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.Thank you.Exactly.Yes, we can go swimming afterwarSo I got to ask you,it's a big thing in the news.Donald Trump indictment there arI know know.Just stay with me for a minute.There are peoplewatching the live camerasat the courthouse. It's imminentBreathless speculationSo there are people who say,yes, you have to indict him becahe has, in fact, broken the lawsAnd there are other people who sthis is going to turn him into aThis is his path for redemption.How do you think about, oh, Ithe law should always take into someone's popularity.I think that's that'sI mean, whatwhat's happened to our country fIt's as though you can't even cofinancial fraud anymore.You can'tyou can't inflate the valueof your properties.When you need a loan and then dewith taxes.I mean, the next thing you know,they're going to send you to jaiinstead of your lawyerand your accountantand your campaign managerand everyone else around you.It's no to the ideathat someone may face accountabiWho's that, rich? And powerful.Is outrageous.And this country shouldn't standBut.But what if itif what if it turns out to be higet 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 lawor we have no rule of law.The rule of lawdoes not take into accountif that might make you a martyrto somebody.I'd much rather have the converswhat is the law?What exactly are we saying that His lawyer went to jailfor this same situationfor a couple of years.So what is the crime?Is it a crime?The reason people who say it'sselective prosecution that this everything is selective prosecutThe reason why Donald Trumpbecame popular in the first placand the reasonwhy these populist movementsis that the citizenry have becomwith the lack of accountabilityfor those in power.We have no accountabilityin our financial systems.We have no accountabilityfor the bankers.I mean, our Congresstrade stockswith information they get makingand they do it to great success.And they won't stop itbecause they're the ones in charof making the law about it.And insteadof bringing accountabilityto the rampant corruptionthat issurrounds our governmentand our financial systems.The Supreme Courtjust changed the definitionof corruption.Rather than prosecuting it,rather than holding people accouThey just want How about this?How about, okay,why don't we just say this isyou invented that.That was they said you politiciayou think that's corruptionbecause you're engaging it.But we actually don't think it'sAnd we're going to tell you,don't worry about it.You can influence pedalas long as you don't explicitly By the way,this moneyis so that I may influencethis law specifically.And you have to lay out like thawhat has the lack of confidencethat people have in the system iand you even see it throughout teven that conversation.Should we should we not?It's all buddies popular.And thenit might make him more popularbut not less popular.Did he do something wrong?What was it?Explain that to us.What is the lawthat he supposedly violated?What are the ramifications of itI don't see him everactually going to jail.I personally don't even care.I just want a systemthat somehowfinds a consistent accountabilitSo in many ways, you, at least fyou createdor defined American political saHow has that changed?It feels to me like thethe stuff you did,you know, the the showing, the vand then commenting.It's become it's everybody does And it's not even it's not even I mean, that's what Tucker Carlswhen he wants to make his boss.Sure. He's he's borrowing from yPlaybook. Yes.No, it's it's a real delight knoit's always good toarm the most cynicaland worst people in media.But do you look at it and say,now this whole thing is commoditYou Well, it was listen,it was commoditized.You know, I wasn't doing itout of gracious altruism.I mean, we were selling BudweiseIt's always been commoditized.It was I think it'syou know, there's a lot of talk So exposing absurdityor exposing hypocrisy. What's thThe point is, is thatthis is a relentless fight.They always talk about,you know, thethe arc of the moral universe isbut it bends towards justice,but it doesn't bend towardsjustice by gravity.Like, you have to bend it.And there's a bunch of peopletrying to bend it back.And you use every tool in your aand none of them will beyou know,the one thing there is no panaceIt takes, you know,all those different thingsdoing in Washington overthese past few yearsgave me a grade understandingof how things actually get doneincrementally andand sometimes in one fell swoop.But our country is held togetherby hundreds of really talentedlegislative aides.Their bosses many timesare wind up dolls who really donI mean, half of it, if you go doespecially the Senate,is like an assisted living facillike the intramural sportsat the Senate game.So, you know,it's heldtogether by these legislative aithat are relentlessly tryingto do the right thingand by the thousandsof grassroots activiststhat are trying to get access.And they're blocked by a moatof lobbyists and moneyed interesthat preventthe people in that buildingfrom doing the work that best beall the people outside of that bAnd that's the process.So you have to use every tool.You have to permeate that force But presumably the people therewho are Republicans,who are conservative Republicansthose aidesthink they're doing the right thand they're trying to get acrossbut they're doing it.They're honest.Look,if you can find honestbrokers down there,you can work with them.What I'm sayingis that forcefield aroundit is made up of not honest brokits moneyed interests, its lobbyIt's peoplewho are weaponizing misinformatiand disinformationand all of those form of this.It's the most cloistered universyou found.You could dealwith very conservative Republicabut because there was some wayto find common ground,people of good faith.Now, there were hugedisagreements about certain thinBut when you found someone of goyou could always get something d
