♪ ♪
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from New York City,
the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show!
Tonight,
TikTok is working for China.
Pride Month sells out.
And Katy Tur!
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
What's going on, everybody?!
Welcome to The Daily Show! I'm Trevor Noah!
Thank you so much for tuning in!
Thank you for coming out in person!
Thank you so much! Wow!
This feels amazing! Let's do it, everyone.
Let's have some fun. Take a seat, take a seat.
We have got a jam-packed show for you tonight.
So much news.
President Biden has declared a war on gravity,
corporations are gay for Pride,
and someone special is following all of you on TikTok.
So, let's do this, people.
Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
♪ ♪
All right.
Let's kick things off with TikTok,
the world's biggest social media site
and the app that proves Americans
can read subtitles just fine when they want to.
Yeah.
Hundreds of millions of people around the world
use TikTok every day.
Because, I mean, what else are you gonna do
while you're pooping, right?
But what many TikTok users might not realize
is TikTok is owned by a Chinese company.
And now we're finding out
that while you're watching videos of people dancing,
China might be watching you.
Leaked audio from social media company TikTok's
internal meeting suggests that Beijing
has repeatedly accessed data from users here in the U.S.
NEWSWOMAN: The recording suggests
that TikTok is falling down on its promise
to wall off Americans' data from its Chinese parent company,
with one of the app's researchers
telling colleagues...
Oh, no.
China's secretly watching all of us on TikTok?
Now they're gonna know our money doesn't jiggle, jiggle--
it folds!
But, yeah, based on these audio leaks,
it looks like TikTok's parent company in China
actually does have access to our private data,
which means the Chinese government
probably has access to our private data.
Which is scary,
'cause TikTok knows everything about you.
Yeah. It tracks what you watch, what you like,
and then it only shows you that stuff.
Like, if you asked me to see my "For You" page,
I'd be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's too personal."
Yeah.
Just look at my nudes instead.
Actually, that's a mini Coke.
And that's why, if you remember,
Donald Trump was trying to ban TikTok a couple of years ago.
Right? Because the U.S. government realized
that China could use this as a tool to influence Americans
and also because Eric kept trying
to send him friend requests.
And, you know, it's a little crazy
how we're so hooked on social media
that governments don't even need to steal our data anymore.
Right? We'll just give it to them.
Like, back in the day, they'd have to hack into a database
or break into the Social Security Building.
Now we're just giving it to them for free.
And I blame myself. Yeah.
I'm part of this problem.
I also took part in that Personal Information Challenge.
♪ ♪
That was a big mistake.
I hope I go viral.
All right, let's move on
from all the data that you're putting into TikTok
to all the data that's coming out of the January 6 hearings,
the investigation that will somehow result
in less punishment than the Oscars slap.
Last week, we learned mostly about how Trump knew
that he had lost.
Then we learned about how Mike Pence almost got hanged.
And today's session was all about how President Trump
and his allies tried to pressure state officials
to sign on to his various schemes
for overturning the election,
everything from throwing out Biden votes
to creating slates of fake electors
to even eating the Constitution really fast
before anyone could look up the election laws.
And one of the people Trump depended on most
in this pressure campaign was Rudy Giuliani,
his personal lawyer
and final boss in a Resident Evil game.
Unfortunately, it seemed like no one wanted to take Rudy's calls.
Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler
received daily voice mails from Trump's lawyers
in the last week of November.
Cutler felt that the outreach was inappropriate
and asked his lawyers to tell Rudy Giuliani to stop calling,
but Giuliani continued to reach out.
I understand that you don't want to talk to me now.
Oh, wow. That's desperate.
Yeah, Rudy made so many unanswered calls,
the iPhone just started labeling him as spam. Yeah.
And not just his calls. His body. It's 90% spam.
And can we acknowledge what a fall this has been? Huh?
This man went from being an American hero
to now sounding like a telemarketer selling a coup.
"If you order now, I'll throw in that chair
"Abraham Lincoln is sitting on. Yeah.
Hello? Hello? Hello?"
And you know, this is just another example
of how historic President Trump really was.
