Hey, what's going on, everybody? I'm Trevor Noah,
and this is The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Today is March 2,
which means it's the first week of Women's History Month.
That's right-- it's that time of the year when men
celebrate women's history by repeating it back to women
just a little louder, as if we thought of it ourselves.
Anyway, on tonight's show,
Dr. Seuss is canceled,
Governor Cuomo is crashing weddings,
and meet Madison Cawthorn,
the hot new scandal of the Republican party.
So let's do this, people.
Welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
-? ? -ANNOUNCER: From Trevor's couch in New York City
to your couch somewhere in the world, this is
The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah.
Let's kick things off with the coronavirus vaccine--
the reason your grandma just reactivated her Tinder.
Over the weekend, Johnson & Johnson became the third company
to get a vaccine approved for use in the United States.
And in even more good news today, it was announced that
one of Johnson & Johnson's rivals,
the pharma company Merck, will help
produce the vaccine as a way to boost supply,
which is amazing.
Two rival companies teaming up-- this is so rare,
especially in the pharmaceutical world.
I mean, we all watch TV.
We've seen those Cialis ads.
They've never once said,
"Ask your doctor about Cialis or Viagra.
All that matters is we get your rusty old dick working again."
And it's because vaccine production is ramping up
that President Biden now says America
will have a vaccine for every adult
by the end of May,
two months earlier than he predicted just a few weeks ago.
Which means you're gonna have to fit back into your jeans
a lot sooner than you thought. Yeah.
Better get working.
Now, I don't have that problem,
because I cut all my jeans up for toilet paper last April.
But let's move on to Andrew Cuomo,
governor of New York and shaved Geico caveman.
He's already spent this week fighting off two accusations
of sexual harassment.
And now we're finding out about a third.
NEWSWOMAN: This morning, New York governor Andrew Cuomo
facing new calls for resignation after a third woman
has come forward with accusations
of sexual harassment. Anna Ruch telling The New York Times
the governor tried to kiss her at a New York City
wedding reception in 2019, and then sharing this photograph
she says was captured on her cell phone that night
by a friend, Ruch saying that when governor Cuomo
put his hand on her bare lower back,
she "promptly removed his hand with my hand."
According to the paper, "the governor remarked that
"she seemed 'aggressive' and placed his hands on her cheeks.
He asked if he could kiss her."
Sweet Jesus. Man, what are you doing?
I mean, on the one hand, asking women for consent
before you kiss them is what you're supposed to do.
But the other part of consent is waiting for them to answer.
You don't just grab them by the face
like a bear yanking on a beehive.
(growling)
I mean, look at this photo.
How can you not tell that
you're making this person uncomfortable?
If you're doing something to someone that turns them
into the (sucks teeth) emoji, you have done something wrong.
And what's so brazen about it is that he's doing it
right in front of everybody, in the middle of a wedding.
So now I want to know, was he doing this the whole night?
You know? Are the bride and groom gonna be
looking at their wedding photos like,
"Aw, honey, here's the picture of you smearing the cake
"on my face. Oh, and there's the one
of Governor Cuomo licking it off."
And, by the way, it's not like this happened
in, like, 1992, and he could be like,
"Well, it was a different time."
This was in 2019.
If you're a public official doing this kind of thing
after the #MeToo movement,
either you just can't help yourself
or you're so dumb you shouldn't be in office anyway.
So, in light of these allegations,
Cuomo is now facing
even more calls to resign.
Although, if these allegations prove anything,
it's that Cuomo doesn't go away when you want him to.
But let's move on, because while Governor Cuomo
clearly hasn't adapted to the changing times,
one of your favorite authors from childhood
is trying to.
NEWSWOMAN: Breaking news: the organization that preserves
the legacy of author and illustrator Dr. Seuss
says it will stop publishing six titles
because of racist imagery.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises says the books portray people
in ways that are hurtful and wrong.
NEWSWOMAN 2: The six books being banned include
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,
If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot's Pool,
On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!
and The Cat's Quizzer.
NEWSWOMAN 3: There are some examples of racist imagery
in those books. For example,
there's a character that's described as a Chinese man
who eats with sticks, and the depiction
of that character has a pointed hat,
slanted slit eyes.
In another book, two men, said to be from Africa,
are shown shirtless, shoeless,
wearing grass skirts as they carry exotic animals.
Wow. Okay.
