Welcome back to the show.
If there's one thing we've learned
about this vintage leather handbag,
it's that he has the full support of one important group.
Who you voting for?
- Donald Trump. - Who you voting for?
- Donald Trump. - Donald Trump
That's right, the working class,
that homogeneous group of white male coal miners,
white male factory workers, and the rest of the all-white
male Village People.
Who are these working-class Americans?
Why do they love Trump?
And why do they look exactly the same?
I decided to find out.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): I traveled to Western
Pennsylvania to make a heart-wrenching
piece about the struggles of the Rust Belt's racist--
I mean, sorry-- economically anxious, white working class.
First stop, a local bar to interview
some salt of the earth working-class heroes.
OK, reporter, reporter, ugh, they're already taken.
Oh, there's a good one.
Goddamit.
So I asked my producers to find me some working-class people
that no one was talking to.
Hold up.
Hi.
I'm here to talk to a panel of working-class people.
Do you know where they are?
- That would be us. - Us.
That's us.
OK.
All right.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): Uh, this is not
the interview I prepped for.
SAMANTHA BEE: OK, first question,
why did you vote for Trump?
- Derp. - Eh.
- Uh-uh. - Uh-uh.
I didn't vote for him. SAMANTHA BEE: OK.
And no coal miners?
That's all you hear about is the coal miners.
There's cooks.
There's nurses.
And they're not all white.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): Is she saying the working class
isn't just for white people?
It's Puerto Ricans.
INTERVIEWEE 1: Mhm.
African American, Mexican, but nobody wants to see that.
All they want to see is a white person
with a white man, a white woman and white little children.
But his name is Jimmy, and he wears a hard hat and overalls.
And I wear a hard hat and overalls--
There you go.
--and steel-toe shoes and safety
glasses and working gloves.
That's right.
I am the new Jimmy.
We are all the new Jimmys.
- We are all the new Jimmys. - Yes.
Yeah.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): And they had all sorts of jobs,
like Jimmy the steelworker, and Jimmy the security guard,
and Jimmy the vegan chef.
In fact, minorities will be the majority
of the working class by 2032.
Yet, no one seems to be talking to them.
So what stories are we not hearing?
I don't know how many nights, like, I go to bed a little
stressed out, thinking, like, oh my god, I have this
and that to pay for the month.
Being a single parent, my paychecks
don't stretch that far.
I feel like you're saying that you
have actual economic anxiety.
Exactly.
Yeah, a little.
It's not just like a code word for "I'm afraid of people
from other countries." - No.
Not at all.
Got it, OK.
Honestly-- can I say honestly?
Yes.
INTERVIEWEE 2: When it comes to the working-class people,
we don't have a life.
Our life is to make sure that we show up at work
and take care of what we need to take care of.
That is true.
Because it came to a point that my youngest
daughter, one day, came out and said, Mom, give me a picture.
I'm, like, why?
She goes, so I can know what you look like every day,
because we barely see each other.
INTERVIEWEE 3: Mhm.
INTERVIEWEE 4: Right.
A lot of times, I have one white gentleman
who's a supervisor on my left.
And generally, there's another white gentleman on my right.
But once the representative comes in,
he'll make conversation with the supervisor
or the table operator.
And I'm the one that he should be talking to.
They don't speak to you.
That's right.
Do you ever think about throwing any of those gentlemen
into a pool of hot, molten steel?
[LAUGHTER]
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): Why were they feeling so forgotten?
The president is constantly fluffing the working class.
(FUNNY VOICE) Toot, toot, toot.
Is Donald Trump talking about you when he
talks about the working class?
He's not talking about my interests,
my concerns, my health care.
But Donald Trump is a champion of the little man.
He keeps his foot down on the little man.
Let that foot up, and let us rise up a little bit.
INTERVIEWEE 2: He went to Puerto Rico
not too long ago to throw paper towels at people.
Well, to be fair, it was very wet there.
[LAUGHTER]
What would it mean if a political party or a politician
actually listened to you?
I don't know if we can count on them to come in and save us?
I think we need to save ourselves.
And it comes down to us running for office.
We need to encourage our coworkers, people on the level
of us to step up and run.
INTERVIEWEE 4: Right.
I think the best representation of us is us.
Us.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): But with our politicians and media
romanticizing one very specific, very white story over and over,
could the minority working class ever get their due?
SAMANTHA BEE: Do you think they'll write think pieces
about working-class robots before they
write about working-class black women?
Yes.
It's a possibility, yeah.
Right, right, right.
What's it going to take for people to hear your voices?
They don't want to know what we go through.
Why?
Because if they do, they will have to do something about it.
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): But I knew
one way to tell their story that people couldn't resist.
Could we make a great song?
And then maybe people will listen.
[LAUGHTER]
Look, look, we were (SINGING) born in the USA,
trying to fight to get our way.
INTERVIEWEE 2: There you go. - Yeah.
[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
SAMANTHA BEE (VOICEOVER): And since Bruce Springsteen
is still reeling from the great microphone shortage of 1984,
we took matters into our own hands
with a song for the forgotten, forgotten working-class hero.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) I see you across the bar with that same old story,
coal miners talking about their West Virginia plights.
Baby, I see you pining for that old working-class glory.
Come on, darling media, don't be blinded by the whites.
Working class don't just cover white dudes.
Working class, your story has got
to include working-class people who clamp your wires
and change your tires and work the fryers.
They're working class.
Install the glass and pump the gas and wipe your baby's ass--
they're working class.
Woo!
[APPLAUSE]
WOMAN: Hey, get back to work!
We'll be right back.
[THEME MUSIC]