Transcript of The Midterm Precap | Jordan, Michael and Ronny Break Down the 2026 Midterm Election Campaign

Hello and welcome to the Midterm Precap. It is here, voting day is tomorrow. We're going to get into what's been going on with the 2026 midterm elections, pick our top stories from this very, very normal campaign, and confirm that American democracy is healthy. I'm Jordan Klepper, and with me are my partners in hosting The Daily Show this week. Just to help me out, can you introduce yourselves, guys?

I'm Michael Costa. I'll be hosting Wednesday.

Yeah, I'm Jordan Klepper, hosting Thursday.

Why do we do it this way? No, I'm the—oh, oh, I'm Ronny Chang. I'm doing Tuesday. Yeah, we fucked that up. It's out of order. Anyway, I'm Ronny Chang, I'm hosting Tuesday.

Yeah. Can I just share my initial thoughts? I find it very interesting that Trump clearly has to instigate his base right now, but I also find it interesting that I don't think he's doing it the same way he used to in the past. It feels worse. The ass talk, the Islamophobia, it's so overt right now. I almost wonder if he has lost touch of his base.

There's an element of how dark it's gotten.

Yeah.

And there's no more artistry to the shadiness of this midterm.

That's a more eloquent way to put it.

I feel like American politics has always been shady. Even the Democrats right now with what's happening in Alaska with the whole Dan and Dan situation.

Yeah.

Like, it's just so blatant. It's like, we're just going to find another guy named Dan, and we're going to try to shift it this way. Islamophobia, the dog whistles are just whistles.

Yeah, they're whistles.

Yeah. It's like you used to—there was—you used to be savvy with it. You'd sneak it in there, but instead you—

I'm going to disagree with you guys, because I feel like this doesn't surprise me. Oh, I feel like it was always like this in the Trump era. So this—I don't know. I don't feel it's worse or, you know.

Like Islamophobia and some of that?

I feel it was Islamophobic before.

Yeah.

I don't feel like it's particularly worse.

I mean.

I would—I accept there's an argument to make that he's lost the center right a little bit more. So now, to your point, he's going more right, right? Maybe. But I feel like the zaniness, everyone's like, isn't Trump zanier now and blah, blah, blah? I'm like, I don't know. He feels just as zany to me. But maybe I'm, you know.

The ass stuff, I don't even really want to talk about because it's been covered by everybody. But it feels like he thinks he's doing a fun bit. But I'm thinking, as someone who does interact with a lot of different Americans, I don't think his base likes that stuff. I don't think his base is like, oh, I love it when the president riffs on that guy's ass. I don't get it.

I think he is—I think you are right. But I think he's playing to just that room in a way that might not be helping him here. He is—we've talked about on the show about him being like a stand-up comic.

Yeah.

And it does feel like that road show for Trump has been so stale for so long. He's done the same material. That the ass thing was, I think, an organic old guy reference.

Yeah.

Of like, oh, this tough guy. Like old guys love talking about football players. He falls out, he gets ass, people laugh at it, and then he just keeps workshopping him because it gets attention. And I do think it is funny in the room. But outside of those 3,000 people, it looks just completely great.

Yeah, it does well in the room, but when you see it clipped out later, you're like, I don't get what we're doing here. But he has played—he's always the first to mention Barack Hussein Obama. That's one of his old tropes.

That's an old trope, yeah.

So I guess you're right in the sense that the Islamophobic stuff, he's been playing that for ages.

Yeah.

I've been doing the other thing. Whenever I mention Trump now, I always tell everyone he's 80 years old. I just do that. Trump, he's 80. Trump, he's 80 years old. Donald Trump, he's 80. I feel like the whole country needs to be reminded that he's an 80-year-old old man.

Yes, yes. In great shape. In great shape.

That is the one thing.

He's great for 80. For 80, he's great.

You got to give him.

And I will tell you, I did—I was on the road for 10 straight days this month, and it almost broke me. This guy's been on the road for a month.

He's supposedly presidenting and then flying to Ohio. Mississippi.

Mississippi.

Jesus Christ.

That's a connection.

It must be on Adderall. It's Adderall, right?