Any other time in U.S. history
if the president's lawyer called someone,
they would take that call.
But when Trump's vampire lawyer called people,
everyone was, like, "Tell him I'm not here!
"Yeah, tell him I went camping, and I died!
"A bear. A bear ate my face.
Tell him I'm not here!"
Also, not that I'm encouraging it, 'cause I'm not,
but if you are going to try and overturn an election,
maybe don't leave voice mails?
(laughter)
It's a paper trail.
Also, it's 2022. Text.
Who leaves voice mails?
You realize how thirsty you're coming off?
(voice breaking): "Hey, it's me again."
(laughter)
Come on, Rudy.
Just hit 'em with a quick late-night,
"You up? For subverting democracy?"
Eggplant emoji, red hat emoji, vampire emoji.
-(laughter) -Come on, Rudy.
(applause and cheering)
Keep up with the times!
All right, but let's move on.
It has now been almost a month
since the tragic school shooting in Uvalde.
And while shootings like this are always traumatic,
this particular one has been made worse
by how the police in Uvalde have responded, right?
They didn't go in, they waited for an hour, and then,
they even stopped parents from trying to save their own kids.
And if that wasn't bad enough, they've been trying
to block information about that day from coming out.
And each time, more information comes out,
we learn why.
NEWSWOMAN: This morning, the first surveillance image
from inside Robb Elementary emerges.
The photo showing multiple police officers
standing inside the building with rifles,
and at least one ballistic shield,
19 minutes after the gunman entered.
This despite school police chief Pete Arredondo's original claim
that the officers weren't properly armed
to take down the gunman at that point.
Officers didn't enter the classroom and kill the shooter
until 58 minutes later.
The state's director of public safety, Steven McCraw,
testifying before lawmakers,
blasting law enforcement's response
as his department's investigation
uncovers new evidence about the massacre.
He says officers were waiting for keys to enter,
but investigators finding the door couldn't be locked
from the inside and saying
that officers never even tried opening it.
Yeah, you know, this story just keeps getting worse and worse.
Every single time we learn something,
it gets worse and worse.
We already knew that they waited far too long
to confront the shooter.
But now, we found out that they lied
about not having enough weapons to go in.
Because it turns out, they had assault rifles,
they had body armor and ballistic shields.
So I'm sorry. What were they waiting for--
the invisible star from Mario? What was that? Huh?
Get the (bleep) in the room!
Like, how did they not go in? You know?
Which is, by the way, another thing that we've learned.
They didn't even try to get in the classroom.
They didn't even try.
They told everyone that they had to wait
for a key because the door was locked,
but the door wasn't locked.
They just never tried to open it?
Which-which is ridiculous. Even people waiting outside,
like, a locked bathroom at Starbucks will jiggle the handle
after two minutes, just to be sure-sure. They'll try.
But it turns out these cops couldn't do, what--
like, what-what the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park
took five minutes to learn-- they couldn't do that?
Just that?
And you know what's insane about this whole story
is how the one time-- the one time it would have been
appropriate to go in guns blazing,
the cops decide to have a picnic outside. Yeah.
But if you're Black or you have a broken taillight--
oh, then, all of a sudden, they go all Rambo on your ass.
"Aah! We're coming in! We're coming in!"
It's another reminder that you-you can't just
trust what the police say.
Like, this is one of the clearest reminders.
Yes, they're police. Yes, you respect them.
But it doesn't mean you just trust
every single thing that they say after an incident.
Journalists shouldn't be reporting what the police said,
they should be investigating what actually happened.
Because time and time again, time and time again,
-(cheering, applause) -we learn that cops in America--
they basically use the same principle as toddlers.
They'll tell the truth,
but only if it doesn't get them in trouble.
"No, Mommy, the cookies tried to eat me. I was just responding.
"And, no, my body camera wasn't working.
Yeah, I turned it off."
All right, finally, let's move on to some lighter news.
A lot of exciting stuff happened this weekend.
Drake dropped a surprise new album.
Beyoncé dropped a new single.
And, not to be outdone,
President Biden had a drop of his own.
