Amber Ruffin is in Our Secret Group Chat

Summary

The Daily Beast Podcast: Amber Ruffin is in Our Secret Group Chat

Hosts: Joanna Coles & Samantha Bee
Release Date: March 27, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee delve into a groundbreaking political scandal involving a secret group chat that has sent shockwaves through the political landscape. Alongside insightful interviews with political commentator Steve Hilton and comedian Amber Ruffin, the hosts navigate the complexities of modern politics, media, and the role of comedy in turbulent times.

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The Signal Leak Scandal

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the recent scandal known as the "Signal Leak," where a clandestine group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal included high-profile political figures. This revelation has sparked widespread concern over national security and the integrity of political communications.

Key Discussions:

• Security Breach: Joanna and Samantha discuss how the group chat included unexpected participants, leading to questions about how sensitive information was shared. Joanna remarks, "There are a few people on here that we're not expecting. I don't know who they are, but who cares?" at [02:11].

• Mike Waltz's Role: The conversation shifts to Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, who is under scrutiny for his involvement. Hugh Doherty, the executive editor, explains, "The first person to blame was Mike Waltz... he is the man that Trump has said must find out what happened," highlighting Waltz's pivotal role in the incident [06:24].

• J.D. Vance's Exile: Another significant fallout involves J.D. Vance, who has been dispatched to Greenland amidst policy disagreements within the group chat. Samantha Bee humorously comments, "So the person who did it is investigating himself," reflecting skepticism about the investigation's thoroughness [08:24].

Notable Quotes:

• Hugh Doherty: "This is just something that would infinitely please national security experts who are bored with life." [07:15]

• Samantha Bee: "It feels like a bit of everything. It's like Schrodinger's chat." [09:55]

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Interview with Steve Hilton

Transitioning from the scandal, Joanna and Samantha welcome former Fox News host Steve Hilton to discuss his new book, Caliphalia, and his potential political aspirations in California.

Key Discussions:

• Caliphalia and Political Ambitions: Steve Hilton outlines his motivation to run for Governor of California, citing the state's bureaucratic inefficiencies and economic challenges. He states, "The government and the bureaucracy has just become too big and bloated," emphasizing his goal to streamline governance [39:18].

• Policy Solutions: Hilton shares his vision for reducing government red tape, particularly in sectors like agriculture and small businesses. "The median house price is like a million dollars. So, so I think you just got to go through one of, one after another, those practical things," he explains [40:36].

• Collaboration with Nicole Shanahan: Discussing his potential running mate, Hilton praises Nicole Shanahan's alignment with his policies, particularly regarding food and farming. "We really connected over that," he notes, highlighting their shared commitment to practical solutions [42:44].

Notable Quotes:

• Steve Hilton: "Restore the California dream in a way... Just regular people, which is what they think of as the California dream." [40:36]

• Samantha Bee: "Are you taking a chainsaw to California?" [35:26]

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Conversation with Amber Ruffin

The episode concludes with an engaging conversation with Amber Ruffin, host of CNN's Have I Got News for You, who prepares to headline the upcoming White House Correspondents Dinner.

Key Discussions:

• Preparing for the Correspondents Dinner: Amber shares her strategy for crafting comedic material in a highly charged environment. "I have my Google Docs open at all times for throwing jokes in there," she admits, highlighting the spontaneity required for her performance [51:07].

• Role of Comedy in Dark Times: The hosts and Ruffin reflect on the importance of comedy as a coping mechanism during political and social upheaval. "I can't help but to laugh," Ruffin states, emphasizing humor's role in processing adversity [61:13].

• Challenges of the Event: Discussing the dynamics of the White House Correspondents Dinner, Ruffin mentions the logistical difficulties and the intensity of performing for both in-person and televised audiences. "It's never great to do both, especially in a bad environment like that," she notes [54:27].

Notable Quotes:

• Amber Ruffin: "Comedy is going to save us. I can't let this interview end on such a negative note." [65:17]

• Samantha Bee: "How do you reflect on those? I mean, we're just like in a moment." [62:08]

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Conclusion

Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee wrap up the episode by acknowledging the intense and varied discussions, urging listeners to stay informed and engaged. The blend of political analysis and humor provides a nuanced perspective on current events, making this episode a must-listen for those seeking both depth and levity in today's complex world.

Final Thoughts:

• Hosts Encouragement: "We managed to put it together. And we should just thank people for listening if they have been," Joanna concludes, emphasizing community and shared understanding [68:04].

• Closing Remarks: The hosts reiterate the importance of staying connected and humorously touch upon their personal lives, reinforcing the podcast's blend of serious discussion and light-hearted banter [69:40].

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Notable Moments:

• Humorous Exchanges: Throughout the episode, Joanna and Samantha infuse humor into their discussions, making the heavy topics more relatable and engaging.

• Interactive Conversations: The dynamic between hosts and guests fosters an environment where complex issues are unpacked thoughtfully yet entertainingly.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Signal Leak Scandal: A major political breach involving a secret group chat has significant implications for national security and trust within the administration.
2. Steve Hilton's Vision: Hilton's potential gubernatorial run aims to address California's bureaucratic inefficiencies and restore economic stability.
3. Comedy as a Coping Mechanism: Amber Ruffin highlights the essential role of humor in navigating and processing societal challenges.

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Stay Connected:

For more insightful discussions and updates, subscribe to The Daily Beast Podcast on your preferred platform and follow The Daily Beast at dailybeast.com.

Transcript

[Samantha Bee]

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[Samantha Bee]

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[Joanna Coles]

Blisters.