Well, that's—and I think he's Adderall and attention. Like attention from his base who cheers when he talks about ass. You see these clips. And mentally, he is so 80, and he is all over the map. Like he's off a bit over the map. But I do—there's times when I'm like, he looks so happy and with it in a way. A guy who's been on the road for that long at that age, he's going to live till the end of his life.

Or what do you make of the wall behind him, a wall of people?

Oh, yeah.

What do you make of that? They always seem to be having a great time.

Yeah.

With the—it's always one or two protests. But I mean, in general, and it's young people too. They cast it really well.

That quality of wall has dropped.

Oh, you think so?

I think so.

Like how so?

Visually.

Oh.

I mean, it is—to me, and maybe this is my elitism coming through, it feels like we have downgraded a little bit.

Their paper in the house.

Possibly. Oh, interesting.

I think so. I mean, I know when I go to rallies, the front row Joes get special access and are ushered to certain places so that they're seen. And I think you have.

It's like a Vegas nightclub.

I mean, I think it is, right? And it is. I think they're having a hard time filling the seats.

Yeah.

And so they paper the house to get more people in there. And I think those are people—I think most of them are still Trump fans. I don't think they're like necessarily paid supporters.

Right.

But.

No, yes. I don't think they're paid.

Or Trump curious.

Trump curious. But they're like, hey, we're going to give you the hats. You want to stand back there? Go for it. They're like, hell yeah.

They do a nice casting job of it. Does this feel longer, this election, than previous years?

You mean midterms specifically?

Yes. Like, I feel like—I mean, CNN, every time you turn it on, it is countdown to the election. I mean, they're having like all candidates on right now. But I wouldn't say it feels longer. To me, it does feel more important than the others, but I also—I buy into that. I want this election.

No, I think it's fair to say this one is longer only because it feels like the issues that are at play for these midterms have been discussed for like a year and a half now, which is the war stuff, the affordability stuff. So we've been hearing about these issues for over a year now, and it feeds directly into the election. So it feels like we've been having this campaign for a long time. But it's just—it is important. It is important.

I've been watching the news, checking in each morning to see what are we going to talk about on the show and what have you. And the amount of time now spent just on polling numbers is remarkable. You're like, oh, there is no news that is happening anymore.

There's no news.

There is news that is happening, but not being covered anymore. And that has felt inexhaustible or exhaustible. It's exhausting.

It's exhausting. I know that word.

That is the one I think we'll edit in for the statement there.

Well, you want to get into what the specifics of this midterm then right now?

Yeah.

Sure.

So for you guys, what has struck you as like the big overall narrative or story of this election?

I mean, I just am blown away that his actions have caused such an increase in diesel prices. Not my gasoline.

Right.

Rule America's gasoline. It blows me away that he would self-sabotage himself in that regard. I would love to see the numbers on who voted for Kamala Harris that has ever pumped diesel into anything. It feels like the smartest thing he could do would be not raise diesel prices.

Yeah.

Right. The thing that struck me, I think it's the most obvious thing, is that it's a big blue wave. Big blue wave, although.

You think it's going to happen?

I mean, traditionally, the midterms have gone the other way anyway. So everyone's going to say this is a referendum on Trump. But I think just the way, historically, the way midterms work, they vote against the incumbent. So it could have been anybody, and the wave would be in the other direction. But it is a wave. It seems you can't deny it. I mean, I don't know if the wave is going to hit, but the wave is there in terms of polling numbers and the momentum. So it's a pretty obvious—that's the obvious analysis.

I mean, I will say the money in this election is wild. And we will see what the effect of that money is. And money is always in American politics. But like Texas in particular, the larger question I think this election is bringing up is how much people really care about what government can do for you.

Right.

Like whether—like so much of American politics has just been about rah-rah my team as opposed to like there are people who still can affect your life. Those gas prices, somebody has an effect over that. And people are deporting people in your life, people you know. Your community is affected by these things. Does that matter? I don't fucking know.

I don't know.

But I do think you look at places like Texas, and they spend so much fricking money to create a boogeyman out of Talarico and out of the non-binary god shit. And you're like, oh, well, you see people who are up in arms about comments made six years ago about trans people in sports. That's not happening at all in Texas. And then you look at it, and one man has spent half a billion dollars, and he owns the algorithm. And you're like, how?

