- Donald Trump has figured out a really powerful
and strange thing about American media and news,
and that is, if you exist without any shame,
it doesn't become a scandal in the same way.
(audience members chuckle)
I don't know how to explain it, but it's really powerful.
Look at the Joe Biden-Hunter Biden thing, right?
As far as we know to this point, everyone has investigated.
Journalists have gone to,
they've said there's nothing improper here.
It's not a great look that they hired Hunter Biden,
but companies do this all the time.
They hire people for the optics, you know what I mean?
Netflix has ex-Obama people
that didn't know anything about TV,
but it's what boards do all the time,
but that's what they've investigated.
But Trump has a brilliant technique
of turning a conspiracy theory into a sort of fact,
but then he's great at turning his facts
into sort of conspiracy theories.
It's a really powerful thing.
Like with Obama, he's like, I don't know.
People are saying Kenya.
Maybe Kenya, maybe Kenya, maybe Ken.
And then one day the news was like, was Obama born in Ken...
And then you're like, how did this happen?
(audience laughs)
And then there's enough people a home who watch it,
and they go like, I've heard that he was born in...
And then you're like, where did you hear this?
They're like, I don't know, it was on the news.
And you don't realize how quickly you can shift
the Overton window, like, what people are talking about
or thinking is normal just by the news covering it.
And then he does the flip with the things he does.
So they'll be like, we found Trump did this wrong,
and he's like, I don't know who said, that's fake.
(audience laughs) That's completely fake.
And then on the news, they'd be like,
Donald Trump says it's fake, but they don't correct him.
They just say he said it's fake,
and then people at home are like, oh, it's fake.
And it's just, it's a brilliant technique,
and I promise you, I don't care who the nominee is,
watch it for this race.
It's going to be Donald Trump's scandals
and controversies are out in the open,
and he won't have to answer for them,
and whoever's running against him,
they're gonna nitpick every tiny little thing.
You ran a stop sign in 2014.
(gasps, stammers)
And then the Democratic candidate's gonna be like,
(whining) yeah, but I'm sorry, I wanna apologize.
It's like, why are you apologizing?
Trump's like, you should've never done it.
(audience laughs)
Never done it.
(The Daily Show theme music plays)