A scare for President Biden today
when he fell off his bicycle in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
The 79-year-old was stopping to talk to reporters
when you see there his foot got caught in the pedal guard
as he was dismounting his bike.
He quickly got to his feet.
Later, on his way out of church,
the president repeated that he was doing just fine
and hopped in place several times to prove it.
Oh, President Biden.
That-that's just embarrassing.
He was just standing,
and the bike fell over.
And, you know, it's actually too bad,
because before he fell over,
he was looking kind of good. Yeah.
All of us were like, "Wow, look at him
riding that bike. And he's 80 years old?"
And then he stops and falls, and we're like,
"Oh, yeah.
He's 80 years old. He's 80 years old."
And, you know, it's not just the falling off of the bike
that isn't moving, but it's the fact that he thought that
hopping was gonna reassure Americans
that he's still got it. You know?
That little-- No, 'cause you can see-- you can see,
when he was hopping, in his mind, he looked like Creed.
He was like, "Yeah, look at me go. Look at me go."
When, in fact, his hopping looked like--
You know when someone is trying to escape a kidnapper
who tied their legs together? It was like that.
Now, apparently, the reason he fell is because
his foot got caught in the pedal cage.
And, knowing America, that means that right now
that bicycle is already at Guantanamo Bay.
Who do you work for?!
The Taliban? China? Russia?
Kamala?
Ah, the silent treatment, huh?
Okay, that's how you want to play it?
Well, you better start talking soon,
or by the time I'm done with you,
you'll be a one-speed.
(bell rings)
Don't get smart with me, you asshole!
Still, though,
falling down is always
an embarrassing thing to happen to anyone,
never mind a president.
Which is why former president, Donald Jolly Trump--
he made sure to weigh in.
One of the greatest travesties of all
is to see a person in the White House who,
even after years of political experience,
has absolutely no clue
how to be the president of the United States.
And I hope he has recovered because,
as you know, he fell of his bicycle today.
No, I'm serious. I hope he's okay.
Fell off a bicycle.
I make this pledge to you today:
I will never, ever ride a bicycle.
(laughter and applause)
Every bicycle in the world
breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"He's not gonna ride us, guys.
He's not gonna ride us. Thank God."
All right, that's it for the headlines,
but, before we go to a quick break,
let's check in on the stock market
with our finance expert Michael Kosta, everybody!
(cheering and applause)
-Michael, good to see you again. -Nice to see you.
What's, uh, what's happening in the market today, Mike?
-Well, I am crushing the markets. -Yeah, so you say,
-Mike. -I mean, today I am crushing.
And I got a hot tip.
I got a hot tip for you, I got a hot tip for you,
and I got a hot tip for you, so pay attention.
So, uh, this chart...
Actually before that, President Biden, you know,
falling off a stopped bicycle.
-Yeah. -I mean, he did the hard stuff.
You know, he did the hard stuff.
That'd be like if you were getting ready
to go skydiving, and-and you do the training,
you pack your bag, you pack your parachute,
you get in the airplane, you take off,
you jump out at 30,000 feet, you pull the rip cord,
the parachute opens, you land safely,
you disconnect the parachute from your bag,
you-you take a deep breath,
and you pull out a knife and stab yourself in the head.
-I mean, what? -(laughter)
All right, what's going on in the market, Mike?
-Let's get to the chart. Okay. So... -Thank you.
To the untrained eye
such as yourself and such as yourself,
this looks like a stock chart,
but actually, what this is
is our confidence in President Biden.
Okay, now, this is when he fell off a stopped bicycle, okay?
And it went low.
This scared the hell out of all of us, okay?
Now, these three little dips right here,
that's when he did those, you know, three little jumps.
(laughter and applause)
Is he gonna break his leg?
Is he gonna pull a hamstring?
Is he gonna tear his ACL?
Now, once he got home, sat in a chair,
was surrounded by Secret Service,
the confidence began to rise.
Speaking of rising, tech. (whistles)
Okay? Up big-time.
S&P 500, okay? This is tech if you don't know.
"S&P" stands for "surge and protectors," okay?