He's talking about Elon Musk, obviously.

Elon Musk. With half a billion dollars and owning the algorithm, you can pump whatever you want in front of so many people's faces. And does that affect things? I think it does. And I think we're going to see how much it affects things.

I wish I could steal this, but somebody said there are less trans athletes in the NCAA than there are men accused of rape on the Cornell campus. And I was like, because it is true. There's like six trans athletes. The fact that that has ever even been a front page topic.

Right, right. Micro minority.

Yeah, you can—yes. It's like—and that's where I think it is gas. Like I just think it's the one time where you pull up to this thing that affects your life and you think about government for a second.

Right.

Well, on that point, what do you guys think of this theory of mine that the real world moves a lot slower than the internet, than we think?

Right.

And so we've been in this Trump bubble on the internet for essentially 10 years now. And you could say because of that, we were ahead of the game in terms of being like, this guy's not going to be a good president. But the rest of America was just slow to get there because they're not as well-read, they're not as connected. And good for them, by the way, or whatever they're doing. And so I'm just saying that this blue wave is almost like—they're almost like, oh, yeah, he's not that good. And something that we realized 10 years ago only because we are—this is kind of our job.

I think not that plugged in. In talking to people on the road, I was surprised. I know people in my community who are progressives after this last Trump election have unplugged from the news.

In Brooklyn?

In Brooklyn. People in Brooklyn. People in Brooklyn who have Georgia coasts.

By the way, I live like three minutes from Georgia.

In your community?

In my community, specifically the Brooklyn community.

Like this past election, a lot of people have unplugged because they felt overwhelmed by Donald Trump and are not as up on the day-to-day machinations of American politics. And yet, I think on the right, even in the Trump community, they're unplugged as well. They're still echoing things from five, six years ago and not watching the Daily Show, but not even plugged into what's happening on Newsmax all of the time. And so it'll be curious to see with this election.

No, no. I'm talking about the center.

I think they're very unplugged.

Right, right. That's what I'm saying. The center's unplugged.

Part of the privilege of being American for so many years is not having to care or be plugged in. And that is a very interesting question is when my friends say, oh, we don't really pay attention to politics. And I always think, well, when do you start? When does that person cross over? Because we pay attention.

Yeah.

Fuck, too much too much.

We get paid to do it.

We get paid to do it. It's true. It helps.

Yeah, yeah.

I should think about it that way. I should think about it that way. I'm getting paid to pay attention.

That's what universal basic income basically is. It's like, if you will give you a little bit of cash, you got to pay attention. Reuters, you have to read Reuters, okay? That is the one rule.

Well, that is the thing, man. When I'm with people that don't get paid to pay attention to politics, their information now is this. And everyone should have to listen to or watch like a general news channel because you sometimes see things that you wouldn't pick.

That's what I mean. If you want universal healthcare, you need to watch PBS.

It's like seven minutes of PBS.

Every day.

Every day. And you might see a story that you don't care about. And that's the point.

That's the point. And if you engage in something that's on one of the fringes, you have to make up for it by watching even more AP.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You are allowed to fringe.

Yeah.

Yeah, fringe. You're allowed to have sour patch kids for dinner, but you also have to have some broccoli tomatoes.

Eat your vegetables, kids.

Yeah, eat your vegetables. What do you think about some of these other races? Because I find the.

You mean Indians or what?

Yeah, the races.

Indians, Arabs.

You know, we got Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Alaska, fascinating. Ohio. I find Ohio very fascinating because of the governor, Ramaswamy. I just find a fascinating character.

Well, let's go through this.

Let's go through it.

Yeah, let's go through what we skip if we don't have anything. Georgia, do we care about this? Asaf versus Collins, any thoughts?

I feel like Asaf has become this—I think so many people on the left are seeing him with presidential ambitions in a way that he has that slickness, that JFK vibe.

In a good way or bad way?

I think in a good way for the left. I think they're looking for Bhut Jaj 2.0, and Asaf feels like that. Just like somebody who.

It's easier last name to say and spell too.

