Sunday, November 6 – John opened with
last-minute campaigning from Trump and Clinton (complete with Trump giving
himself a pep talk onstage and the FBI’s eleventh-hour “all clear” on the
latest Clinton emails.) He also gave his
own final appeal to vote and unearthed a Daily
Show clip from several years ago in which he (oh so misguidedly) begged
Trump to run, for his sake as a comedian.
A quick montage of morning news anchors in terrible Halloween costumes,
and it was on to the main story. It was
a reprieve from the election, instead focusing on the much “breezier” subject
of multilevel marketing. Unsurprisingly,
these “not-pyramid schemes” totally are; I felt for the people featured who
lost so much money to businesses like Herbalife and Mary Kay, especially those
who realized their friends got them buried in this quagmire in a desperate
attempt to keep themselves from going under.
Monday, November 7 – Like John, Trevor fumed
about the FBI throwing so much uncertainty on Clinton and then going “psych!”
at the last minute (after millions have already voted,) and he had a delightful
time questioning Trump’s basic understanding of technology re: the FBI’s
ability to assess the new emails in a few days.
We were also treated to Beyoncé and Jay Z performing in support of
Clinton – I loved Trevor’s wish that Jay Z would intro any future State of the
Union addresses in Clinton’s future. The
satire was dropped briefly as Trevor gave an earnest call to vote. I loved his arguments against complacency,
reminding us that 1) leading in the polls doesn’t always equal a win (as
Clinton found in the Michigan primary) and 2) Trump’s extreme supporters, like
the KKK, certainly won’t be complacent. “Dapper” journalist Jonathan Capehart was the
guest, trying to assuage Trevor’s election worries before the big day.
Tuesday, November 8 – And here it was. A hour-long live show, and even though the
writing was already apparent on the wall, it was still a gutpunch to see how
dejected and sad Trevor was (but, after hours of impartial news coverage, it
was also a relief to just see someone reacting honestly.) Kudos to Trevor and the whole news team for
being pros and keeping the show going despite the palpable heartache, even
managing to find a few (dark) jokes in the whole mess. Roy gave increasingly-dire updates on the
election results and repeatedly referred to Trump as “the hot wing,” and Ronny
came on to complain about how medieval the voting process feels given 21st-century
technology. Desi and Jordan reported
from Clinton and Trump headquarters respectively – I did love Jordan’s line
about how Trump’s aides were running around frantically asking supporters for
ideas about something “so much better” than Obamacare. Jordan and Desi also had field pieces. Jordan visited both a Trump and Clinton rally
endeavoring to get supporters at either to say something positive about the
other, in the name of moving forward together after the election (which was the
opposite of a resounding success.) Desi’s,
meanwhile, was about Trump’s call for his supporters to “watch” polling places
to prevent fraud. After an
amusing/disturbing soundbite from “racist Indiana Jones,” she went for the full
skinhead and interviewed a national socialist – frankly, I’m impressed that she
was able to do it. There were also three guests. Ana Marie Cox from MTV News shared how
heartbroken she felt over it all, and Douglas Brinkley from CNN tried to
contextualize it within American history.
And Keegan Michael-Key, while really
wishing he was on a different episode, discussed what Obama means to him and
gave us one more Obama Anger Translator.
Wednesday, November 9 – I nodded along
with Trevor’s lingering disbelief, and I felt for him when he said that hearing
Obama say it was what finally made it real.
It felt fitting to give the floor to both Michelle (a woman) and Hasan (a Muslim.) While both made some
commendable jokes, they were also very affecting. Michelle got me when, talking about Clinton’s
concession speech, she lamented that we still need to be reminded that little
girls have value. As for Hasan, what hit
me the hardest was his point about people who voted for Trump that don’t agree with his bigotry but were nevertheless
undeterred by it – that it feels like they’re saying, “I don’t hate you, I just don’t care about you.” The guest, Buzzfeed’s John Stanton,
undermined my self-reassurances about how check and balances will keep Trump in
line. As he noted, it’s not as if the
Republicans haven’t been constantly caving to Trump. Why stop now?
(Shudder.)
Thursday, November 10 – First was the “not
my president” protests. I liked Trevor’s
take on it as a demonstration to the world that not all Americans condone this,
even as he warned against the urge toward violence. Fine story on Trump and Obama’s ignore-the-awkwardness meeting, complete with the bust of MLK on the table behind Trump and
inner-monologue montages of both men recalling everything the other has said
about him. I appreciated Trevor’s
empathy for out-of-work Midwest industrial workers who helped elect Trump, both
that they’ve felt voiceless and thought they had no other way to express their
discontent, and that Trump can’t
actually bring back the jobs they’re looking for. Secretaries of the Air Force and Army,
Deborah Lee Jones and Eric Fanning, tag-teamed as the guests. Fairly interesting, and I liked Jones’s
response to the prospect of a president who’s not down with women or trans
people serving.
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