And if you want to be successful in tech,
you need at least 500 surge protectors
to be a successful company.
That's why those small businesses
that don't use a lot of electricity
never really seem to make it.
Don't forget, I'm an expert here, Trevor,
-okay? -Oh, yeah. Yeah, so you say.
Yeah, speaking of tech, uh...
And I got a hot tip coming for you. Don't forget.
-Michael, is the tip coming? -No, it's gonna come.
-Just pay... It's gonna come. -All right.
Uh, so, that TikTok story, right?
-The China one. Yeah. -That's wild. Yeah, China.
I mean, what does China think we are as Americans,
just so lazy that all we care about
are followers, you know, and not our own privacy?
A-And it's subjects like that that I talk about
at my TikTok, @MichaelKosta_.
Make sure you give it a follow.
Now, don't forget, that was leaked audio.
-Right. -We know about this
because of TikTok's leaked audio, right?
Audio that I did a lip sync video to
on my TikTok,
which is @MichaelKosta_.
Make sure you follow and like.
Now, look, if you're as outraged about this as I am,
I think we all need to send a message
to the Beijing authorities, okay?
So, here's how we're gonna do that.
Grab your phone and your computer.
Go to http://tiktok.com.
-Oh, no. -Okay?
And you find MichaelKosta_.
Follow me. Go to one of my videos,
leave a message, and we will not be silenced,
and I will let Beijing know that.
Okay, got it. Ready for the hot tip?
-Can we... Yeah, can we... -Ready for the hot tip? Okay.
Instead of trying to get you followers on TikTok,
-let's just get to the... Yes. -I've been giving
a lot of hot tips, and frankly, I'm sick and tired
of giving these hot tips away for free.
So I left mine today on my TikTok page,
-@MichaelKosta_. -Mike...
You won't regret it. Thanks for the follow, Trevor.
Okay, sounds good.
(cheering and applause)
I feel like that was a waste of our time.
All right, don't go away, 'cause when we come back,
Dulcé Sloan will tell us how corporate America
learned to love gay people. You don't want to miss it.
(cheering and applause)
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
June is Pride Month,
or, as it's called in the state of Florida, Shh.
But while you're out there celebrating Pride,
don't forget that some of its biggest supporters
weren't always on its side.
For more, we turn to Dulcé Sloan
for another installment of Dul-sayin'.
♪ ♪
Hello, friends.
It's June, which means it's the first month of the year
where it's just hot enough outside to not be sexy.
But, in America, we know June also means
Gay Pride Month!
So I want to wish everyone a happy Pride.
And I'm not the only one.
This year, it feels like every damn company with a logo
is going full rainbow.
You've probably seen these ads,
like Burger King offering Whoppers with two top buns
and two bottom buns.
Listen, it's still bread,
and every gay man I know is not eating bread in the summer.
They're doing keto and crunches until October.
But don't forget-- companies weren't always jumping
on the Pride float, looking like a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.
When the gay rights movement first began in 1969,
most companies were too afraid to advertise to gay people.
They didn't want to "offend" the rest of America,
especially religious conservatives.
They were so uptight, they thought pretzels were too sexy.
All those twists. Oh, it's so sinful!
So companies kept their distance, except for...
Absolut Vodka.
Absolut was one of the first big companies
to market to the queer community
because those Swedes don't give a shit
about the religious right. They were, like,
"Who cares if the right doesn't like us?
All they drink is milk."
So thanks to Absolut for being a true ally.
♪ ♪
Ooh! That's a good year.
I didn't drink the whole thing because
I got a work meeting after this,
and they say I got to be sober this time.
(exhales) Anyway,
as gay people became more visible in society,
some advertisers slowly started reaching out into the community
until the AIDS epidemic blew up.
That sent companies fleeing for the hills again.
"Oh, no. What if the gays look at our ads?"
Wait. Is that how you get AIDS?
But you know what company doubled down
on their advertising during the AIDS crisis? That's right.
Absolut Vodka!
♪ ♪
Mmm!
(burping)
The second half got a kick.
Damn. All right.