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[Joanna Coles]

I know that you're going to tell us you ate a wheel of Brie.

[Samantha Bee]

I ate so much bread, I'm 97% gluten. Okay, let's go get cracking.

[Joanna Coles]

Hey, let's get cracking. Welcome. If you're listening to the Daily Beast podcast, I'm Joanna Coles, Chief Content Officer of the Daily Beast.

[Samantha Bee]

I am Samantha Bee and I am the Chief Content Officer of the Daily Beast Principles Committee side chat war room signal leak. Is that cool? We're okay with that now?

[Joanna Coles]

That's very cool. There are a few people on here that we're not expecting. I don't know who they are, but who cares?

[Samantha Bee]

No consequences whatsoever. Don't worry about it.

[Joanna Coles]

I mean, you've been out of the country, Sam, and we've had an insane security leak. We are going to be talking to our executive editor, Hugh Doherty about it. It.

[Samantha Bee]

Yes, please.

[Joanna Coles]

The signal heard around the world, as I think we should refer to it. We'll also be talking about slotus. That's bouchevance. It sounds like a slur, but it stands for the second lady of the United States. And of course, we catch you up on our jet setting ways. You're just back from Paris.

[Samantha Bee]

I am. I am back from Paris. I took my 14 year old daughter for a mommy daughter trip to a very beautiful city and we ate our way through it and it was fantastic. And I was really thinking about and thinking when I got off the plane and I read that, I was like, I feel like that's something that you would drunkenly scrawl on the satin sash at a bridesmaid's party. You would make the bride wear it. She'd be like, I'm the slotus. And then you would go drink hurricanes in New Orleans. I don't know.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and of course, Nelle Scovall's great story this week that when she announced her slotus with her first video, she was in front of a bookshelf. What she didn't realize was that she had a book behind her which was by a vice president. But it wasn't her husband J.D. vance's Hillbilly Elegy. It was in fact a book by Al Gore proclaiming the urgency of climate change.

[Samantha Bee]

Well, maybe the book wasn't a real book. Maybe it was like hollowed out and filled with God only knows. So I don't know.

[Joanna Coles]

I guess the question is, was it a sign? Was she trying to tell us that she believes in climate change? Was it just the carelessness of her team who really aren't paying attention? What did it mean?

[Samantha Bee]

I'm starting to get the feeling that a lot of the team are careless and Hugh's gonna tell us more about that. But I would pretty much attribute almost anything to carelessness at this point. Carelessness would be my go to the.

[Joanna Coles]

Cock up, not the conspiracy. All right, in the download we're going to be talking to Steve Hilton, who is the author of the new book Callifalia. And as far as I can see, the only Fox News host who's yet to be pulled in by Trump as part of his cabinet. And of course, our beast of the week, one of the co hosts of the very funny. Have I got news for you on cnn. Amber Ruffin. Love her. I feel like we should get straight to it with you, doctor.

[Samantha Bee]

Let's do it.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah. You've been out of the country. I feel like Hughie can bring you up to speed on all the chaos, all the madness, and then he can tell us how much we're going to pay for Greenland. Hughie, welcome, welcome.

[Samantha Bee]

Hi, Hugh.

[Hugh Doherty]

Sam, welcome back. Joanna thank you for having me in this private signal chat. Me, you, thousands of others, maybe the Chinese, maybe the Russians. Everybody here is welcome. Just like the Houthi private signal group was to open to all.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, my God.

[Joanna Coles]

So this story seems so extraordinary that it really felt like a setup that they couldn't really have invited. We couldn't have had a cast of Trump's cabinet inviting the editor of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a private signal chat about an attack that was about to happen.

[Hugh Doherty]

Joanna Absolutely. Among the people that couldn't believe that this was happening was Jeffrey Goldberg himself, who thought it must be a hoax. And that's a word that you often hear Trump using. But he thought maybe it was a hoax or maybe he was being phished in some way by foreign intelligence. And he has given an account of this, of course, I think has now been heard by millions that he was sitting in a supermarket car park wondering if what he had read in the group chat was going to happen. And he looked on Twitter and realized that the bombing of Yemen that they'd been talking about was literally happening just as they had predicted. And that's when he realized he hadn't been spoofed. He really had been dragged into a group chat involving some of the most powerful people in the world.

[Joanna Coles]

And Pete Hegseth, I mean, tell us about the fallout to this, Huey, because you've been monitoring it all.

[Hugh Doherty]

It's been an extraordinary start to this scandal. And what I will say is that even when, you know, even in the next few weeks, this is just going to keep going. The first big bit of fallout, of course, was the blame game. And, and behind closed doors, people pointed to who was to blame. Now, obviously, the first person to blame was Mike Waltz. He's Trump's national security adviser, and he is the man who invited Jeffrey Goldberg into the chat. In a surprising development, of all the people that you would want to investigate what went wrong, he is the man that Trump has said must find out what happened to make sure it doesn't happen again. And he certainly he's going to be able to find out what happened because he did it.

[Samantha Bee]

It's the shortest investigation that ever took place.

[Hugh Doherty]

It's a very brief investigation. Trump himself was not in this group chat, and I've articulated a theory to both of you before that you know, that you can explain Trump by being a peak boomer, and he has shown a somewhat shaky grasp of what signal is what a group chat is. And his own recommendations for solving this problem are that everybody should be in a lead lined room. The other big bit of fallout has been J.D. vance. And J.D. vance was in the group chat and it revealed that he has some differences in policy and in practice with people also on the group chat and possibly also with Donald Trump. As people are listening to this, if they're listening fresh on Thursday, then JD Vance has left the country. Trump has sent him to Greenland along with Slotis, where he is at the very far north of Greenland at a space base inspecting facilities there. We have checked, he has 4G cell service. So signal is still supported, but it's probably a bit patchier and it might not be so great for the wi fi.

