Transcript of Roy Wood Jr. asks if presidential debates are just 'a place to see who’s less crazy'

We've got some special guests at the table tonight, but first, I have some beef with one of you. Watch.

Have I got news for you? It's coming to CNN this fall. Pros and cons list.

Pro, hosted by Roy Wood Jr.

Pro, with Amber Ruffin.

Pro, with Michael Ian Black.

Con, people might confuse you with Abby Philip.

Pro, people might confuse me for Abby Philip.

Are you not Abby Phillips?

Pro, you know I'm not.

I was told this was going to be with Abby Phillips.

I I love her. It's Abby Philip. There's no S. Okay.

Michael Ian Blacks joins me now at the table, along with Roy Wood Jr. And Amber Ruffin. Welcome.

Hi, Abby Philip.

Hi, Michael Ian Black.

Now, I know I'm not the first person to make that mistake. No.

Okay. No. I've been told it's a sign of respect. Okay. Roy, You're the captain of this new show, the CNN Original series, Have I Got News For You. It's going to serve up an edgy and comedic take on the news of the week. Starts tomorrow, 9:00 PM Eastern Time. Welcome to the table. But you guys are mortal enemies because your team captains on opposite ends of things.

On screen, we're mortal enemies. Off screen, we're mortal enemies.

Don't touch her.

I love her. She's no Abby Phillips, but I love her.

I am very curious because, Michael, you have written a children's book about a one Donald Trump. I have. How would you explain this past week's debate to my three-year-old or a four-year-old?

I would say to your three-year-old, Turn off the television. Do anything else other than watch what you're seeing on the debate stage right now. It's It's not healthy for adults. I don't know that it's healthy for a child.

What happened? How did you see it?

I saw the debate. I feel like we're in a space now, and we were just talking about this on set earlier. It was a debate Is a debate still a place for a candidate to present policy points in 90 second digestible chunks? Or is it a place to just figure out who's less crazy? It's a two-hour sobriety field sobriety test. That's really what a debate is. Who can not say they're eating the dogs?

It's hard not to say. It's hard not to accuse people of eating dogs.

You know what is happening. They say it's happening. I heard it's happening, so it's happening.

No, but Kamala spanked him so bad because all she had to do was be a normal human being on planet Earth. She achieved that within the first 10 seconds. It was beautiful.

It almost seems like the debate unlocked something in Trump. After that, it was Laura Loomer. It was just hanging out with these conspiracy theories. He doubled down on the cats and the dogs. Then earlier today, here's what he said about her and her old job at McDonald's.

Then you have Kamala's claimed that she worked at McDonald's. She never worked at McDonald's. It's a lie. They went in, they investigated it, and the fake news won't report that. She said she stood over those French fries when they were being fried, and it was so tough work. She never worked there. She's a liar.

It's the new burger conspiracy. Did she work at a McDonald's in Kenya? Where is this McDonald's exactly?

It's so absurd. Donald Trump is coming for your job.

Nobody would lie about making burgers. It's one of the hardest, toughest things you can do. Nobody is going to just say McDonald's.

The argument was that she didn't put it on her resume when she was applying for... Don't laugh. But the real truth is, who would put McDonald's on your resume when you're applying for a legal job?

Unless you're going to Burger King, there's no reason to put McDonald's on your resume. At what point is this law firm calling the McDonald's to see if you duplicity, if you are good with reading the briefs? I don't know any other legal word other than brief. You're reading the briefs, you got it. Are you reading the habeas corpus?

I I was stuck on duplicity, so I was like, roll.Yeah.

That's impressive.I went to college for 25 years, so I finished.

Trump is really... I mean, he's in a weird place, I think, psychologically, where he's falling back on his own instincts about how to operate in politics. It's this stuff. It's like, we got to go after the French fries, and whether she was really there, we have to go after the way she laughs. We have to say that maybe she's half or not really black. I don't know.

I don't like Donald Trump's policies, and I don't like his behavior. But I love, and I'm sorry, I love when he shouts a lie with all of his heart. It's crazy. I love it. She never worked. Why? Why?

That's been his entire political career. It's just yelling lies and people loving it.

Well, it worked for a long time. I think the one thing, even on this network right after the debate, when they were talking with the people who had been, I guess, sequestered and hadn't watched any post-debate coverage. They were talking to a roundtable of undecided voters here, is the idea that out of this debate, we finally have undecided voters who just said, I would have liked to have heard more about her policies. It's like we're going back to 2000.