Where was I? Right.
By the 1990s, the queer community had once again
fought its way into greater acceptance.
So brands once again tried to dip their toes
into the pool party, but they were still too nervous
to jump all the way in.
So American advertising entered a phase
now known as "gay vague."
Which sounds a lot like being in a fraternity.
Basically, it was companies hinting
at possible homosexuality.
Like this Volkswagen ad, where two dudes are driving in a car,
and they pick up this dirty-ass chair off the sidewalk.
So the ad leaves it open to interpretation.
Are they roommates? Are they lovers?
Are they roommate-lovers?
Because that's the worst kind of hookup.
You got to wait for them to text you back
and finish up in the bathroom?
Now, a few times during this era, a brand
tried to make an outright gay ad,
like Benetton and Ikea, and the ad completely
won over the religious right
and they apologized for everything.
(laughs) Psych!
One Ikea in Long Island even got a bomb threat.
What is wrong with these religious fanatics?
They know the furniture isn't gay, right?
Plus, if there's one place that can reassemble after a bombing,
it's an Ikea.
Unfortunately for the religious right
but luckily for everyone else, their time was ending.
Over the next two decades, Americans started to realize
that gay people were just the same as everyone else,
except with better ads.
And as popular opinion improved, companies finally
felt it was "safe enough" to take gay money.
And this time, it was major brands.
Amazon started advertising to gay people.
Coca-Cola aired a commercial with two dads
during the Super Bowl,
and Just Salad even had a Big Gay Salad,
which, come on-- that was just a regular salad.
At least toss some glitter in it.
And that brings us to today, when practically every company
does Pride Month marketing.
But just because every June a business acts like they're
auditioning for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,
it doesn't mean their values line up with their tweets.
Take AT&T, for example.
They love to show everyone how much they support pride,
while also giving one million dollars
to anti-LGBTQ politicians and PACs.
Or how retailers like H&M are launching Pride collections
with items made in countries
that criminalize homosexuality,
which is another reason
wearing this ugly-ass top should be a crime.
And they aren't the only hypocrites
donating to anti-queer causes,
but hey, why go through all the trouble
of listing them here?
I'm no hater.
♪ ♪
Oh, and that one, too. Okay.
Are we done? This...
This is making me sad.
The point is enjoy all those gay Whoppers
and pink Toyotas,
but don't forget what this month is about.
Pride is a time to celebrate the right to love who you want
and to honor the people who fought to give us that right
back when no brand was on their side.
Except for Absolut.
Mmm!
You know, one of those gay Whoppers
sounds real good about now.
I'm dizzy.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
Thank you so much for that, Dulcé Sloan.
All right, when we come back, Katy Tur will be joining us
on the show. You don't want to miss it.
(cheering and applause)
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is an award-winning journalist
and MSNBC anchor
who writes about chasing news at an early age
and her pioneering helicopter journalist parents
in her new memoir called Rough Draft.
Please welcome Katy Tur.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
-Welcome back. -Hello! Thank you for having me.
Katy Tur, welcome back to the show.
Thank you so much for having me. It's exciting to be here.
It is-- It's exciting to have you because, you know,
your last book went on to become a New York Times bestseller.
-Congratulations on that. -Thank you. Thank you. -(hooting)
-(laughs) -(cheering and applause)
I feel like this book has-has the same in store
and I think for a slightly different reason.
You know, many people have seen you on MSNBC.
People have seen you on the campaign trail
covering Donald Trump and, you know,
changing what you do on your show these days.
But this book takes us through
-one of the most harrowing childhoods... -(laughs)
...that's filled with, you know, moments of joy,
moments of pain,
-moments of terror, really. -Yeah.
And I think let's-let's start at the beginning to situate people.
Everyone talks about helicopter parents,
but y-you mean actual helicopter parents when you...
-(stammers) -No, no, and I mean-- Everyone goes,
"Oh, h-he..." No, you had helicopter parents.
Just explain that for the people
-to understand, please. -My parents--
-My dad was a helicopter pilot. -Right.
-And my parents had a helicopter news-gathering company. -Mm-hmm.