[Samantha Bee]

So the person who did it is investigating himself. So that takes four seconds and then he plays Candy Crush for the remainder of the day on his phone and then reports back at the end of the day. Like what is actually I. Because I watched a bunch of testimony today. So as we're recording this, it's Tuesday evening and I watch testimony all day on my flight back from abroad. And it seemed to me like there was no recognition of the gravity of the up, as one would say, like whatsoever. No acknowledgement that it was even confidential material.

[Hugh Doherty]

Well, it was a very bizarre spectacle because as you'll know, Sam, two people were sitting beside each other. One was John Ratcliffe, he's the Director of the CIA and he was in the group chat. And the other was Tulsi Gabbard, she's Director of National Intelligence. And Jeffrey Goldberg believed she was in the group chat because he could see initials that corresponded to hers, but at no point has she confirmed that. So under questioning from senators, John Ratcliffe freely agreed that he was in it. And Tulsi Gabbard said that she would not be disclosing whether she was or not. So it's kind of like Schrodinger's chat. It's both non existent and secret and true and classified and not classified all at once. It's basically a bit of everything.

[Joanna Coles]

I have so many questions, not least, why did Mike Waltz have Jeffrey Goldberg's number? And the assumption has to be that he talks to him, which isn't great for Donald Trump, that his top team are talking to journalists, unless, of course, that is what Donald Trump wants.

[Hugh Doherty]

Well, Joanna, you've alighted there on a conspiracy theory that's doing the rounds on the outer fringes of maga and that's that Mike Waltz intentionally added Jeff Goldberg to this group chat and that he is doing it because he himself is a Deep Stater. And there's nothing worse that you can say in MAGA circles than deep state. So it's not something that anybody has been able so far to address to Mike Waltz as to whether he did it intentionally. No cock up is complete in Trump world without a conspiracy theory. And already that's swirling around.

[Joanna Coles]

It's just layer upon layer, isn't it?

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah. He should do an investigation of himself and whether or not he's Deep State. I'm not sure he knows.

[Hugh Doherty]

I'm not sure he's aware in the group chat.

[Samantha Bee]

Sam, please, somebody invite me to a good group chat, please.

[Joanna Coles]

This feels like it has Macbethian qualities of how it will stir his paranoia that the group of people around him are, in fact aligned with each other against him. Their conversation is all taking place in a private space that he has no access to.

[Samantha Bee]

And he's. They're talking about him, which is a very unpleasant feeling.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah. This is like every teenager when they are locked out of a. Of a group chat or when someone. When you can see on one of those location devices that all your friends are meeting up, or as Mindy Kaling says, it's everybody hanging out and having fun without me.

[Samantha Bee]

Can I ask a question?

[Joanna Coles]

So what is.

[Samantha Bee]

I guess it can't be known, but what are. What guesses are people taking about why they're having this conversation on Signal in the first place? Like, is this. This is like a side chat. They don't want this to go into the archive. Is that the thinking? Nobody knows if there's. If they're actually logging this conversation in the archive.

[Hugh Doherty]

Definitely a big question on archiving there. One of the things that they've said is that Signal was authorized by the Biden administration while they were in office. And Signal disappears messages. So you can set your messages to disappear after certain periods of time, up to a week or up to four weeks, and that should give you time to screenshot them and send them to National Archives. But of course, there'd be no way of knowing if you didn't screenshot them and send them, whether they ever existed or not. So there are certainly people, Democrats are already voicing that suspicion. The other aspect of this is that they were doing it probably on private phones. Most federally issued phones just can't use signal at all. So it looks like they were doing it on private phones, and one of them was even doing it in Moscow. Steve Witkoff had flown to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and he took delivery of a portrait of Donald Trump by, who was described as Russia's top artist, so far unnamed, which he was to take back to D.C. with him. But as it turns out, maybe Vladimir Putin didn't really need to bug a portrait. He just needed access to the group chat.

[Samantha Bee]

This is so unprofessional. Like, I just. I can't even. I mean, I have my own personal theories, and it's hard to imagine that there was a professional in this chat who was screenshotting and, you know, and sending these to the National Archives. So that's something that, you know, we don't.

[Hugh Doherty]

When Donald Trump's presidential library is open, we go and find out.

[Samantha Bee]

We will go and find out. But even imagining that these people in this chat are. They're literally dropping bombs. They're literally dropping bombs on human beings. Whatever you think of the human beings that they're dropping, like, that's not the point. It's so serious. It's so. It's real life and it's real death. And they're using emojis in the chat and insulting Europe. It's so embarrassing. Embarrassing internationally. It's actually disgusting. It's atrocious.

[Joanna Coles]

Dewey, think. This might also be a tipping point that up until now, people have been clearly very scared and nervous about Trump, and you're seeing people go to Mar a Lago or the White House to bend the knee. But this exposes what buffoonery is happening at such high levels that this is surely the moment people look behind the curtain and see a little old man instead of the great wizard of Oz. If this will be a turning point.