It really is, right? I think exuding competency is sexy on the left, and Asaf, I think, has stood up to that. So it doesn't seem to me that that's going to be much of a race, which is probably wild in Georgia that it's not being talked about as much.

I can't tell you much about that race. I can tell you Talarico, Texas, is fascinating. He answers so well. Someone says, are you trying to flip it blue? And he says, I'm trying to represent every Texan, whether they're blue, red, or independent. And it's just like, yes. That's what I want my politicians to say.

Yeah. And actually believe. And also, I feel like Talarico is almost the Darwinian evolution of what American politics hopefully becomes because it's like this guy who—of course it'll be Talarico. You know, this Darwinian process cuts out all the people eventually. And then what you need is like what he's like a Christian pastor, educated, reasonable guy who has sensible solutions and is not hateful. And it's like you almost unimpingible unless you call him gay.

He's got that alpha male that like the right has somehow.

Co-opted.

Yeah. And yeah, it is a natural evolution. It feels like the candidates are getting better.

Like life found a way. Life found a way in that guy's mind. You know, life found a way to figure it out.

Yeah, right. I have been doubting that as of late. I think there is—I think the right has some really terrible candidates.

True.

I think like Ken Paxton is awful. And I think there's a lot of characters in the left who have evolved and become open in their positions. But I do think—I think the left perhaps is putting too many—what is it? Too many apples in their basket? What are they putting in their basket? I think there's a lot of confidence.

Depends on what you're shopping for.

Exactly.

Yes.

Well, I think the left candidates—I think they're hanging a lot on the quality of the left's candidates. And I wonder if they're going to stand the test of time. I do think it's curious. I think Talarico has had to spend so much time fending off the craziness of Paxton. But Paxton is one of the worst candidates Texas could possibly ever imagine with his corruption scandals, his strangeness. Even Trump doesn't want to stunt for him.

His strangeness.

And so it's really curious. I wonder if the left has the bench of people that can create this wave. And they might, but I do think a lot of it has to do with the right having such bad candidates this season.

Sure. But I mean, back to this thing. So what is the alternative here? If you're saying that the left is running people based on quality, but what's the alternative?

I think they—I mean, I think everybody's trying to run based on quality. But I think Beto O'Rourke might have been a stronger candidate than Talarico.

Really? Oh, okay. Interesting.

I think it was maybe a sharper political operative at the time. I think Talarico's had to play defense for most of this, and unfair defense. It's curious to see Elsaid. I do think Elsaid really.

Like ability though, what do you think? Just going back to the Texas thing. Talarico and that other guy.

Beto? I mean, that's hard. I mean, I think.

50-50?

Well, I do think Texas—again, I think Paxton is such a bad candidate. I think Cornyn would have walked away with this thing if he was the candidate there in Texas.

Yeah, but I factored that into the Darwinian evolution, how bad the candidates are on the other side. That evolves into Talarico, who's like, I'm literally one of the good guys. You know what I mean? So that's why this is competitive, right?

Yes.

So I just feel like you have to take into account—you're kind of saying that like they're only marginally winning because of how bad the candidates are.

I guess they do. And maybe it's even the governor races that I'm looking at. Like the story in Alaska with Peltola, who is cheating to try to beat Sullivan. And Amy Acton versus Ramaswamy is becoming more so a—it's because Ramaswamy is like flushing this whole thing away.

Yeah. What has he done lately with this ad? Has he backed off it?

There was an ad that came out that is just—it's like one of those YouTube calm ads that literally says, "Relax. We all need to fit in." He hasn't apologized.

Oh, that's his response?

There's an ad that's just like, "Guys, we can all relax. Chill out."

I love these guys. It's my classic tactic. It'll be like, I'll tell people, I'll tell them that I'll basically troll them and say that they're being too sensitive. And then when they get angry, I'm like, "See?" So this is what he's just going like—he's like making people angry. He's like, "Guys, just calm down. What are you so angry about?" It's the oldest trick in the book. Younger brother.

Do you think that works? Do you think something like that works in?

Yeah, marginally. You know, it doesn't completely not work, but it's up to people to not take the bait if you're angry at him to be like, "You're the one who started it." You know, she's kind of doing, you know.

What has Acton is ahead in the polls, right?

I think so.