And I grew up in the helicopter.
I spent more time in the helicopter
than I did in my own bed.
I would fly the helicopter alongside my dad.
I developed an unhealthy obsession
with backyard pools,
because, in Los Angeles,
everybody had a backyard pool, it seemed, except me.
And you were just the person in the helicopter.
(stammers) You know, what's interesting about your story is,
in many ways, I feel like it tracks news in America.
You know, where you were as a child,
you were at what many would argue
was the beginning of the 20-h-- 24-hour news cycle.
-Yeah. Yeah. -The O.J. chase-- that was your dad.
-And my mom, yeah. -Right. Following that-that, you know?
And then your mom is there. Everyone's working.
-The cameras... -My mom is hanging out
of the helicopter with a camera on her shoulder,
quite literally, just strapped in with a belt,
looking down at the ground,
which is 1,500 feet below her.
The O.J. chase, they-they were the first ones to get that.
The Reginald Denny beating during the riots,
the L.A. Riots, the guy that got pulled out of the red truck
and beaten to within an inch of his life.
Any police pursuit you saw in Los Angeles in the '90s
and the late '80s...
Madonna giving the camera the bird
-on her wedding day to Sean Penn? -It's wild.
-My parents shot that. -(laughter)
-(applause) -It feels like, in many ways,
that was the, um...
I don't want to say, like, your parents invented that,
but that was sort of their style.
You know, that was a thing that became synonymous with...
So they did... Well, they did sort of invent it, actually.
So, they were... If they didn't cover
-the very first police pursuit, it was the second. -Yes.
And they were the ones that popularized it.
They were the ones that changed the way news was covered
in Los Angeles, and then, the country,
and then, you could argue, the world.
It was breaking, in the moment, and it was now, now, now.
-Yes. -No context needed, blow out everything,
and cover this for as long as we can.
-You know, it was an easy decision going forward. -Mm-hmm.
Whatever was happening, it didn't matter.
If there was a chase going on, go to that chase.
-People will watch. -It feels like
there's one part of us that's, like, eternally grateful
to your parents for, you know, starting this trend,
and "Oh, we get to see what's happening."
On the other hand, it feels like
this became the drug that news became addicted to.
It is a double-edged sword 'cause they captured things
that you were not supposed to see.
They captured the police brutally beating immigrants
on the side of the highway.
I mean, stuff that the police would have gotten away with
-had my parents not been there. -Exactly. Right.
So, they did some incredible things,
and they won all the awards that there are to win, but they...
You could say, arguably, that they were responsible
for the downfall of local news,
maybe the downfall of national news,
-the addiction to reality TV as news. -Yes.
And I do think you could draw a straight line
from the way we covered pursuits back then
to the way we covered Donald Trump in 2016,
and the way we cover politics now.
Yeah, it seems like it's all about the now,
it's all about what's unfolding.
-Nobody takes time anymore... -Don't digest it.
-Yes. -Just put it on the air.
Do you ever feel pressure as a journalist to be in that space?
Because you're on MSNBC, it is 24 hours,
everything is happening live. How do you...?
How do you find that balance
between waiting for more information
whilst also telling the people what's happening?
I think we're learning in real time right now,
and I do think we are learning from our mistakes.
Um, I write about in this book the Barr summary,
uh, you know, when A.G. Barr came out,
and he gave the summary
-of the Mueller Report, which was... -Yes.
Ended up being weeks before the Mueller Report came out.
And so, he gives us the summary on a Sunday,
-and it is misleading, as we know right now. -Right.
It didn't have any of the underlying evidence.
But because we were covering it live, live, live,
we went to air with it, and essentially became a pawn
in a political document
that then had a head start for the truth,
in front of the truth for weeks.
The problem that we face right now is that
there's a part of the country that has demonized journalists
-Yes. -and has said that we only report one thing,
we only want the outcome to be a certain way.
So, say we didn't go up with the Barr report
and other people did-- Fox News did,
or other outlets on the right, Breitbart, etcetera--
and we didn't and we said "We're gonna wait until
we get the full context of it," they would have used that
as fodder to say, "Hey, listen, we're not gonna
report on something that was good for Donald Trump."