[Hugh Doherty]

Joanna, you used the word buffoonery. Our brilliant columnist David Rothkoff used another word that begins with F and ends with wittery and suggested that more and worse is to come. But the thing is, what we saw in the first Trump administration was that when that sort of lack of professionalism was exposed, it became hard for people to take the administration entirely seriously. And one of the tensions that's been over this for Trump is the first administration fell apart quite quickly on the seriousness and the professionalism front. And this time around, one of the most telling moments, as you'll know, is that three days before this scandal erupted, Pete Hegseth stood in the Oval Office beside his boss and said, people aren't laughing at us anymore, or people aren't taking us as they're not being treated like fools anymore. Well, the rest of the world has had an insight. Whether they're laughing or not, this does.

[Joanna Coles]

Give serious Republicans the opportunity to say enough already. I mean let's hope there are some left. But this is insane. It's ridiculous.

[Samantha Bee]

Are we imagining that there are other.

[Hugh Doherty]

People obviously on the MAGA world are offering a very different view of this and what it shows they say is not incompetence but transparency. This shows the thoughtfulness.

[Joanna Coles]

There's nothing transparent about using Signal.

[Samantha Bee]

It's encrypted.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm sure they're being sponsored by Signal.

[Hugh Doherty]

Yeah, well the White House Easter Egg roll has been sponsored and this is a great opportunity for Signal to get to the people that are super users.

[Joanna Coles]

So the Vances have been dispatched to the northern reaches of Greenland. Are they there to signal? If I can use that expression to Denmark that Donald Trump is serious about buying Greenland. What do we think? Why is this just him taunting Denmark? Of all the countries in the world to taunt Denmark seems the most extraordinary. What is your interpretation of the Vance's being dispatched up there?

[Hugh Doherty]

Well this, I was going to say advance party but Vance party I suppose. Oh so good. USHA is going to be watching some dog sledding which not surprisingly is a major sport.

[Joanna Coles]

Well I think it's the Avenata Kim Su. How do we pronounce that? Sam, you should know this because you're Canadian.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah, we're so similar.

[Joanna Coles]

It's the Kimosersu I think. Kimosesu anybody? I'm sure there'll be lots of comments on that. Anyways, it's Greenland's national dog sled and it has about 450 dogs in it.

[Hugh Doherty]

JD is on his way to more military facilities and there's no doubt Trump is serious about something here. And the way that Trump has done this, he's previously sent Don Jr. Who spoke to locals who as it turned out expressed positivity about becoming part of America. It then transpired that they were in fact homeless and did not represent the mainstream of Greenlandic opinion. In a recent poll only 5% of people in Greenland were interested in becoming or 6% were interested in becoming part of the United States. So this is definitely a push to get it on the, I was going to say on the map but maybe more on the agenda for people in Greenland. It's also definitely a message to Denmark and sending JD Van seems a bit pointed now because he really is the anti European in Trump circles and this is kind of taking advantage of that group chat and making clear that this anti European is going to go and you know, present the case for Greenland becoming America.

[Joanna Coles]

Sam's got an abominable Snowman on her desk going on. Oh, my God.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah, a yeti just came onto my. Onto my desk. This is so.

[Hugh Doherty]

Well, Usha was no yetis in Greenland that we know.

[Samantha Bee]

She was supposed to go without JD and then he accompanied her. Can you. I mean, I.

[Hugh Doherty]

He's a late addition.

[Samantha Bee]

He's a late addition. No surprise.

[Hugh Doherty]

One thing worth pointing out is that after this extraordinary story emerged, JD was amazingly quiet on Twitter. He has a fanatical poster on X, I should say the platform formerly known as Twitter. And he maintained a long silence, which is very unusual for him, and then surfaced saying that he was off. He was next off to Greenland.

[Samantha Bee]

Imagine those. Imagine those breakfast conversations, though. If I was ushavants, if I was Slotus, I would be like, you are coming on this trip. I don't care, you know, whatever the president wants, you are coming with because I'm not fielding questions about your tomfoolery.

[Joanna Coles]

This is not why ushavants got her Gates scholarship to Cambridge. I mean, you think of all the education that ushavants has got to end up as slotus going to attend dog sled races in Greenland. That's not why she got the Gates scholarship.

[Samantha Bee]

No, it is not. No, it is not. Oh, dear. Are we expecting any consequences after this?

[Hugh Doherty]

None so far. I think very unlikely. But keep an eye on what happens with Mike Waltz and how serious these questions about him being from the deep state are, because if there's any vulnerability, it's him. And Jeff Goldberg, like any good journalist, is not betraying his sources. But there's deep suspicion about Mike Waltz among some people in maga. So if there's anything that makes him vulnerable, this could be it. Trump said he's a good man and he made a mistake. But votes of confidence from Trump are rather like the stock market. The value can go down as well as up.

[Joanna Coles]

Hugh, thank you so much for keeping us up to date with what on earth is going on.

[Hugh Doherty]

It's a pleasure. I will see you both in the Secret chat.

[Joanna Coles]

Yep. We will be tuning in. We will be tuning in regularly to the Secret Chat. Hughie, thank you very much.

[Hugh Doherty]

Thank you both.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, let's take a quick break and when we come back, we'll be joined by the former Fox News host, Steve Hilton, who is the author of a new book, callaphalia. Such a good title. This episode is brought to you by Brooklinen. With spring here, it's the perfect time to refresh my space. I spend plenty of time in bed, reading, answering emails, and, of course, sleeping sleeping so comfort is a priority. That's why I love Brooklinen. They make high quality sheets, comforters and throw blankets that look and feel amazing. I recently upgraded with the classic Percal core sheet set and duvet cover in white and every night feels like luxury. The fabric's soft, it's breathable and built to last. Plus their mix and match colours and textures make seasonal updates dates easy. Brooklinen products are award winning. They're backed by Good Housekeeping, GQ Wirecutter and over 200,000 five star reviews. Their customizable bundles make upgrading effortless. Shop award winners and fan faves in store or online at brooklinen.com that's B-R-O-O-K-L-I-N-E-N.com and get 15% off your 15 first order today.

