- For me, I feel like there is a larger narrative
that goes beyond him being on the Supreme Court
for a lifetime,
and that is the conversation and the journey
that Trump in particular has started around this.
You know, because I don't know if you saw that rally
that he hosted where he came out and he mocked
Dr. Ford. (audience chattering)
I don't know if you saw the little press conference-y moment
he gave outside the White House where he talked about men,
and he said, you know,
it's a really scary time to be a man right now.
Really scary time for men.
Worst time ever to be a man.
And then someone asked, you know what he said,
you can be accused of something you didn't do
and your life is over.
That's it, your life is over.
And then they asked him later, they said,
what about, what about women, what is it for them?
And he was like, it's a great, women are doing great.
(audience chuckles)
And, you know what I realized in that moment?
Just looking at the sentiment and the message
that Trump was conveying, it's a really powerful thing
that I think people take for granted
and that is, for me personally, I find
Trump's most powerful tool
is that he knows how to wield victimhood.
He knows how to offer victimhood
to people who have the least claim to it.
Which is a really, really powerful tool.
'Cause you realize what he's doing in that moment
is he's saying the real victims
of the Me Too movement are men.
They're the real victims.
Someone could accuse you at any time
and your life is over, they're the real victims.
And you know if you're against Trump completely
or if you see through it, you go like oh, that's nothing,
but I think people take for granted
how powerful that message was.
There are a lot of men who that message will connect with
because that's a feeling that many men have.
There's many men who will be afraid to admit it maybe,
but there's many men who do have that feeling
where they're like, yeah, I mean,
this Me Too movement, it's gotten outta control!
You know, and at any time,
someone can come out and accuse me and...
And I always go to people I'm like,
what do you mean it's gotten out of control?
What does that mean?
You know, and they'll be like,
well, every week it's a new famous person has been accused
and it's, it's, it's out of control!
I'm like, we look through it, it's maybe what,
a hundred and something people?
That's how many people have, have been Me Too'd?
That's how many people have been held accountable?
A hundred and something?
That's not like a life changing number of men.
Do you know what I mean?
They make it sound like all men have been accused.
All right?
But 99.9% of men have not been accused.
It's just the narrative that has been created
that is like oh, these 100 men represent all the men
and all men should be afraid of that.
But that hundred men, you could fill a hundred men
into a comedy club.
And then Louis C.K. could come and surprise them,
that's how few that number is. (audience laughing)
Like, it's not that many people.
But they make it feel like it's a lot of people
because then what they do is they create an idea
that all men need to band together
to stop this from happening because it could happen to you.
All right?
And then men become the victims.
And it's such a powerful tool to use.
Because if you can convince men
that they are the true victims of the Me Too movement,
you get men to fight against a movement that's really about
holding men who are doing bad things accountable,
as opposed to making all men scapegoats
for something that they're not doing.
But it's, do you get what I'm saying, it's like a...
It's such a, (audience agreeing)
it's such a powerful, gripping idea that,
that Trump does really well.
Because when you think about it, you go,
I know that people would be like,
but what about, I've seen men who've been falsely accused.
And I go yeah, but how many?
Or let me ask it to you this way.
How many men, percentage-wise,
have been falsely accused of a sexual assault?
And how many women have actually been sexually assaulted?
(audience murmuring)
You know what I mean?
I, I, I'm willing to bet in this room as we sit here now,
if I said to the men,
how many have been accused of sexual assault,
there probably would be nobody in this room who has.
But if I said to the women in this room,
raise your hand if you've been catcalled,
or your ass has been grabbed,
or a guy's made a lewd comment at work
or somebody has made you feel unsafe sexually in some way,
or you've actually been sexually assaulted,
I regret to say that there would probably be many hands
that would go up in the room.
But we have now been told that the ratio is like,
oh no, it's more men, it's many men.
But it's, the truth is, it's women.
Women are the victims in this situation.
It doesn't mean you gotta be feeling sorry for women,
but it's like, no but, the women are the victims
and that's what we're trying to fix.
