31There's no S. Okay.
00:35And Michael Ian Black joins me now at the table, along with Roy Wood Jr. and Amber Ruffin.
00:44Welcome.
00:45Hi, Abby Phillip.
00:46Hi, Michael Ian Black.
00:49Now, I know I'm not the first person to make that mistake.
00:54No.
00:55No.
00:56I've been told it's a sign of respect.
00:57Oh.
00:59Okay.
01:00Roy, you're the captain of this new show, the CNN original series, Have I Got News For
01:05You.
01:06It's going to serve up an edgy and comedic take on the news of the week.
01:10Starts tomorrow, 9 p.m. Eastern time.
01:13Welcome to the table.
01:14So, but you guys are mortal enemies because your team captain's on opposite ends of things.
01:19On screen, we're mortal enemies.
01:21Off screen, we're mortal enemies.
01:23Right.
01:24Right.
01:25Don't touch her.
01:26I love her.
01:27I mean, she's no Abby Phillips, but I love her.
01:32So, let's, I am very curious because, Michael, you have written a children's book about one,
01:39Donald Trump.
01:40I have.
01:41How would you explain this past week's debate to my three-year-old or a four-year-old?
01:48I would say to your three-year-old, turn off the television.
01:53Do anything else other than watch what you're seeing on the debate stage right now.
01:59Like, it's not, it's not healthy for adults.
02:02I don't know that it's healthy for a child.
02:04What happened?
02:05How did you see it?
02:07I saw the debate.
02:08I feel like we're in a space now, and we were just talking about this on set earlier, is
02:14a debate still a place for a candidate to present policy points in 90-second digestible
02:19chunks?
02:20Or is it a place to just figure out who's less crazy?
02:24It's just, it's a two-hour sobriety, field sobriety test.
02:28That's really what a debate is.
02:30Who can not say they're eating the dogs?
02:34Who can do that?
02:36It's hard to say.
02:37It's hard not to say.
02:38Well, especially when it's happening.
02:39It's hard not to accuse people of eating dogs.
02:40Yeah, you know, when it's happening, you know, they say it's happening, I heard it's happening,
02:44so it's happening.
02:45No, but Kamala spanked him so bad, because all she had to do was be a normal human being
02:51on planet Earth.
02:53And she achieved that within the first 10 seconds?
02:56It was beautiful.
02:57It almost seems like the debate unlocked something in Trump.
03:02Like, after that, it was Laura Loomer, it was, you know, just hanging out with these
03:07conspiracy theorists, he doubled down on the cats and the dogs.
03:10And then, earlier today, here's what he said about her and her old job at McDonald's.
03:18And then you have Kamala's claim that she worked at McDonald's.
03:22She never worked at McDonald's, it's a lie.
03:25They went in, they investigated it, and the fake news won't report that.
03:29She said she stood over those French fries when they were being fried, and it was so
03:35tough work.
03:36She never worked there, she's a liar.
03:41It's the new burger conspiracy.
03:42Did she work at a McDonald's in Kenya?
03:45Like, where is this McDonald's exactly?
03:47It's so absurd.
03:48Donald Trump is coming for your job.
03:52Nobody would lie about baking burgers.
03:54It's one of the hardest, toughest things you can do.
03:57Nobody is going to just say, just, McDonald's.
04:00The argument was that she didn't put it on her resume when she was applying for, don't
04:05laugh, I mean.
04:07But the real truth is, who would put McDonald's on your resume when you're applying for, like,
04:10a legal job?
04:11Unless you're going to Burger King, there's no reason to put McDonald's on your resume.
04:15At what point is this law firm calling the McDonald's to see if you duplicity, if you
04:20are good with reading the briefs?
04:23I don't know any other legal word other than briefs.
04:25Reading the briefs, you got it.
04:26You know, are you reading the habeas corpus and the top, the twists?
04:29I was stuck on duplicitous, I was like, whoa, that's impressive.
04:33Yeah, I went to college for 25 years, but I finished.
04:37Donald Trump is really, I mean, he's in a weird place, I think, psychologically, where
04:41he's kind of falling back on his own instincts about how to operate in politics, and it's
04:48this kind of stuff.
04:49It's like, we got to go after the french fries, and whether she was really there, we have
04:53to go after, you know, the way she laughs, we have to say that maybe she's half, or not
04:59really black, I don't know.
05:00I don't like Donald Trump's policies, and I don't like his behavior, but I love, and
05:06I'm sorry, I love when he shouts a lie with all of his heart.
05:13It's just, it's crazy, I love it.
05:16Like, why?
05:17Why?
05:18I love it.
05:19That's been his entire political career, is just yelling lies, and people loving it.
05:25Will it work for a long time, and I think the one thing, you know, even on this network
05:28right after the debate, when they were talking with the people who had been, I guess, kind
05:31of sequestered, and hadn't watched any post-debate coverage, and they were talking to, you know,
05:36kind of a roundtable of undecided voters here, is the idea that out of this debate, we finally
05:42have undecided voters who just said, I would have liked to have heard more about her policies.
05:49It's like we're going back to 2000.
05:50Do you think that's real?
05:51I mean, to your point earlier, I mean, do you think people really want to hear what
05:55she thinks, or is that, like, a way of saying, I can't trust this lady until some indefinite
06:02time in the future?
06:03I think those people are moving the goalposts, but I would rather them say that than be coming
06:06on TV echoing the lies that Trump said.