And did she stay ahead? Does the number stay the same?

Yeah, actually, I just.

Because Ramaswamy got a lot of attention for this.

I just read the numbers. We were just talking about it yesterday. Apparently, the numbers were like most people are unchanged. I think in the end, Ramaswamy was already way down. And it sounded like the last time I heard.

It was kind of a last ditch effort.

Last ditch effort. And it sounded like 2% of people switched from Ramaswamy to Acton, went away from him. And like 1% maybe switched towards. And then the rest have been like, "We already decided."

We already figured it out.

So like all it really did was destroy his reputation as being a moral actor in this and lost like a point.

One net point.

This go back. We kind of skipped over this Alaska thing because we assume everyone listening knows what we're talking about. But can you please explain this dance element thing? Because it's actually really fun.

It's also awesome that they think that that is what you do to work. And by the way, it might.

It might.

It might.

No, please tell them.

Yeah, I mean, if.

This broke yesterday on the show. Excuse me. This is Monday. This broke last week on the show. You see what I did? That's a showbiz trick.

Honestly, we covered it on the show, on Wednesday's show when I was hosting. And we were prepping in the morning because the Trump administration or the Justice Department pre-sued.

Pre-sued.

Pre-sued. Yeah.

Pre-crime.

They pre-crimed. They were pre-January 16, the election being stolen. And they said, "Hey, they're trying to steal the election. If it's close, we can't certify these results because there are two Dan Sullivans running." And so there's the incumbent Dan Sullivan who's running as a Republican. And there's this other fringier candidate, also named Dan Sullivan, who is running.

Daniel J. Sullivan.

Yes.

Right.

Yes. And so, but the Alaska courts already looked at this and said, "We see this. We will put incumbent on the ballot and it's good." And then as we were prepping the story, we're like, "Oh, it breaks that it is true that the Democrats put money behind this went out looking to find another Dan Sullivan to sully this whole situation," which is not necessarily illegal, but it is shady AF. And now.

You know what's shady? I said Alaska is shady. So I don't find this. Obviously, anyone would say like, "Okay, that's my team or whatever." I didn't find this particularly offensive in the sense that it was just like, I don't know. I guess you could always say this. But it feels like it's a little bit of dirty politicking, but.

Yeah, obviously, it's not 100% clean, but I just as a US election history nerd, I'm like, "Yeah, this is kind of this." You know.

It's kind of the romantic.

Someone throw this shit in. You kind of cost you nothing. You just throw it in there. Oh, ow. You throw it in there. And then like.

By the way, looking at Ronny's arm from this angle has been awful.

It's my Halloween costume.

Dude, it's a knife attack.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, what's the difference between supporting the exact same name candidate and what Ramaswamy did with the ad? Now, to me, that's a huge difference. One of them is like, "But is it both just politicking?"

No, to me, the Dan Sullivan thing is kind of more cheekier.

It feels cheekier to me.

Yeah. Like, you know, here we go. He's just going to try to get 0.01 votes and it's going to work and it's going to annoy people. You know, like, you know.

Is that a huge faux pas? Is that a huge moral outcry that they did that?

I think, I mean, there is a history of those things. I think it just came out also. Cornell West took a bunch of dark money from Elon Musk to try to sully the vote. I mean, I think there is a history of these things happening. For me, I see it as a, I'm not up in arms about it, but it does feel dirty and immoral to me. And also stupid. I think from the Democrats, it's like, "Oh, what a childish thing to do that I know has happened before." I mean, I think this entire election is all about money and weird ways to persuade people.

I don't know. This is not me on some woke-ity-woke team whatever thing. I just think it's quaint and cute and I'm down. I'm like, "Yeah, do it." If Republicans did that, I'd be down. I'd be like, "Yeah, just go do it."

Find another name.

You know that book, The Comedians by Cliff Nesterov?

Yeah.

It's about like the history of comedy. In Vaudeville days, someone would work on and create a really good comedy act, and another comedian would steal the act, move locations, and change like one letter of the name. And then that person would get bigger and more famous than the original act. So that's what's happening here.

I do have a suggestion. We're kind of too late for this, but some person should just legally change the name to Donald J. Trump and run on the ballot. He'd probably get some votes.