So, what, we're just gonna cancel Dr. Seuss books
just because they're racist?
Uh, then what are the racist kids gonna read, huh?
You didn't think of that, did you?
You know the real problem with Dr. Seuss
is that all of his made-up words
sound like they could be racial slurs. I mean,
a zelf on a shelf?
The nupboards in the cupboards?
I don't know what that means, but if a white person
calls me a nupboard, we're throwing down.
And look, I know that this thing was blowing up
and it was trending all over Twitter,
but there's always gonna be people on Twitter
telling you that this is the end of civilization.
Because fanning the flames of culture wars
is how they get attention.
But let's be honest about what's happening here:
an organization is making a decision on its own
that they don't want to be associated
with their own outdated and offensive imagery.
That's not being canceled. That's something
that companies and organizations do all the time.
Like, at some point, Coca-Cola was like,
"Hey, maybe putting cocaine in our drink
is harmful to the public. Maybe we should stop doing that."
Nobody called that cancel culture.
And despite what everyone tells you,
everyone does this all the time,
including CPAC.
Yeah, the home of freedom!
Just a couple weeks ago, they
canceled a speaker for his anti-Semitic views.
Oh, but I guess
that was just them looking out for the brand.
Yeah, it only becomes cancel culture
when it's something you disagree with.
But still, there may be room for compromise here.
Like, maybe instead of getting rid of the books completely,
they can just update the imagery.
For example, take that offensive drawing of the two
African men and put it in a Tucker Carlson thought bubble.
That way we all understand, "Ah, this is racist."
Let's move on now to our main story:
the other sexual harassment scandal
taking over the political world right now.
Also tonight, serious questions are swirling
around the youngest member of Con-Congress,
an up-and-coming Republican with an increasingly high profile.
NEWSWOMAN: He is considered a rising star
in the Republican Party,
but Congressman Madison Cawthorn's past
and the political persona he has cultivated
is littered with dark allegations.
Cawthorn faced numerous allegations
of sexual harassment while attending
Patrick Henry College in Virginia just four years ago.
Caitlin Coulter went to school with Cawthorn
and says she was taken on what he called a fun drive.
His M.O. was to take vulnerable women out
on these rides with him in the car and to make advances.
Cawthorn asked her about her purity ring
and her sexual experiences.
Coulter says she felt something was off
and shut down the conversation.
He got really upset and he whips the car around
and started going back to campus at 70, 80 miles an hour
on these one-lane roads.
Um, and it was-- it was really scary.
"There was a lot of sexual innuendo," Leah Petree told CNN.
"It got really uncomfortable walking to and from class.
"He would yell out, 'Are you ready to take
that fun drive today?'"
Oh, damn.
That guy doesn't sound fun at all.
This guy was apparently sexually harassing women
while driving like a crazy person?
It's like if Mario Kart let you play as Harvey Weinstein.
And just to be clear,
this wasn't just making a few people uncomfortable.
No, Cawthorn reportedly kissed women by force,
put his hands up their skirts,
and pulled one girl onto his lap
and put his finger between her legs.
In fact, it got so bad that R.A.s at the school
started warning students to stay away from him.
And you know you're doing something wrong
when you're in the same category as STDs and alcohol poisoning.
But the question you may be asking is,
who is Madison Cawthorn
and how did he go from college creep
to congressman creep?
Let's find out in another episode of Fringe-Watching.
? ?
One year ago,
Madison Cawthorn was not expected
to be the next congressional representative
from North Carolina.
But he narrowly beat a more established conservative
in the Republican primary
by falsely smearing her as a Never Trumper.
Because, you see, at this point,
Never Trumper is the worst insult
that you can say to a Republican.
It goes: expert,
Prius driver,
and then Never Trumper.
That's the Republican version of the N-word.
"You Never Trumper!"
"Don't you call me-- You take that back.
Why, you don't use that word on me."
"Okay, but you don't like Trump sometimes."
But what really propelled Cawthorn into office
was his compelling personal story,
even if it wasn't 100% his.
NEWSWOMAN: Fresh questions about his own account
of the car accident that left him wheelchair-bound in 2014.
CAWTHORN: He was my brother, my best friend.
He-he leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb.
NEWSWOMAN: Bradley Ledford, Cawthorn's friend
and the driver of the car, telling The Washington Post
that Cawthorn's accounting of the accident was not true.
