On Thursday, Nov. 17, none other than former President Barack Obama visited Trevor Noah on The Daily Show to talk politics—including, of course, the impact of cult conservative network Fox News on the American public. Sadly, this gives candidates like Donald Trump a pseudo-legitimate platform. With Republicans pushing anti-queer and anti-trans bills at both the state and federal level, and winning midterm election seats in spite of (or because of) this hate, it’s especially important to hear from Obama about how different campaigning felt for him a relatively short time ago—and what we can still do now.
“Democracy requires, by definition, getting along with people who don’t agree with you,” Obama said during the interview, which marked his third appearance on the show, including visits in 2016 and 2020 respectively. Spoken like a true president! Obama reminisced about his time on the campaign trail, saying that he could go to conservative parts of the country and connect with people without the “filter” created by Fox News or “right-wing conspiracy theory folks,” so voters were better able to embrace Obama with an “open mind.”
“I could listen to them,” he continued. “And they could listen to me and at the end of the day, they might say, ‘Well he’s a little liberal for our taste, but we have something in common,’ like the love they have for their children.” He went on to describe it as a sense of “connection.”
It’s almost surreal to hear a former president talk this way when Trump is still campaigning on divisive hate and literal border walls to separate us.
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“It started with Fox News and some of the other traditional media, and now with social media, that’s gotten turbocharged,” Obama explained. “If you go into those same communities now, they have so many preconceptions about what somebody like me believes, cares about, etc., that it’s very hard to penetrate.”
Sadly, too true. Obama went on to call out progressives for bringing some “preconceptions” that contribute to barriers as well. Obama also credited young voters with helping us gain some considerable wins in the latest midterm elections; as Daily Kos has covered, Republicans promised a red tsunami, but hardly delivered.
“Their enthusiasm is what really drove this election,” Obama said about young voters post-Trump.
Speaking of Trump and his absolute obsession with barriers both literal and figurative, Noah brought some truly surreal humor to the episode when discussing Trump’s campaign launch announcement, where people were literally stuck inside the room during his bizarrely long speech.
Here is that video, courtesy of Olivia Rubin of ABC News.
“Say what you will about Trump,” Noah said after laughing at the footage, “but the man takes his border security seriously: ‘Nobody’s getting out! We’re gonna build a wall. Build a wall, keep them in.'” He went on to joke that you know a club is bad when the bouncer needs to keep people inside.
“And I actually feel bad for the crowd,” he continued. “They were probably scared as hell.” Noah circled us back to the Hillary Clinton-era chants of “locking her up” and joked that party attendees were like, “‘Oh no, we’re trapped in here! Trump has us locked up. He’s locked us up! He’s locked us up!'”
The full interview with Obama is about half an hour and is well worth the watch. The entire clip is up on YouTube below!