Right, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.
There's another part of the book that I-I feel is
particularly pertinent, not just because of the month we're in,
not just because of the time we're in, but because of,
I think, life and relationships as a whole,
and it's about you talking about your relationship
with your father, who transitioned
and came out as transgender.
I don't think I've-I've read an account from a person
that is as personal as-as yours is.
Because you talk about being raised by a father who was,
you know, suff-- struggled with rage, just like,
real anger towards you, it was an abusive household to be in,
you were terrified as a child,
and then you have this moment where your dad says,
"Hey, no, I'm now 'she' and call me Hannah,"
and it becomes this whole journey
and then asks you to throw away the old memories
of another person and just live with somebody new.
It's a-it's a very, like, layered question,
but what do you think we can all learn
or what-- how did you navigate what has to be
one to have the most confusing issues
-happening in society today? -It was
very confusing in the moment. And the--
What made it confusing is that, um, life is complicated.
And-and childhoods are complicated.
And mine was especially complicated
for distinct reasons.
I loved my childhood.
It was so much fun, and there was so much love
within my family,
but it was also incredibly scary at times.
My dad, as you said, would fly into rages.
Uh, there would be holes in the walls of our house
that we, as little kids,
would plaster over to cover up.
Um, you know, I hid in the bathroom one time for hours
because I was afraid of what my dad might do.
Um, he threw things at my mother.
And then, when he called me-- and I use "he"
very specifically, because in that moment
-Right, right. -my dad was still "he" to me--
when he called to say, "I'm not a he, I'm a she.
My name is not Bob Tur. Bob Tur is dead."
Literally, "Bob Tur is dead" is what he said.
Um, "I'm Hannah, and we can throw away
"everything that happened in the past. All of that is gone.
That's where the rage came from. The rage will now be gone."
I had a hard time with that.
And it-it-- Because of the-- of the content
-of what my dad was telling me, -Mm-hmm.
and the fact that my dad had been living this lie
for so long, it made it even harder to-to navigate
because, on the one hand,
-how awful for my dad. -Right.
How horrible to have to live a lie for that long
and to not be your true self.
And-and of course that's gonna make you a wound up person,
and it's gonna... it's gonna break you in some ways.
But you were also my father,
and you were also somebody who has done
a lot of bad things to us
and me, my mother,
and I can't just throw that away.
-Right. -I-I don't have the ability
to just forget those memories.
And I tried to bring that up,
and it just didn't go well. It didn't go well.
My dad didn't want to confront it,
and I didn't want to let it go, and so now...
Now we're estranged, and it sucks.
I think what I appreciated most about it
was it took an issue
that many people are trying
to, uh, turn into this homogenous blob,
and it showed us how many individuals
are involved in all the stories.
You know, people talk about trans people
as if it is one human being that is doing certain things
or they talk about gay people as if...
And this showed you there are many stories,
there are many people, there are many complications...
-People are people. -People are people.
-Yeah. -Yeah. It's a really fascinating book.
Um, you-you shared so much.
I think everybody's really gonna love reading it
for journalism, for life, for families, for everything.
Thank you so much for joining me on the show.
-Thank you so much. -I appreciate you.
Katy Tur's memoir Rough Draft is available now,
and be sure to watch Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC.
We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
(cheering and applause)
Well, that's our show for tonight, but before we go,
before we go, please consider donating
to the National Black Justice Coalition.
Since 2003, they have been
America's leading national civil rights organization
advocating for federal policies
that fight against racism and homophobia.
So, if you can, please donate at the link below
to help them reach their vision of a world
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Until tomorrow, stay safe out there.
And remember, if you're on TikTok,
dance like China's watching.
Now here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
Have you ever seen a president
who refuses to accept blame
and, I want to add to that,
commits so many falsehoods?
I'm being very polite here calling it falsehoods.
Falsehoods.
You know, on any given day,
he's out there saying stuff that just ain't true.
You ever seen anything like that?
Never in my lifetime.
♪ ♪