Cawthorn's own parents
undercutting their son's story, too,
saying the driver of the car rescued him.
That accident went on to be the core part of the narrative
Cawthorn weaved about himself as he ran for Congress.
ANNOUNCER: He planned on serving his country in the Navy
with a nomination to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
-(siren wailing) -But all that changed in the spring of 2014,
when tragedy struck.
NEWSWOMAN: But in this 2017 deposition
related to the accident, obtained by CNN,
Cawthorn admitted that he was rejected by the academy
before the accident.
So, this guy got rejected by the Naval Academy,
then got into a car crash,
and then claimed the crash was why he got rejected?
Well, you know what they say: when life gives you lemons,
blame the lemons for everything and you hope no one checks.
And, look, man, this is a horrible thing
that Cawthorn experienced.
But it's tragic enough on its own.
And it's also genuinely inspiring
that he came back from it,
which is probably why it's so weird
that he felt the need to lie about things
like his friend abandoning him to die.
I mean, dude rescued him from a car,
and, in return, he threw him under the bus.
And once people began digging
into the rest of Cawthorn's story,
they began finding lies everywhere.
For instance, he claimed
he turned down Princeton and Harvard.
That was not true.
He claimed to be a successful business owner,
even though his supposed investment company
reported zero income and had only one employee,
himself.
He even claimed repeatedly
to be training for the 2020 Paralympics,
despite never being an elite athlete,
something an actual Paralympian compared to
"a kid saying they want to play in the NBA
when they're on the fourth-grade basketball team."
Which would obviously be ridiculous.
I mean, no fourth grader could play in the NBA,
except maybe for the Pistons.
I mean, they... they need help.
So, Madison Cawthorn has basically lied
about every major event in his life.
And he's lucky that he's in politics,
because there's no other career
where you can be caught lying that much about your résumé
and still be allowed to keep your job.
So, instead of attending Princeton or Harvard,
Cawthorn went to a conservative Christian college
where he led a squad known on campus
as "the douche crew."
Which is impressive, especially when you think
about how much competition there is
for that name on a college campus.
You know? It's like working at a hedge fund
and being known as the guy with the coke problem.
But after earning mostly D's,
Cawthorn dropped out after only one semester
to go and see the world.
NEWSWOMAN: This 2017 Instagram post
from a visit to Adolf Hitler's vacation home
in Germany, the Eagle's Nest,
where Cawthorn refers to Hitler as "the Führer."
NEWSMAN: Posting, "The vacation house of the Führer.
"Seeing the Eagle's Nest has been on my bucket list
for a while. It did not disappoint."
I'm definitely not a Nazi. Uh, I'm not a white supremacist.
Okay, you know you messed up
if you need to follow your Instagram post with,
"I'm definitely not a Nazi."
I mean, nobody's posting kitten pictures like,
"Just to be clear, I definitely think the Holocaust was bad.
Meow."
And it's not even that he visited Hitler's vacation home
so much as how he wrote about it.
He called it "the Führer's house."
I mean, that's an extra level of respect
when you're using Hitler's preferred pronouns.
I mean, he even included the two dots over the "U."
What is that, the-the umlauts?
Yo, that takes effort.
I don't even know how you do that.
I think you need to buy, like, a special keyboard.
I can barely find the colon.
Where are you finding the umlauts for Hitler?
But maybe the strangest part of this post is that he said,
"It did not disappoint."
The only way to make this post worst was if it did disappoint.
"Just got to the Eagle's Nest.
-Bummer. Not that Hitlery." -(phone chimes)
So this was a little embarrassing,
but it didn't stop Cawthorn
from getting the ultimate stamp of approval.
Where's Madison? Where is Madison? Is he here?
-Right over here. -Madison Cawthorn, a real star.
You're gonna be a star of the party.
NEWSWOMAN: He rose to national prominence
and then gained national attention
at this summer's Republican Convention.
When I'm elected this November,
I'll be the youngest member of Congress in over 200 years.
And if you don't think young people can change the world,
then you just don't know American history.
George Washington was 21
when he received his first military commission.
Abe Lincoln-- 22 when he first ran for office.
And my personal favorite, James Madison, was just 25 years old
when he signed the Declaration of Independence.
Yes, that, my friends, is incredible.
Or it would be
if James Madison had actually signed
the Declaration of Independence, but he didn't.
I guess Cawthorn is so into lying
that he's even padding other people's resumes now?