But Trump has managed to turn that
and he's turned it with everybody.
He goes, the real victims in this story is,
is not the kids in the cages, it's you.
It's you who they're coming to take your place.
You know, the real victim isn't the refugee from Syria,
it's you who's gonna get blown up by a terrorist bomb,
that's the real victim in this story.
I saw the same thing in South Africa.
We had apartheid.
At the end of apartheid, the county was changing.
And then you had tons of white people who were like,
oh, I'm afraid now, what's, what's gonna happen to me, huh?
I, the black people are gonna eat us!
(audience laughing)
We're in danger!
They're gonna come for us, oh my God,
I'm the real victim, I'm the real victim!
It's like well when, wait, how did you go from being
the person in power to becoming the victim overnight?
And it's a powerful people that,
you know there's a powerful tool that people use repeatedly,
like over and over, it's like it's a,
it's a tool that Trump wields.
He's doing it with men.
He's done it with white people in America.
He's done it with Kavanaugh now.
The guy is heading to the Supreme Court.
But he's making it like, this poor man.
Look at him, this poor man.
What's the worst that could happen to Brett Kavanaugh?
What's the worst thing that could happen
is he'd go back to being a federal judge
on one of the most important courts in the land.
That's what he goes down to if he fails.
What's the worst thing that happens to Dr. Ford?
She get mocked by the President of the United States.
For coming forward with a story about sexual assault,
which by the way was the one thing she said
she definitely remembered from that night.
She said I remember the boys laughing at me.
That's what she said.
And people go, why don't women come forward?
Because when you do, the President of the United States
will use you as a punchline in front of a crowd.
And people always go like yeah, but women have an incentive.
They're doing it for the, for the fame.
What are the names of Cosby's accusers?
(crowd murmuring)
Where's the money, what money did they get?
What fame, do they have reality shows?
Where are these people, do you even know them?
Would you recognize them in the street?
What fame did they get?
Ford is gonna come and go.
Kavanaugh is here forever.
And people make it seem like there's some incentive.
And I, that's why I say what Trump is saying
about victimhood is so powerful
because I know that even with myself,
I have to combat the feeling that I as a man have
because I go, what if I get falsely accused?
Then I go like yeah, but you've been tricked,
you're not gonna get falsely accused, like it's,
it's not happening as rampantly as people make it out to be.
But if you can convince people that they are, in fact,
the victims when they're, from a position of power,
you have the most powerful tool that you can wield.
And the irony is, often times,
those people who are in those positions
want the people who are genuinely the closest to victimhood
to relinquish their victimhood to join their team.
You know, so if you're a woman that rolls
with Trump and the Republicans, you gotta be like,
I've had my ass grabbed, and you know what?
It doesn't matter, you've gotta move past it
'cause I'm not a victim.
If you wanna be a black person rolling with Trump,
you gotta be like, black people aren't oppressed.
That's right. (audience laughing)
I'm free! (audience laughing)
That's right, I wear a MAGA hat and I release hits.
I'm free!
(audience laughing and clapping)
You gotta act like it's not happening.
(audience cheering and clapping)
And it's a scary powerful tool that people take for granted.
People felt because of Trump
like they were losing their country.
They felt like America was losing.
And feeling is oftentimes more powerful
that what's actually happening.
And that's a thing that I think
people take for granted with Donald Trump.
For me, it's his greatest gift, it's his greatest danger.
And I, like I'm heartbroken at what happened to Dr. Ford.
Not because it, you know, it didn't go the way
I would have maybe wanted it to, but rather because
her life and her image, her as a human being
has been trodden on and destroyed
by the President of the United States
as he goes from rally to rally and people are like,
yeah, it's a partisan thing.
You're like, well, you know, kudos to you, Trump.
One of the richest people in the world and he's like,
we're losing folks, the game is rigged.
Then it's like, how are you losing, Trump?
You're a billionaire, you were a billionaire
when you were eight years old, how you losing?
(audience laughs)
How, how are you losing?
I, I just feel it.
(audience laughing)
I just feel it.
(The Daily Show theme music)