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[Joanna Coles]

Welcome back. We're now joined by the former Fox News host, the host of the Revolution with Steve Hilton, who is a former political advisor to David Cameron, the former UK Prime Minister, and he's the author of several books, but a new book based on his passion for California, and it's called Caliphalia. Okay, Steve Hilton, I'm so excited to have you on the Daily Beast podcast. I'm excited for you to meet Sam Bee. I'm excited to talk about your book. So much excitement. And obviously, we want your POV on the signal gate scandal of the week, as you are close to Donald Trump. In fact, you even bought a cell phone so that Donald Trump could contact you. Am I right? Because you used to resist. You used to resist a cell phone. Used to resist it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's all wrong. But it is relevant. We can get into that. But first of all, I'm not at all excited. I'm very annoyed with you because I came to New York for one reason only, which is to be with both of you in the studio and do the podcast together. And you sold it to me like it would be this time. And now here we are. You're in California, by the way, like, when I'm here. So totally disproving the whole thesis of my book, which is that you're leaving California. You're actually going to California. Sam's just back from Paris. I mean, what is this?

[Samantha Bee]

I know, it's ridiculous.

[Joanna Coles]

You're also going to have to persuade me as I sit in San Francisco, the sun is shining, the sky is fantastic, the bay is beautiful, that we're living through Califalia because I'm dying to move here.

[Samantha Bee]

Okay, first of all, I want to. I need to start this by getting some context for the two of you, because the two of you know each other and you've known each other for a long time. So please tell me, what is your origin story?

[Joanna Coles]

How.

[Samantha Bee]

How are we all connecting today?

[Joanna Coles]

Steve, can you even remember how we met?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Not really. Probably you're drunk in some pub somewhere, but. Because that's how British people basically exist.

[Joanna Coles]

We all know each other. Yeah, we all know each other.

[Samantha Bee]

You all worked at Marks and Spencer together at some point.

[Joanna Coles]

Yes, we sort of did. We sort of did. I. We actually met. I remember very well. I was so excited to meet you because I'd read about you and also I'd seen the most brilliant Armando Iannucci parody of you in the brilliant television show the Thick of It. So I was fascinated by you. We met at the White House correspondence brunch held by the great Tammy, her dad, who's a super connector, and she immediately put us together and then we just couldn't stop talking. My memory is we talked for the rest of the weekend, nonstop.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's exactly right. But the other thing we should say on the, you know, continuing to advance the thesis that all British people basically know each other is that one of my best friends at university was one of your earliest colleagues in journalism in England. And so I'd been hearing about you forever and ever since we moved to America, our mutual friend Ian Katz was saying, oh, you must meet Joanna. Have you met. In fact, it wasn't Joanna, it was Colsey, I believe, because that's how British people are.

[Joanna Coles]

These are state secrets. We really need to be in a sick laureate to discuss this. That's true.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Then everyone will know if you put it in a signal group.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah. Steve, when are you inviting us to your signal group?

[Joanna Coles]

How many secret signal groups have you got?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, so, okay, now let's get to the phone thing. So the sort of big lie that you told was that the only reason I got a phone was to communicate with the President. But actually it is relevant to this signal thing because when I used to work in 10 Downing street as senior advisor to the Prime Minister, I remember getting the security briefing as new members of staff and it was all is 2010, so a long time ago. And I remember them saying that you got to assume that your smartphone is being hacked and listened to all the time. You've got to assume that. And whatever they tell you about the security on the phone or the apps or this or that foreign hostile pals can get into your phone. And I remember them specifically giving this example of how it is possible to remotely take over a smartphone and turn it into a listening device for the room that you're in, even when it's turned off, blah, blah, on and on like this. And then they said, but the only phone that they really can't get into is an old fashioned flip phone, which is the one that I happen to have. I had an old Nokia, I never got a smartphone. And then when we moved to America in 2012, they didn't make them anymore. I had to hand in my government phone. And so I did for years. I didn't have any kind of phone at all. And then finally I relented and this is my phone, my very signal friendly flip phone. Here you are. That is the phone that I now have. And so for Me, this whole signal thing is not really about signal. It's about the fact that basically you can't trust the security on a smartphone. So that's the issue. If you really want to keep things secret, don't communicate by smartphone.

[Samantha Bee]

Yes. So we have an issue in our country right now and it is roiling me. And I want to know how you're reflecting on that today because I watched all that testimony. It really did not meet the moment I felt like at all, like it didn't even come close to meeting the moment. So I wonder how you're reflecting on all of this. You probably know a lot of these people. Just what is your, what is your baseline?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, truthfully, I didn't see the test because I've been on, it's literally the publication day for my book. So I'm afraid I've been non stop talking rather than listening or watching anything else. But I do think that, you know, it's very clear that this should never have happened. It was a mistake. I don't understand how it happened. I mean, clearly someone added someone to a chat. I mean, I didn't, I don't know how it works because I don't use signal. I've never used signal. I don't even have a smartphone. But the fact that it happened was a kind of big mistake. And I don't know if they've what, where they are on that, whether they've acknowledged that I know that they've confirmed that it was real. They're not pretending that it didn't happen. Even Joe. I did actually, the one thing I did see this morning on Morning Joe was Goldberg himself, who broke the story, of course, in the Atlantic. And he said the one thing he was encouraged by was at least they're having a real conversation about this stuff. And that's the sort of plus point for him from the whole thing. I think they're obviously going to investigate. I think they're reviewing all this. I don't know. I'm really, I'm afraid I haven't been following it closely.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, Joanna, Go ahead, jump in.