I mean, sooner or later, this dude's gonna
get his alternate realities completely mixed up.
And let's not forget Thomas Jefferson,
who left me for dead in that car accident.
And please, don't get me wrong.
This isn't the biggest deal in the world.
In fact, I'm kind of impressed
that Cawthorn picked the one Founding Father
who didn't sign the Declaration of Independence.
Look at those signatures. Look at all those signatures.
They were passing that thing around
like an office birthday card.
And so, Madison Cawthorn made history
as the youngest member of Congress ever.
And he celebrated this milestone in American democracy
by immediately trying to undo American democracy.
CAWTHORN: My first act as a member
of Congress will be to object
to the electoral college certification
of the 2020 election.
If you don't start supporting election integrity,
I'm coming after you.
Madison Cawthorn's coming after you.
Everybody's coming after you.
Get on the phone, call your congressman, and feel free...
You can lightly threaten them.
Yes, just a few weeks
before rioters stormed the Capitol building,
Madison Cawthorn was telling people
to lightly threaten their congressmen.
which I guess is when you say you're gonna kill a dude,
then throw in some funny memes just to balance it out.
But you know, in many ways,
the Republican Party couldn't have asked
for a better star to push their lie.
Because unlike the Paralympics, this is something
he's actually been training for his whole life.
So that's Madison Cawthorn.
He claims the election was stolen,
lies about everything in his life,
and has dubious opinions about Nazis,
and an alleged history of sexual assault.
What I'm saying is, as soon as this guy can get a fake I.D.
saying he's 35, ooh, my friends, he's gonna be president.
All right, when we come back, Representative Adam Kinzinger
will be joining us on the show to talk about taking a stand
against the president of his own party.
You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Earlier today, I spoke
to Republican Congressman of Illinois, Adam Kinzinger.
We talked about breaking from his party
to oppose Donald Trump
and what he sees as the future of the GOP.
Congressman Kinzinger, welcome
to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thanks. Good to be with you.
So first questions first.
Where do people go to find a new family?
Because you were famously thrust into the news
when your family wrote you a letter,
not only saying that you had betrayed Donald Trump
and you had betrayed them, but you had joined the devil's army.
Quite a letter to get from some of your family members.
Yeah, it was a little surprising, you know, and, uh...
But, so, I look at it and say, "Look, I have a great family."
Some closer than... You know, may disagree with me,
that aren't gonna send me a devil's army conscription form.
But, uh, yeah, it was pretty crazy.
But I'm glad it got out there. I didn't release it.
She sent it so far and wide, actually that it...
the reporter was able to find it.
But you know, it kind of shows people
what's going on in families today.
But your own family thinks
that you have betrayed Donald Trump,
and you are betraying the Republican Party,
by saying that Donald Trump didn't,
in fact, win the election,
and there was no giant steal, AKA the big lie.
If a Republican cannot convince his Republican family
of these things, what hope is there for America?
Well, I do think there's hope, and if you think about it,
look at how long it took to really go from...
When Donald Trump announced, he came down the escalator,
he had, like, ten percent support.
Everybody thought he was a joke, and then,
over time, when he was talking, he eventually kind of led
to this movement that we have.
So it's gonna take some time to pull people out of that.
But I think, up to this point,
we've had no competing narrative.
You know, if you don't hear anybody saying,
the election wasn't stolen, and 74 million people
that voted for Trump weren't disenfranchised;
they were just outnumbered,
until somebody says that aggressively,
you're gonna believe it.
And that's what's important right now,
is just to tell people the truth.
You know, there's this culture war brewing here
where it's all about owning the other side,
and I still want to go out and fight for principles.
And that's where I think the pivot needs to happen
that's actually gonna save, not just the Republican Party,
but the country, is if we actually start talking
about policy, principle again,
how to bring people up from poverty,
you know, what defending the country means.
Those are the kinds of things that I think
Americans are actually desperate for.
They're just not the loudest ones tweeting.
When we look at that now, I mean,
America is going through one of its toughest periods.
I mean, the world is.
We've never seen anything like it.
Um, Joe Biden is trying
to pass his $1.9 trillion relief bill for COVID.
There's been a lot of back-and-forth on this.
You are a Congress person. I would love to know,
from your perspective, why you're opposed
to Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion plan.
Yeah, look, there was... there was no effort to reach out.
I never had a conversation with anybody
in the White House about it.
