If you’ve habitually scrolled through Facebook in the last few days like I have, you may have seen the abundance of headlines concerning The Daily Show on Wednesday (November 30th).
Noah’s guest this episode was Tomi Lahren – hard-core conservative Republican, a supporter of Trump, and host of her show “Tomi / Final Thoughts,” on “Theblaze.”
I wanted to write this article to discuss this episode because, from my personal perspective, Trevor Noah couldn’t have possibly handled this interview better. I was afraid, upon hearing that Tomi Lahren would be a guest on The Daily Show, that Noah would feel obligated to remain impartial and bipartisan. What resulted was in fact, pleasantly surprising. Noah and Lahren conducted a passionate and insightful debate that was extremely informative and professional, while remaining true to their respective opinions.
The first time I heard of Tomi Lahren was in the context of her video response to Colin Kaepernick. In her video, she “shreds,” to use her words, Kaepernick’s peaceful act of civil disobedience (kneeling in front of the flag during the national anthem preceding a football game).
During her interview on The Daily Show, Lahren and Noah discuss that Lahren supports Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Noah attempts to separate Hillary Clinton from the question, and probe Lahren about whether she stands by Trump’s sexist and harassing about comments about women.
“I’m comparing Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, not the Pope, and not G-d,” Lahren replies.
While Noah points out that Trump’s comments greatly impact how women are viewed and treated in our society, Lahren insists that “words…are far less egregious than actions,” meaning that in her view, Hillary’s actions still outweigh Trump’s words.
From my own perceptions, one of Trevor Noah’s strong points in this discussion was to briefly touch on and argue a wide variety of topics. Noah discusses and questions the issues deeply enough to give time to both his and Lahren’s perspectives, but also senses when to stop and move on.
He repeatedly comments that the two of them “can go back and forth with a lot of these issues;” he proved himself to be aware that there is only so far he and Lahren can get in their discussion, given their wildly opposing viewpoints.
Lahren and Noah discuss issues such as the Black Lives Matter Movement, Obamacare, and Immigration.
One of the biggest loops that Noah and Lahren seem to find themselves stuck in is Lahren’s main problem with the BLM movement: the select few within the group that have misinterpreted BLM and forgone extreme hatred and violence themselves. Lahren seems insistent that this is a flaw of the entire movement, while Noah tries hard to convince her of the difference between members of a group and the platform of the group itself.
Lahren, according to Noah, argued on her show that just because Trump has supporters from the KKK doesn’t mean that he’s in the KKK. During this segment, Noah smartly points to the fact that Lahren fails to see the connection between her views on BLM and her views concerning Trump.
“There is a distinction between a movement and the people,” Noah says.
According to Lahren, “BLM is the new KKK,” but Trevor Noah points out that “the KKK is still around” and comparing these two organizations “severely diminishes what the KKK did.”
While Trevor Noah, much like the rest of us, asks – if what Colin Kaepernick wasn’t done the “right way” – what is the right way? Lahren unfortunately doesn’t have an answer for this.
Some of Tomi Lahren’s additional quotes, that are quite problematic to say the least, include her remark that Trump is “level-headed and reasonable.” She also stated, “I am a millennial, so I don’t really like labels, but I consider myself a conservative.” Trevor Noah was quick to call her out on this contradiction.
Lahren said that she “doesn’t see color,” a tired phrase that has been beaten into the ground. “For somebody who’s not racist, you have to spend a lot of time saying ‘I’m not racist,’” Noah responds.
Lahren also seems, at least in my perspective, to directly contradict her statement of not seeing color because she states that “I go after Hillary Clinton and she’s as white as they come.”
“There’s nothing wrong with seeing color, it’s how you treat color that’s more important.” This may be one of Trevor Noah’s most striking comments of the night.
While this conversation was insightful and proved to be a refreshingly professional debate, Lahren unfortunately leaves on a less than savory note. In response to Noah remarking that Trump “was touching people,” she responds, “Hillary could use some of that every now and then, am I right? Bill’s a little busy…”
I was extremely disappointed to hear this disgusting and disrespectful comment.
I watched a TMZ reporter talk to Tomi Lahren after the show. It was respectful, appropriate, and mature. “It was two people having a great conversation…you can be friends you disagree with,” she said. “I challenged myself…that’s the only way we learn and grow as people.”
She concluded that “I knew what I was going into, it’s his show, I walked into his turf. I appreciate being asked to go on. They could’ve just bashed me and not brought me on.”
Like I said, I wanted to write about this episode of The Daily Show because I thought Trevor Noah and Tomi Lahren’s conversation was interesting and important. Lahren gains a lot of support from her viewers, and I thought it was a smart move to make for Noah to debate and challenge her ideas. I hope that, if you haven’t already seen this segment of the show, this article proves helpful in covering the highlights. This summary, of a conversation between two educated people on opposite sides of the political spectrum, gives a good overview of the type of standstill that we seem to often reach in our current political climate.