[Joanna Coles]

Joanna, I was going to ask you, Steve, several members of the President's cabinet were Fox News hosts. I was expecting you to be at some point nominated for a cabinet position because you had your Sunday night slot, which we know the President very much enjoyed. The Revolution with Steve Hilton on Fox. Is that something you would enjoy, being a cabinet minister?

[Samantha Bee]

I mean, there may be a position becoming available within the next couple of days and I would certainly think that that should probably happen.

[Ryan Reynolds]

National security is not my, is not my expertise.

[Samantha Bee]

I don't think that matters. I really don't think that matters.

[Joanna Coles]

I think it was their.

[Samantha Bee]

Not an issue. Not an issue.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. Maybe it's actually compulsory. I don't know. I think that. Look, the truth is that I'm, I, I've done various things right in my career. I've worked in politics and government and I've started businesses. I've run restaurants. You know, I've done a bunch of different things. And more recently, I've worked in the media. But the true line really is that I'm very interested in the practical aspects of politics and policy and just doing things and making change happen. And that's what we were trying to do back in the day in the Cameron government. Not always with great success, but you learn a lot from that as well. And so it's definitely true that I would love to be in a position to make things happen.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, your book couldn't come at a better time, Califalia, obviously, after the catastrophic fires earlier this year and all the questions about education in California, about homelessness, about the water situation. And my assumption from the book is that you're planning to run as governor. You've certainly been posting as if that might be in your future. And you've recently been posting with Nicole Shanahan, who, as we know, really spearheaded RFK from his own party to Health and Human Services. So explain to us a little bit about your own political situation and then talk to us about what the solve is for California, especially around homelessness.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, okay. So look, I mean, for the last few years, I've had this very unexpected career in the media. I didn't totally didn't plan on it, didn't expect it, appreciate the platform very much. But as time went on, I got more and more frustrated with just sort of talking about things. Going back to what I was saying earlier, I'm used to actually doing things. And so a couple of years ago I started, I started an organization called Golden Together, which is a non political organization, policy focus. Looking at California policy, because I just wanted to get more into that. And I've been traveling the state and doing those things. And as that has gone on, yes, I have got more and more interested and focused on the idea of actually trying to do something about it by running for office, running for governor. So that is definitely something I'm strongly considering. Kamala Harris tells us that she's also, she uses almost the same term that she's strongly considering that and that she's going to make a decision by the end of the summer. I'm going to make a decision much sooner than that. And the real, you know, not to be too coy about it, but the, the reason I'm not quite there yet is that you've got to be sure that I'd want to do it in order to win, not just to, you know, make a point. And there's a lot of elements to that that you've got to have a plan for what you do, how you solve these problems. I think, you know, that's what I've mainly been working on. But you've also got to have the support, especially the financial support, and to know that you can really do it properly. So, still working on that. But, yeah, I know I'm really seriously looking at it and I think that people are ready for the change. I mean, that's why Nicole is interesting, because Nicole isn't, you know, she started off as a Democrat, obviously her political journey is well known, but she's an independent now. She's not a Republican, but she, she and I very much aligned on a lot of the issues. But also I love for California and how amazing it is. I still think it is nowhere better than California, but it's obvious it's going off the rails. I mean, you just look at the data. We have the highest rate of poverty, the highest housing cost, the lowest home ownership, the highest unemployment for most of last year, right now with the second highest unemployment. I mean, on and on. The highest prices for electricity, gas, water, everything. The worst business climate according to Chief Executive magazine. So it's like really bad. It's a really bad failure on every front and obviously in need of a turnaround. And I think a lot of people, not just Republicans, you know, especially after the fires in la, I'm there a lot. And you hear people who say, I've been a Democrat, but we can't go on like this. It's time for change.

[Samantha Bee]

Well, I guess my question is what. Okay, in terms of governance. Yeah. How do you see yourself? Because you have deep friendships with people who are very aligned with Donald Trump, his administration. Lots of people are touch points for you. I mean, I don't know you personally, but I see it in your, in your work and interviews and the people that you attend fundraisers and they are governing through pure chaos. I mean, from my view, it. Federal employees are being terrorized, threats, intimidations, these crazy signal. This, this impossible situation with signal. Are you the type of person who thinks that you need to Break a bunch of eggs to make an omelet, like. Is that what we would expect?

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah. Are you taking a chainsaw to California?