I mean, I think he'd do all right.

You know, we've sat here and we've chatted and it's been wonderful. But one thing that scares me is all of our chit-chat is predicated on the fact that we believe these votes will be tallied and counted in an honest and respectful way. And I do worry. Trump has already pre-sued Alaska. He sent that stupid hard drive to LA where it's like, you know, literally it was a piece of paper written that said, "If you don't open this, we're going to sue you in 48 hours."

Well, yeah, I think there will already be a story. We won't get all the information and the numbers in that night. And that in and of itself will become a story and a way in which to not believe the results. And then the next day we'll wake up and Nicki Minaj will be the press secretary and will tell us the election was stolen. And that will be the America that we deserve.

Right. I mean, comedians get the audiences they deserve and we get the candidates that we deserve.

And candidates get the voters they deserve. I guess.

Yeah.

Which is, I guess we all deserve multiple Dan Sullivans on the ballot. Everybody gets a Dan.

Right. Two years of a lame duck Trump, if that happens, I get worried. Will they try to impeach? You know, that's another conversation, probably. But he might be more, he might be a rabid animal backed into a corner and go even harder. I don't know. That's many steps away from what we're talking about.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do think he also thrives on having a bad guy. And I think this midterm has showed you like the counterpunch of like.

He's a great counterpunch.

Excellent. This whole midterms is about the fear of like of Islam, of communists. But you control every lever of government.

Exactly.

Why are we talking about communism?

Come here, buddy.

You should be running on hope and what you've created as opposed to, oh, all of the bad guys. And so I think that's sort of his sweet spot if that's where he finds himself.

Yeah. Yeah, he's like a better away game crappy hockey rink player than like when he's at home with his home team and the beautiful slick ice. He doesn't really know how to do it that well. Yeah. Any other predictions? Do you think this stuff would get tied up in the courts? Look, it's not just going to be like, that's it, blue wave. I don't think so.

And I think the, I don't know. It's so hard to get a sense of actually what Americans are going to do. It does feel like having lived through enough of these that I do think the projections of a blue wave, I think, are probably overstated.

Really? Wow. Okay.

I do think.

Right now, so everyone is kind of all these blue wave stuff that we just discussed, they're kind of up by three to four points within a margin of error, but that's still a healthy lead, other than Acton who's up by 12. So that's over, essentially, I think. And then, so meaning the numbers are not 50-50. It's like up by three or four.

Right.

So in terms of blue wave.

I think it's going to be close. And who knows? Who knows what it will look like? I do think no matter what, it will be challenged and be fought over for days. And I think in and of that is a win for the Trump administration.

Yeah. Yeah. But in the end, it doesn't, like we want, this wasn't a vote, this election is not an election on Donald Trump anyway. So we expected him to stay in office and still do his Trump stuff. You know what I mean? So even if the blue wave happens or doesn't happen and it ends up in court, it's almost like that's kind of where we are right now anyway. So it's not like we're worse off, I don't think.

I think your comment is sticking with me about how so much of the country that doesn't pay attention to this is kind of a little bit behind the current moment. And I think that is right. I do think most of the country has figured out at this point that this guy's corrupt and plays the game the way that he does.

Or at the very least, not a great president.

Right.

At the very least.

And that will be reflected in this election, in my opinion.

Yes, yes. Time will tell.

Time will tell.

I actually hope the Democrats lose, but okay.

This is something we call a daily show and tell. So what's something you've watched, read, or listened to lately that's been on your mind? And I'll start because this time of year, November's coming up. And we were talking with Jordan early, fellow Michigander, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 29 men, 1973? Five? I don't know. Big iron ore ship, Lake Superior, sunk in November. I just read this great book by John U. Bacon about it. It was really fun to read something that wasn't about any of this shit.

I love a good.

Am I turning into my grandpa?

Yes, you are. You just said three sentences.

Get ready for a Gordon Lightfoot reference. It's going to happen in a minute.

And you know people that are watching at home, you do know the song Gordon Lightfoot sang about the Edmund Fitzgerald. You don't even know what I'm talking about, but you will know once you know. So that was a fun, long book on one subject. My brain felt healthy.