No effort to say, "What does it take to bring you on board?"
I'm desperate to have a compromise on this,
and I'm hoping that when it comes back from the Senate,
there'll be some changes, actually making sure
that we're giving the amount of money that these states need,
and not just writing a blank check,
and that some of the money towards, uh, education,
for instance, is actually done this year.
A lot of it's next year. And there actually needs
to be more money for-for medicine and research.
So, look, I'm one of the ones that's eager
to say, "Let's do this. Let's work on things together."
And that we both just have to be willing to do it.
And so, I'm not gonna blame, you know, the president
for not reaching out to Republicans.
They make a decision.
But I do think if somehow it gets blocked up
in the Senate, we have an opportunity to get this done.
The bill has quite a few proposals.
It touches on everything, from, you know,
raising the minimum wage,
which is now probably out of the conversation,
you know, to getting funding to people who work in restaurants
and bars, and making sure that people get vaccinated
and providing PPP, et cetera.
What would you change in that bill?
What do you think it's missing
if they had come and spoken to you?
Gee, I don't know if it's missing anything.
I do think we can come to a compromise
on the minimum wage, for instance.
Like, I'm for increasing the minimum wage.
I just think doing it at this moment right to 15 bucks,
you know, over a short period when businesses are struggling
is the wrong time.
So I would like to see an increase.
But on things like opening schools,
there's over $300 billion that goes to that,
but most of it doesn't go in until next year.
And you look at things like vaccine researches
for the future,
you look at things like helping hospitals now,
and then the fact, you know, Illinois, for instance,
which has had this huge systemic problem
of fiscal mismanagement, just gets a ton of money
from the federal government.
I want that to be more based on need
instead of just based on number.
When you look at that, though, America has a history
of underpreparing for these situations.
You know, if you go back, every time there's, like,
a stimulus bill, every time it falls short of the mark.
And in hindsight, economists go, "Aw,
"we just didn't spend enough money.
We didn't give the people enough money."
I mean, 70% of Americans are saying, "We want this bill.
We want these checks. We need this help."
Don't you think it's better to err on the side of caution
and just go like, "Well, let's maybe overspend,
"but let's get the economy going
"and let's get people out of their houses
and let's get people eating again."
Yeah, look, I think it's a good point to make,
and I think, you know, for the last year
we've been doing that.
There have been a lot of pretty sizable amounts of money
we've been spending on things
like the Payroll Protection Program, et cetera.
But look, if you want to reach out to me for that output,
I'm happy to chat with the administration about it,
but they didn't, and the numbers I saw were like,
hey, yeah, we're gonna spend a lot of money,
but we still have to understand what we're doing with it,
because this money has to be paid back at some point.
So again, my hope is, with the Senate,
you know, if it hits a bottleneck there
we can have an opportunity for bipartisan.
And I'm still eager on bipartisan things,
like infrastructure going forward,
'cause this country deserves people
that can have a conversation, like you and I are,
on this issue without just hating each other.
Uh, my personal opinion has been that, you know,
I think the two-party system will, in some way, shape or form
end up destroying America.
That's my personal view, because think it doesn't give people
enough room to be more than just one of two sides.
I don't think there's two sides to anything.
Right now, though, the Republican Party's
in an interesting place.
Are you a conservative, and do you have these beliefs?
Or do you raise a flag that says "Donald Trump"?
And it feels like more Republicans are saying,
"Forget Republican, we are Trump."
Where do you then go from there?
Yeah, so that's what the battle is right now,
and I think that's gonna be... (audio breaking up)
...over the summer.
I think Donald Trump is gonna continue to be lessened
as every day goes on, because Americans, we have a...
we don't always solve challenges,
but we move on from them, and we move on to the next president.
So that's why I started country1st.com,
with a 1-S-T, it's just, like, especially for Republicans,
Independents, and even Democrats say,
we need a healthy Republican Party
to have a place to go to fight for the narrative
of the Republican Party, 'cause I'll tell you what,
the two-party system won't destroy the country
if you have a healthy opportunity for debate
and an open tent.
We should have people that disagree
in the Republican Party, as the Democrats do in their party.
Well, um, you are in for the ride of your life.
It is gonna be extremely vicious.
It is going to be, um... extreme,
as you've seen from within your own family.
And so, uh, we'll be watching, and, um, yeah, good luck to you
-versus Donald Trump. -Thank you. Well, you know what?