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's a great question. I think that. Remember that back in the. Although it's known as the Cameron administration, David Cameron was the prime minister for a Conservative Party leader, It was a coalition government. And in fact, I helped put together the coalition agreement between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrat Party. And in fact, I shared an office in 10 Downing street with my counterpart, Polly McKenzie. You may know her, Joanna. And we had a really constructive working relationship, trying to. In a way. I mean, I remember Nick Clegg, who is the deputy prime minister, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Cameron. They used to sort of talk about me and Polly as the kind of glue that kept the coalition together because we really did find a way to work on stuff together. So that definitely would be my approach. And it's the only way, I think, in California, because, as I say, most of the levers of power right now are controlled by Democrats.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and one of your points in the book, which I find so interesting, is that this is the result of unchallenged Democratic rule in California. And you talk about the isms and this sort of extremism and the obsession with focusing on cultural issues that don't actually have anything to do with the issues that really impact people's lives. Do you think that if Kamala Harris is your opponent, she will. She will stay in that territory, or do you think she will become more moderate?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, look at what. Look, she's. She already tried that in the presidential election because the minute that she became the nominee, she was immediately ditching the previous positions that she'd held, which the previous position was very much in line with where California is today, the kind of extreme end of those issues. And she's already tried to ditch that. The question is, is it believable? And is she actually. Would she be capable of actually making the change? I don't know. I mean, that would be the argument that you'd have.

[Samantha Bee]

I actually think of Kamala Harris as being pretty moderate. I think she kind of comes right down the center. I mean. Okay, well, I do. This is a very fundamental question to me. I'm like, when you reflect on what Doge is doing right now, would you stop them? I mean, I know that's not quite the job we're talking about, but do you appreciate that? Kind of just like running in there making wild slashes and then stepping away and going like, oh, gee, I wonder what happened like picking up all the pieces. That's really, it's hard for me to understand because I do, you know, I do understand the perspective of people. There are so many people in California who did everything right, who saved and worked hard, and they, you know, and they just want to have a pension waiting for them. They just want to have Social Security waiting for them. And they really don't want to imagine that Elon Musk, someone they don't know, someone they didn't elect, is going into Social Security and dicking around with a bunch of 20 year olds. Like, how do you reflect on those? I mean, we're just like in a moment. And I think it's important to delineate where you stand on those things.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So I think that the object. Let's just take a few steps. In California, if you. I think one of the underlying problems of everything, whether that's housing, homelessness, energy, the cost of everything, is the fact that it's the government and the bureaucracy has just become too big and bloated. There's a question about that. If you look at the layers of the crap that people have to wade through, just, you know, you talk to a restaurant owner about what it's actually like to run a restaurant or a bar. I mean, just the, the local bureaucracy, county, state, you know, they just. I'm just the other day talking to a lady who runs a pest control company, you know, in the, in the Sierras, and she, she's just describing her life of how much nonsense she has to go through in terms of reporting to the state Pesticide control Board and then each county she operates in nine counties. And I say, oh, you have to do that every year? So, no, every month they have to send in reports, all with a different format, all, you know, some can be uploaded, others have to be paid, blah, blah, blah. You know, you talk to someone who owned a winery, an independent winery in wine Country. She's telling me that she tried to get a permit to. She increased her patio, the number of guests she can have from 30 to 50. It took her six years and a million dollars in lawyers fees and consultants and all this kind of stuff. So I think the goal of reducing bureaucracy and just the sheer kind of hassle of dealing with government in all its forms is a really big central goal. But I do agree that you have to do it in a systematic way, but you have to do it. And there are opponents of that. The people who say, well, we have to continue with this process because we're protecting this, or we're guaranteeing that or securing whatever. And you just have to be direct with that. But I definitely think that it's got to be done in an orderly way, if that's what you're asking. But I think it's got to be done.

[Joanna Coles]

So, Steve, for people who aren't going to read your book or who are, but who are nevertheless interested in your potential run for office, what would your slogan be?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, I think we, you know, there's, there's a line in the book. Well, it's very simple. Restore the California dream in a way. I mean, that's the mission of Golden Together. It's on our website there, which is, and it's pretty basic stuff, which is what people want and what they think of as the California dream. Just regular people, which is a good job that pays enough to raise your family in a home of your own, in a safe neighborhood with a good school so your kids have a better life than you did. That is the aspiration. And especially when you talk to immigrant communities in California, it's like really, really basic stuff. That's what they thought they were signing up to for when they come to California. And though that sort of ladder of opportunity, all the rungs have been taken away. It's just the taxes you pay. You know, we have this, as I said, the second highest unemployment, it's hard to get a good job. Businesses are leaving. If you do you have a job, you pay so much in taxes. If you add it all up together, not just income tax, but gas tax and all that stuff, right? Sales taxes, it's impossible for regular people to buy a home. I mean, the median house price is like a million dollars. And so, so I think you just got to go through one of, one after another, those practical things, not ideological, just like how do you get people in that place where they really feel like they're living the dream? Because that is the, that is the kind of beautiful thing about California. Just it's such an amazing place to live if you can get those basics right.

[Joanna Coles]

I was going to ask you to tell us more about your potential lieutenant governor, I'm assuming, with Nicole Shanahan. Tell us more about her. Well, she's an intriguing character and the irony is that you're talking about helping regular people. But you need, I mean, you and your wife are well known, well, your wife is a well known tech executive. You've both done very well in California and yet you need to bring in people to help you run. And obviously, Nicole Shanahan, we've written about her and a lot at the Daily Beast was married to one of the co founders of Google. So she got a handsome divorce settlement from that. What is she like to run with? Is she able to understand the issues that you're talking about in terms of the regular person?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, look, there's no, you know, I mean, we had, we had that conversation on the podcast, but that's not, you shouldn't read in anything into that. In terms of her intention, she did make clear that she's not running for governor. So that's, that's what she said. But I think that first of all, on the point about, you know, money and so on, I mean, I think that the thing that really kind of I feel very strongly about with, in respect of California is just the way that the, the real victims of the policy agenda we've seen are working class people. And that is something I really do identify with because my parents are Hungarian. They were immigrants into the uk. They were like, my stepdad worked construction, my mum worked in a shoe store. You know, I really remember what it was like to have no money. And we had that immigrant aspiration story in our family. And I ended up going to Oxford University and working in 10 Downing street and now I'm here, you know, do you know what I mean? So that's something I think is really precious and I take it very seriously. And I think with Nicole, there's a similar story. We really connected over that. We only met recently, actually. We've got friends in common, Jay Bhattacharya, for example, who now is running nih, you know, so we, we, we were introduced and we got talking and actually there's a lot of issues where we really see eye to eye, particularly that whole set of issues around food and farming that I gave her a copy of a book that I wrote 10 years ago, more Human. The subtitle was Designing a World Where People Come First. And if you look at the chapters in more human 10 years ago on food and health, it's basically what people think of as the Maha agenda now that really came to prominence during the recent election campaign. So I think that there's a lot of common ground there. And then particularly the thing we're working on together now is the recall of Karen Bass in la.