06:08I think this close to the election, if you are still an undecided voter, to some degree,
06:13you are a lazy voter who's not trying.
06:15You're not going out and seeking out the stuff.
06:17So to say you have not seen her say a thing about the thing, it's been two years of campaigning,
06:23what have you not, what link did you not click?
06:25What did you not scroll by?
06:27What's in your algorithm where you haven't seen at least one thing that you know she's
06:32about?
06:33And if you're going to argue she flip-flopped on whatever, because that's the new thing
06:37they're pulling out, right?
06:38Oh, you said this, but now you're saying this.
06:40Go to the website.
06:41Go to the Instagram.
06:42Well, she, I mean, she did change her positions on a lot of things, but so has Donald Trump.
06:47I wonder, though, Taylor Swift has entered the chat and she's endorsed.
06:53What do you think is the impact, ultimately, of her jumping in for Kamala Harris?
06:57Well, clearly, like, celebrity endorsements are debatable in terms of the effect that
07:03they have, but I mean, does anybody move the needle like Taylor Swift does?
07:09I mean, what was that thing about thousands and thousands and thousands of people were
07:13registering when she put that endorsement out?
07:16And I'm guessing most of those people are not going to end up voting Trump.
07:19What's been the vibe at her concerts?
07:20You've been to a few.
07:21I've been to many of them.
07:22Wait, how many have you been to?
07:2352.
07:24Oh, I didn't realize we had a Swifty at the table.
07:28Okay.
07:29I mean, speaking of celebrity endorsements.
07:30Thank you, Abby.
07:31Thank you for calling me a celebrity.
07:32You're so welcome.
07:33I assume that's where you were heading with this.
07:34No.
07:35She was not calling you a celebrity.
07:36Oh, wait.
07:37Oh, my God.
07:38I'm sorry.
07:39Oh, I see.
07:40Sorry.
07:41Sorry.
07:42This is actually a celebrity un-endorsement.
07:43This one comes from Robert De Niro.
07:45Here's what he had to say about Trump.
07:46He's a jerk.
07:47He's an idiot.
07:48Who wants to meet a clown like that?
07:51He thinks he's a gangster.
07:53He does everything like a gangster.
07:57I don't think that gangsters in that world would think much of him.
08:05This is a guy who knows gangsters.
08:07He's played 14 of them.
08:09So people will listen, I presume.
08:13Do you think this broke Trump's heart to hear?
08:16It had to.
08:17It had to sting, right?
08:18It had to.
08:19De Niro's a quintessential New Yorker.
08:21So to get...
08:22It's one thing for him to say, yay, Kamala, but for him to call him not a gangster and
08:26say that in a better...
08:27He's an idiot.
08:28Yeah.
08:29That one's got to sting.
08:30It's got to sting.
08:31I just don't know how much, ultimately...
08:33I believe that celebrities can bring attention to the issues, but I think it's on the politicians
08:38and their charisma, lack thereof, in terms of retention.
08:41Like, okay, you register all these people to vote, please go to the polls, please deal
08:46with the nonsense that's going on, please deal with all of the voter fraud and all of
08:51the nonsense.
08:52Because most of these people, wherever they live, there's some law being put in place
08:56to make the act of voting more difficult as well.
08:59And so whether or not the celeb endorsement is sustainable beyond that.
09:04But if Taylor Swift is getting people to pay attention to politics, it is net positive.
09:10Same as Meg Thee Stallion coming out on stage in Atlanta.
09:13The same as, I hate to say it, Hulk Hogan and...
09:18Kid Rock?
09:19Kid Rock and Amber Rose.
09:20Yeah.
09:21Anybody that just people go, ooh, I like you, okay, well then tell me about abortion laws.
09:27No one moves the needle like Hulk Hogan.
09:29Nobody, nobody can do it.
09:32All right.
09:33So Roy, tomorrow night, 9pm, you're watching CNN.
09:37What are we going to see?
09:38We're going to see three amazing people right here making sense of everything that happened
09:43this week in news and...
09:45And it's not just, I mean, it's a lot of politics, but it's not just politics.
09:48No, no, absolutely.
09:49I wouldn't even say that it's politically dominant.
09:51It's just what has been the conversation and the zeitgeist across the gamut.
09:54It could be the debate.
09:56It could be all the way to Shannon Sharp and him not knowing how to use Instagram Live.
10:00There is a spectrum of topics that we could get into.
10:04But the show, you know, the Mothership show has been on for almost 35 seasons in England.
10:09So we're in good hands and it's a format that's been done well overseas and so we're bringing
10:12it over here.
10:13Is there a winner at the end of the day?
10:16If my team wins, then yes.
10:18If her team wins, no, then it doesn't count.
10:21Okay, okay.
10:22Please.
10:23Please.
10:24It'll be Amberstein.
10:25Look, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make my team the winning team.
10:30Will I pay Roy money?
10:31Yeah.
10:32Will I pick Michael in the shins?
10:34Yeah.
10:35Okay.
10:36It's simple.
10:38If you've never been on a quiz show before, if you have watched the news, if you are up
10:40on those two things, you will understand the format of the game.
10:42We're using a quiz show format with no money and no point to present and have a conversation
10:48about topics with amazing guests that come on every week as well.
10:50So can you tell us who the other comedians are or is that a secret?
10:53Well, no, it's not just comedians that are guests.
10:56So on tomorrow night, it's Matt Welch and we're going to have Robin Thede.