Reverend slash Senator Raphael Warnock,
welcome to The Daily Show.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to, I'm going to jump straight into it,
and I know-- - Welcome to Atlanta.
--I know so many, welcome, thank you so much.
You know, no one has welcomed me back?
You're the first person.
You see, this is why you're Reverend.
I like that.
Um, first things first.
This is turning into a race that is way closer than
people anticipated.
It is turning into a race that has
become a lot more national than many people anticipated.
And what's been surprising is seeing how little of the news
is actually about what you're doing wrong.
It's just about what the other candidate is saying,
which seems crazy.
And, and yet, it seems closer than it should be.
So I'd love to start with that.
Why do you think Georgia or Georgian voters or the polls
are showing that Georgian voters are so close, when it
seems like most people would say the two of you
are so far apart?
Well, I agree with the last part of what you just said.
[laughs]
Wow.
The differences between the options that Georgians have
right now are wide and deep.
And look, the reality is, we always knew
this would be a close race.
Mm-hmm
And I think that speaks to where the country is
and where people are.
But I think when you look close,
and you don't have to look that close,
you can see that Georgians have a clear choice
I think about who's ready and who's fit to serve--
[cheering]
--To represent them in the United States Senate.
And I believe that at the end of the day,
Georgians are going to get it right.
Let's talk about what many what many Georgians may feel
is going wrong.
There are many who are saying, we need change.
And as we've seen multiple times in American politics,
it's all about what people's pockets feel like.
It's all about what their gas tank
looks like, that determines a lot of how they vote.
There are many Georgians have said,
I love you, Senator, I love what you're doing
and what you represent, but I feel like in this moment,
the Republicans are promising something
that is better or different.
How would you respond to the people who say that to you?
Well, in my case, my opponent hasn't promised a thing.
I mean, think about it.
I mean that.
And I'm not being flippant.
I want you to think, what has he actually promised to do?
Nothing!
So, look, there's no question that these are tough times
and people are feeling the pain and the pinch.
We've been through over two years of a pandemic.
And now that the economy has opened up,
we're seeing these rising costs, supply chain issues
related to the pandemic.
We're seeing rising prices, by the way, globally.
Right.
Driven by the war in Ukraine.
And on top of that, you've got bad actors
in the corporate space who are literally exploiting
a pandemic while we.
While we are paying record prices
at the pump, at the pharmaceutical counter,
at the grocery store, they are literally
experiencing record profits.
Right.
And so the question is, who's going
to do something about it?
Who cares about ordinary people?
And I--
[applause]
--Take this job very seriously.
It's a real honor for your neighbors to say,
we want you to represent us in high office.
And so that's the reason why I cap the cost of insulin
to no more than $35 of out-of-pocket cost.
That's the reason I cap the cost of prescription drugs,
so women and men like my 84-year-old mother,
wouldn't have to choose between buying the medicine they need
and the groceries they need.
That's why I remain focused on the people.
And when I talked the other night
about capping the cost of insulin and the fact
that corporations are gouging insulin, a 100-year-old drug,
my opponent said, people just need to eat right.
So, I mean, those were his words.
Right.
And as a pastor, I have encouraged healthy living,
but that doesn't explain why the corporations
are engaged in price gouging.
And you can eat right and still have diabetes.
Right, right.
So, so here's my recommendation.
I think Herschel Walker should be the dietician
and I'll serve in the United States Senate.
Let's talk a little bit as well
about how you work as well.
I have found it particularly interesting
that even in your campaign ads in Georgia,
you've gone out of your way to talk about Republicans who you
have worked with, which to many people,
would seem like suicide.
You say, I've worked with Ted Cruz,
I worked with Marco Rubio.
Now, most people don't even admit that they know Ted Cruz.
And yet, here you are, here you are saying,
no, I worked with Ted Cruz, I worked with Marco Rubio.
You've made an effort of talking about reaching
across the aisle and working with other lawmakers
to get things done.
It seems like that is dwindling in American politics.
As you said, people are retreating to their corners
and saying, this is where I stand.
I work with no one else.
Do you not worry about alienating some who say, oh,
how can you reach across the aisle?
Or why is it that you choose to particularly include
that in your own campaign ad?
I mean, it's your ad.
Why include Ted Cruz's name?
Why put Marco Rubio's name in it?
Yeah, I'm the 18th most bipartisan Senator
in the Senate based, according to the Lugar Center.
I'm the 18th.
And that's a little bit of an achievement,
because out of 100 Senators.
Wow.
--I'm 100.
I'm the most junior Senator in the Senate
and I've been able to convince people to work with me
to pull people together.
And so, yeah, I will be honest.
Ted Cruz and I are both on the Commerce Committee.
Most of the time when he's talking,
I'm sitting there thinking to myself, really?
Like, you put on a suit and a tie to come here to do that?
So that's usually what I'm thinking.
But, but when it came time to name I-14 a priority corridor
in Georgia, an interstate that would run through Texas
and also through Georgia, would connect our military bases,
would revitalize a lot of our rural areas
that have been suffering all throughout Georgia,
I didn't mind working with Ted Cruz to do that.
If we can build out the highway,
nobody cares if you're a Democrat or a Republican,
you get to use the highway.
So what I've endeavored to do is not
to be a Senator who used to be a pastor,
but a pastor in the Senate.
Which is why I returned to my pulpit.
I preach here every Sunday.
And you continue to do the important work.
So I hope the people of Georgia give me six more years to keep
doing this work, because--
[cheering]
Well, if the cheering is anything to go by,
there's a good chance it might happen.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show.
Always a pleasure having you.
Senator Raphael Warnock, everybody.