We are joined by Jon Stewart himself.
But who else would it be Fareed?
It's nice to see you.
I love your aquarium.
Thank you.
Exactly.
Yes, we can go swimming afterwar
So I got to ask you,
it's a big thing in the news.
Donald Trump indictment there ar
I know know.
Just stay with me for a minute.
There are people
watching the live cameras
at the courthouse. It's imminent
Breathless speculation
So there are people who say,
yes, you have to indict him beca
he has, in fact, broken the laws
And there are other people who s
this is going to turn him into a
This is his path for redemption.
How do you think about, oh, I
the law should always take into
someone's popularity.
I think that's that's
I mean, what
what's happened to our country f
It's as though you can't even co
financial fraud anymore.
You can't
you can't inflate the value
of your properties.
When you need a loan and then de
with taxes.
I mean, the next thing you know,
they're going to send you to jai
instead of your lawyer
and your accountant
and your campaign manager
and everyone else around you.
It's no to the idea
that someone may face accountabi
Who's that, rich? And powerful.
Is outrageous.
And this country shouldn't stand
But. But what if it
if what if it turns out to be hi
get out of jail free pass.
It's his path through.
People will see him as a martyr.
He gets he.
Okay.
I agree with that.
He is going to become president
He could become president.
Anyway, Fareed,
we either have the rule of law
or we have no rule of law.
The rule of law
does not take into account
if that might make you a martyr
to somebody.
I'd much rather have the convers
what is the law?
What exactly are we saying that
His lawyer went to jail
for this same situation
for a couple of years.
So what is the crime?
Is it a crime?
The reason people who say it's
selective prosecution that this
everything is selective prosecut
The reason why Donald Trump
became popular in the first plac
and the reason
why these populist movements
is that the citizenry have becom
with the lack of accountability
for those in power.
We have no accountability
in our financial systems.
We have no accountability
for the bankers.
I mean, our Congress
trade stocks
with information they get making
and they do it to great success.
And they won't stop it
because they're the ones in char
of making the law about it.
And instead
of bringing accountability
to the rampant corruption
that is
surrounds our government
and our financial systems.
The Supreme Court
just changed the definition
of corruption.
Rather than prosecuting it,
rather than holding people accou
They just want How about this?
How about, okay,
why don't we just say this is
you invented that.
That was they said you politicia
you think that's corruption
because you're engaging it.
But we actually don't think it's
And we're going to tell you,
don't worry about it.
You can influence pedal
as long as you don't explicitly
By the way,
this money
is so that I may influence
this law specifically.
And you have to lay out like tha
what has the lack of confidence
that people have in the system i
and you even see it throughout t
even that conversation.
Should we should we not?
It's all buddies popular.
And then
it might make him more popular
but not less popular.
Did he do something wrong?
What was it?
Explain that to us.
What is the law
that he supposedly violated?
What are the ramifications of it
I don't see him ever
actually going to jail.
I personally don't even care.
I just want a system
that somehow
finds a consistent accountabilit
So in many ways, you, at least f
you created
or defined American political sa
How has that changed?
It feels to me like the
the stuff you did,
you know, the the showing, the v
and then commenting.
It's become it's everybody does
And it's not even it's not even
I mean, that's what Tucker Carls
when he wants to make his boss.
Sure. He's he's borrowing from y
Playbook. Yes.
No, it's it's a real delight kno
it's always good to
arm the most cynical
and worst people in media.
But do you look at it and say,
now this whole thing is commodit
You Well, it was listen,
it was commoditized.
You know, I wasn't doing it
out of gracious altruism.
I mean, we were selling Budweise
It's always been commoditized.
It was I think it's
you know, there's a lot of talk
So exposing absurdity
or exposing hypocrisy. What's th
The point is, is that
this is a relentless fight.
They always talk about,
you know, the
the arc of the moral universe is
but it bends towards justice,
but it doesn't bend towards
justice by gravity.
Like, you have to bend it.
And there's a bunch of people
trying to bend it back.
And you use every tool in your a
and none of them will be
you know,
the one thing there is no panace
It takes, you know,
all those different things
doing in Washington over
these past few years
gave me a grade understanding
of how things actually get done
incrementally and
and sometimes in one fell swoop.
But our country is held together
by hundreds of really talented
legislative aides.
Their bosses many times
are wind up dolls who really don
I mean, half of it, if you go do
especially the Senate,
is like an assisted living facil
like the intramural sports
at the Senate game.
So, you know,
it's held
together by these legislative ai
that are relentlessly trying
to do the right thing
and by the thousands
of grassroots activists
that are trying to get access.
And they're blocked by a moat
of lobbyists and moneyed interes
that prevent
the people in that building
from doing the work that best be
all the people outside of that b
And that's the process.
So you have to use every tool.
You have to permeate that force
But presumably the people there
who are Republicans,
who are conservative Republicans
those aides
think they're doing the right th
and they're trying to get across
but they're doing it.
They're honest.
Look,
if you can find honest
brokers down there,
you can work with them.
What I'm saying
is that forcefield around
it is made up of not honest brok
its moneyed interests, its lobby
It's people
who are weaponizing misinformati
and disinformation
and all of those form of this.
It's the most cloistered univers
you found.
You could deal
with very conservative Republica
but because there was some way
to find common ground,
people of good faith.
Now, there were huge
disagreements about certain thin
But when you found someone of go
you could always get something d