Do you think that's real? To your point earlier, do you think people really want to hear what she thinks, or is that a way of saying, I can't trust this lady until some indefinite time in the future.

I think those people are moving the goalpost, but I would rather them say that than be coming on TV echoing the lies that Trump said. I think this close to the election, if you are still an undecided voter, to some degree, you are a lazy voter who's not trying. You're not going out and seeking out the stuff. To say you have not seen her say a thing about the thing, it's been two years of campaigning, man, what link did you not click? What did you not scroll by? What's in your algorithm where you haven't seen at least one thing that you know she's about? If you're going to argue, she flip floped on whatever because that's the new thing they're pulling out. Oh, you said this, but now you're saying this. Go to the website, go to the Instagram.

Well, she did change her positions on a lot of things, but so has Donald Trump. I wonder, though, Taylor Swift has entered the chat and she's endorsed. What do you think is the impact, ultimately, of her jumping in for Kamala Harris?

Well, clearly, celebrity endorsements endorsements are debatable in terms of the effect that they have. But does anybody move the needle like Taylor Swift does? What was that thing about thousands and thousands and thousands of people were registering when she put that endorsement out? And I'm guessing most of those people are not going to end up voting Trump.

What's been the vibe at her concert? She's been to a concert.

I've been to many of them. How many of you been to? Fifty-two.

I didn't realize we had a Swift at the table. Okay. I mean, speaking of celebrityCelebrity endorsements.Thank.

You, Abby. Thank you for calling me a celebrity. I assume that's where you were heading with this.

She was not calling you a celebrity, oh my God.

I'm sorry.

This is actually a celebrity unendorsement. This one comes from Robert De Niro. Here's what he had to say about Trump.

He's a jerk. He's an idiot. Who wants to meet a clown like that? He thinks he's a gangster. He does everything like a gangster. I don't think that gangsters in that the world would think much of him.

This is a guy who knows gangsters. He's played 14 of them. Yes. So people will listen, I presume.

Do you think this broke Trump's heart to hear?

It had to.

It had to sting, right?

De Niro is a quintessential New Yorker. It's one thing for him to say, Ye Kamala, but for him to call him not a gangster.

He's an idiot.

Yeah, that one's got to sting. It's got to sting. I just don't know how much, ultimately, I believe that celebrities can bring attention to the issues, but I think it's on the politicians and their charisma, lack thereof, in terms of retention. Okay, you register all these people to vote. Please go to the polls. Please deal with the nonsense that's going on. Please deal with all of the voter fraud and all of the nonsense. Because most of these people, wherever they live, there's some law being put in place to make the act of voting more difficult as well. Whether or not the celeb endorsement is sustainable beyond that. But if Taylor Swift is getting people to pay attention to politics, it is net positive. Same as Meg DeStallian coming out on stage in Atlanta. The same as, I hate to say it, Hulk Hogan and- Kid Rock? Kid Rock and Amber Rose. Yeah. Anybody that just people go, I like you. Okay, well, tell me about abortion laws.

No one moves the needle like Hulk Hogan. Nobody can do it here.

All right. So, Roy, tomorrow night, 9:00 PM, you're watching CNN. What are we going to see?

You're going to see three amazing people right here making sense of everything that happened this week in news.

And It's not just... I mean, it's a lot of politics, but it's not just politics.

No, absolutely. I wouldn't even say that it's politically dominant. It's just what has been the conversation and the zeitgeist across the gamut. It could be the debate. It could be all the way to Shannon Sharp and him not knowing how to use Instagram live. There is a spectrum of topics that we could get into. But the show, the mothership show has been on for almost 35 seasons in England. So we're in good hands, and it's a format that's been done well overseas, and so we're bringing it over here.

Is there a winner At the end of the day?

If my team wins, then yes. If her team wins, no. Then it doesn't matter.

Okay. It'll be Ammerstein.

Look, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make my team the winning team. Will Will I Pay Roy Money? Yeah. Will I pick Michael in the Shins? Yeah.

It's simple. If you have watched a quiz show before, if you have watched the news, if you are up on those two things, you will understand the format of the game. We're using a quiz show format with no money and no points to present and have a conversation about topics with amazing guests that come on every week as well.

Can you tell us who the other comedians are? Or is that a secret?

Well, no, it's not just comedians that are guests. On tomorrow night, it's Matt Welch, and we're going to have Robin Thede.