Some things you got to put it all on the line for,
-and I'm willing to. -I hear you there.
-Thank you so much for taking the time, Congressman. -You bet.
Thanks again to Congressman Kinzinger
for joining us on the show.
When we come back, the amazing H.E.R. will be my guest,
and we'll talk about the Grammys, the Oscars
and how she's taken over the world. So don't away.
Welcome back to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Earlier today, I spoke with Grammy Award-winning musician,
H.E.R.
We talked about making music during the pandemic,
being shortlisted for an Oscar,
and who the person is behind the mysterious name.
H.E.R., welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Um, it is an absolute pleasure having you on,
because you have become just the soundtrack.
Not the soundtrack of life, not the soundtrack of the pandemic,
just the soundtrack.
That is what I feel like when I think of H.E.R.
Before we get into the music itself, though,
I would love to know the story behind H.E.R.
Because it is one of the most unique artist names
I've ever came across.
(laughs): Thank you. Thank you.
Um, yeah, you know, um, I've just always loved music
since I was a little girl.
It's always kind of been a given to me
just doing music, and, um, I got signed very young,
but I was making this very honest music, um,
in high school that kind of just represented
what I like to call "the evolution of woman,"
and me becoming a young woman
and going through different things
and, you know, changing and vulnerability,
and, um, I guess, you know, even it wasn't that deep,
it was always that deep for me, so I was writing this music
that was kind of heavy, um, and created this E.P.,
Volume 1, and I really wanted the project
to just be... the cover of the project
to just be a silhouette, where nobody knew what I looked like
or, you know, anything about me,
and I wanted to have everything revealed
in the music, and not what we sometimes focus on
with social media, 'cause I'm really about the music.
And that's where it came from.
Yeah, I feel like, more than most artists,
you're really, really, really focused on,
not just the music, but on keeping the music separate
from your life.
And it feels like it's really intentional,
where you've gone, "I don't want you to know the person
behind this, I want you to know what the person is giving you."
Why was that such a big deal for you, and is that...
-is that a correct assertion? -Absolutely.
It's a big deal for me, because I think music is...
is the foundation and music is the main part of it.
We get so caught up in what everybody else is doing,
and then sometimes we get disappointed,
because at the end of the day, you know, we're all human,
we are all flawed, we all go through things,
and we all have stuff we deal with
outside of our art, and I really just wanted to focus
on the art, and, um, you know,
have a kind of a sense of privacy, I guess.
But, um, you know, the music is the message.
It makes you want to fall in love.
It makes you, you know, sad.
It tells you what's going on.
It's just a lot of things that music does,
and I think we forgot about that.
We forgot about the substance that is the art of music,
and-and that's what I'm about.
You remind me of, um, some of the greatest artists
of-of, like, my parents' generation
where you-you can make beautiful music about anything,
but there are moments where you take your time
to make a song about the pain
that people are experiencing in life.
A-And, you know,
one of the most famous songs in that regard
is "I Can't Breathe," you know, a song that came out
during the height of protests in America,
during the height of many people's pain in America.
Um, you wrote another song recently
about Fred Hampton, you know,
for Judas and the Black Messiah.
Another song nominated.
And all of these songs are really painful,
but at the same time, it feels like you're trying
to inspire us to something.
You know, it-it doesn't feel like it's a hopeless song.
It feels like it's hopeful
despite the stories ending the way that they did.
When you're making that music,
do you... do you think about the thing first,
or does, you know, does-does the event inspire you?
I'd love to know what that process is
or how it comes about for you,
because it really connects with people.
Oh, thank you. I-It really depends.
You know, when it... when it came to-to, like,
a song like "I Can't Breathe,"
it was the heat of the moment.
It was like, okay, I'm literally looking
outside my window in New York City
and seeing a huge crowd of people protesting,
and I'm seeing all these things on the news, on social media.
It's everywhere we look. And it's great
that it's everywhere we look now,
because now there's kind of this awakening,
-I think, going on. -Right.
And, um, and a lot is being exposed,
and we've had time to be still.
And, so, you know, I've had time to be still
and look at the world around me
and-and really sit with this pain
and this kind of anxiety like...
Okay, you know, some of the lyrics are like,
"How do we cope when we don't love each other?
What is a gun to a man that surrenders?"
You know, "How do we judge off of color?"
And, you know, all of these things that I said
really was just like, "Why? Why, why, why?"