Oh, good.

I felt smarter after. Wow. Great.

And John Bacon is a great writer.

Great writer.

Has written amazing books. Two thumbs up there. I'm going to jump on the book train. I'm going to Indianapolis in a couple of weeks to do an event at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum.

Oh, cool.

Love Kurt Vonnegut.

Super cool.

And it made me jump. I always dust out some Vonneguts every few years. I've read most of them, and it's fun to go back and reread them. And I've been reading Breakfast of Champions again. And it's great. There's so much about his perspective on the world and politics and America that you realize it's almost as if like an alien dropped down and then just so cleanly and precisely can articulate like our foibles and our bullshit. Always a good touchstone to get a perspective on what is wrong with this gosh darn strange country of ours.

And when an author simplifies it perfectly, that is the magic of an author.

Yes, yes.

Wow. You just said the thing in four words that I've been trying to mull over for months.

Yes.

I love that.

He has a couple ones. A Man Without a Country, a few other books that he was writing about the Iraq War. Actually, one of my favorite Vonnegut memories was watching him with John on The Daily Show.

Yes, yes.

Like a few months, I think, before he passed. One of his last public appearances, he came on the show and he talked. He was talking about some of his essays and it was remarkable. I don't think I'd ever seen, at that point, I'd never seen him talk. And so it was amazing to hear him talk about this. But you are right. Like there's a genius in some of those literary folks who are able just to, just like a great comic, to succinctly find a moment and a perspective.

Like Trump. Like Trump. If you're too scared to, if it's a little daunting to get into a book.

Yeah, books are tough for people now.

The Kurt Vonnegut, he has a book I read that was his college speeches.

Yes.

So college was always asking him to give the graduation speech. And there's a book of just his speeches. And it's like if you feel a little daunted by getting to a whole book, it's almost like short essays from Kurt Vonnegut of like.

It's the clip version.

Clip version of the book.

Yeah.

Also, if you're feeling that it's daunting to read a book, I would encourage you, that's exactly why you should read a book.

Yes, just read.

One time, I went to a guided meditation and I said to them, but some days I don't have time to do meditation. And that guy said, if you said that to the Buddha, he would say, then that means you should meditate twice.

Pretty much. So yeah, the reading thing, you're right. You're right. And you don't have to read Kurt Vonnegut. You don't have to read Charles Dickens.

You can read a romance novel.

Don't read Tom Clancy. Read whatever. Read a newspaper article.

Jack Reacher.

Read something.

Read something.

Wait, do you ever wreck? I was going to wreck that Kurt Vonnegut thing, but I usually wreck a book here, but I just watch, I'll break the pattern right now and I'll recommend a movie, a documentary. I just watched the Nathan Fielder thing.

Don't spoil it. I'm a day away. I got tickets for tomorrow.

I think it's called I See Everything.

You can see everything.

You can see everything. I watched it yesterday in the late morning. It's a three-hour thing. Flies by.

I bet.

Watch it.

It's three hours.

It's three hours, but it flies by.

I got two kids. I'm going to see this in like three years on an airplane.

I promise you, watch it and don't watch it like going to bed. Watch it fully alert.

Yeah, give it your energy.

You don't need me to sell it. Once you start watching it, you can't take your eyes off it. It's very cool. It's very cool. It's like if A24 did a reality TV show.

Don't you love when just art does that?

Yes.

Just love it. Good job, Nathan Fielder.

Great job.

Congratulations.

Yeah.

Fuck you.

Well, that's all the time we have for the midterm pre-cap. You're just going to have to watch to see what happens.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm Jordan Klepper. You can catch me on Thursday. Michael Kosta, you can check on.

Wednesday.

Ronny Chang, you can check on.

On Tuesday.

That's right. Hosting The Daily Show all week on Comedy Central. Jon Stewart's going to be on Monday. That might have already happened though.

That's true. Oh, is he hosting right now? Oh, shit, I need to go.

Oh God, Jon's on right now. Check it out. It's on Comedy Central, Paramount Plus, YouTube, and right here in podcast form on The Daily Show, Ears Edition. Go out there and vote.

Don't be afraid to vote.

If you feel like it.

Oh, shit. Come on.