-Right. -And, "Why do we have to live in fear?
Why does this keep happening?"
There are songs, like, you know,
from-from a whole other time,
you know, back in the day.
There're songs that Sly and the Family Stone were writing,
Marvin Gaye and people like that were writing
that are still relevant to today,
and it's kind of, like, continuing that thought
of like, "Why is this still happening?"
Um, and that pain.
And I think the goal is always to make people hopeful
and, um, to also educate through music
and-and let people know what's going on
and that we have a responsibility
to try to make a change.
And, um, I'll never forget
a call that I received from somebody,
and they said that their 70-year-old Jewish father
listened to my song and told the person that called me,
and they were like, "Yo, have you heard this song
by this girl? It really made me think differently."
-Wow. -And at that moment....
Yeah. At that moment, I knew,
"Oh, my gosh, this is so much bigger
than me expressing my feelings on a page."
Now it's-it's, uh, changing the way that people think.
-Right. -You know, and the way that people see things,
and that's what music is supposed to do.
-Mm-hmm. -So, the fact that I can do that,
um, you know, just off of what I feel
and the responsibility that I now feel
to express what's going on today.
As much as you maintain your anonymity
and your... and your privacy,
you also share yourself
in one of the most vulnerable ways
I've ever come across, you know?
We're used to seeing artists onstage.
We're used to seeing these big, lavish performances.
But once the pandemic struck,
we saw H.E.R. in a completely different way.
You started hosting really intimate performances,
you know, from a room in your house,
whether it was on Instagram Live
or whether it was, like, a Zoom performance.
And it felt like you were sharing
a different side of yourself.
It felt like you were sharing the pandemic with us
and then your thoughts about what we were experiencing
in-in real time. What inspired that?
And were you ever worried about, like,
almost being too vulnerable and not being, like, prepared?
You know, a lot... a lot of people have the veneer.
But you were just like, "No, this is me. Let's do this."
You know, in the beginning, I was like, "Oh."
'Cause I... One of my first times
going on Instagram Live was in the pandemic,
and I'm in the house with, you know,
my hair in a messy bun and just my plain, old hoodie.
And I had just moved, so the room was completely empty,
and, you know, there was all this great reverb.
So I was like, "Let's just get into it.
Let me just sing. Let me just sing for the people."
But it was... It was, honestly, a way for me to stay connected
and keep people updated on what I'm doing,
what I'm trying to do in-in my artistry
and my crea... my creativity.
But, also, boredom.
You know, I-I really love music genuinely
and-and wanted an opportunity to be able to still do my thing,
and I think Instagram Live was a good place to do it.
And I started a series called "Girls With Guitars,"
and it was like, "Now I can jam with other people on Live,"
which is even better.
And it turned into something great.
So, you know, it was just something I wanted to do.
Good luck for the Grammys.
Good luck for the rest of the journey,
because it's gonna be... it's gonna be a crazy exciting one.
And, um, I'm excited to see where it takes you.
Thank you so much. It was so great speaking with you.
Take care.
Don't forget, people. Judas and the Black Messiah
is in theaters and streaming now on HBO Max,
and the soundtrack featuring H.E.R.'s song
"Fight for You" is available right now.
Right, we're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight. But before we go,
as you know, March is Women's History Month,
so please consider supporting an organization
called She Should Run.
It's a nonpartisan nonprofit
working to increase the number of women
considering a run for public office.
Now, by supporting She Should Run,
you are helping women from all political leanings,
ethnicities, sexual identities and backgrounds
to see themselves as future candidates.
If you're able to,
go to the link below and donate whatever you can.
Until tomorrow, stay safe out there,
wear a mask, and remember:
if you're attending a wedding,
the salad fork is on your left
and Governor Cuomo is groping you on your right.
Now, here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
? ?
I'm fired up about this. I don't know if you are,
but my guess is if you had a childhood
and you read Dr. Seuss, you might be.
So, you're telling me that the actual priorities
of the Democrats is renaming a post office
and now canceling Dr. Seuss?
NEWSMAN: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
is not as concerning as, let's say,
oh, I don't know, China.
-Or anything else. -Oh, you are absolutely right.
I mean, we-we... we are actually losing a battle
that's not even started yet against China.
This is a threat that we should be worrying about,
'cause this is a threat that actually harms American lives,
not if Dr. Seuss is racist.
I-I actually laugh trying to think about that.