[Samantha Bee]

Okay, well, President Trump and many MAGA members have vocally stated that federal fire aid should have strings attached. How does that help the state? How does that help rebuild, Eddie? How does that help rebuild?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think what they're driving at, if you look at the members of Congress who've particularly strongly argued that, like Kevin Kiley, for example, who's a California member of Congress. I think they've been really out front on that. But also Rick Grinnell has been very strong who the President has appointed as. I don't know exactly what the title is, but, you know, helping to coordinate the federal end of whatever's done to help Los Angeles. They make the point that actually there's been a lot of money wasted in the past. And that's true. I mean, even the California audit of homelessness spending showed that $24 billion. They couldn't keep track of where it went during the pandemic. $30 billion completely lost to fraud in the Employment Development Department. And so the argument, I think, is not that you don't want the money to flow, you just want to make sure it goes to the right purposes, doesn't end up in a California bureaucracy which has a track record board of losing or weight money.

[Samantha Bee]

But is now the time to make cuts to fema?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I haven't thought about that at all. I don't. I mean, that's a federal. I'm really focused on.

[Samantha Bee]

I guess so. But the. There's just the message. I don't know. I don't know.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I mean, as far as I understand it, I don't know if it's been articulated in any, in anything other than a response to a question is to. A bit like with the Education Department, to return fema, both the financial aspects and the management aspects to the states. I think that's. That's the argument rather than cutting it, just redistributing it. But I don't, I don't actually know if they've articulated that as a policy.

[Joanna Coles]

There is so much to discuss here, and I know that you have a book to, to go off and celebrate. What is the next step for you as you plan your campaign?

[Ryan Reynolds]

A little bit, like I was saying earlier, is just to, you know, make sure before pushing the button the support is there, to really do it properly. That's honestly the final step. Look, it's obvious I'm very interested in this. I've been working hard on it, and I think that I'm close to a decision, but not there yet. And it's all about making sure that we can do it really well.

[Samantha Bee]

And can I borrow your flip phone? Because I have some things I'd like to say to some key members of the Trump administration.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes.

[Samantha Bee]

And it's like a 5.5 to 50 points I'd love to make while I Still have the chance.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I think you can do that. You know, we can. We can arrange that. The other thing I'm very sad we didn't talk about is your car. I loved your Kanye in the elevator no shoes story.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, that's right, Joanna.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, it was true. You would have pursued him, Steve. You would have run after him and introduced yourself.

[Ryan Reynolds]

One of the things that my, my, my. My kids and most. Most my sons of you. You've met China. Most mortified by was the moment at Burbank Airport where I tried to board a flight with no shoe, not wearing shoes, and they wouldn't let me on. And we had this endless argument and I got in and it's like, I don't like bureaucracy. They're saying, well, not. You're not allowed to get on the plane. And it's just ridiculous.

[Samantha Bee]

I'm sorry. I am. You tried to board a plane without shoes. That is actually internationally illegal and should be. That's actually forbidden on this planet. No one should be shoeless on planes. I agree with that.

[Joanna Coles]

That Steve is always being thrown off public transport for arguing with the conductor on the train or whatever. It's actually one of the qualities I admire about you most. I've also been thrown off public transport. Steve, I find you one of the most thoughtful people around policy and I'm fascinated to know whether or not you could get elected and whether or not you can have a good run. But I'm very conscious you have a book party. Go and celebrate your book and come back and give us updates on your campaign.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Great to see you both. Thank you very much.

[Samantha Bee]

Thank you.

[Joanna Coles]

We're going to take another quick break before we talk to our beast of the week, the hilarious and the insightful Amber Ruffin.

[Samantha Bee]

Brought to you by Hoolerious Stand up Comedy now on Hulu.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey everybody.

[Samantha Bee]

Hulu has a bunch of new stand up specials that aren't just funny, they're hoolarious. Very funny, Hulu. Anyway, they're long launching new exclusive stand up specials from awesome comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Ilana glaser, Roy Wood Jr. Bill.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Samantha Bee]

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[Joanna Coles]

No judgments.

[Samantha Bee]

But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Samantha Bee]

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[Joanna Coles]

We'Re back and we are thrilled to be joined by this week's Beast of the Week, Amber Ruffin. Amber is currently one of the hosts of CNN's have I Got News for your? And previously hosted her own late night talk show, the Amber Ruffin show, which was on Peacock. Amber also serves as a writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and she'll be the featured comedian at the upcoming White House Correspondents Dinner. What are you doing to prepare?

[Samantha Bee]

What?

[Amber Ruffin]

Freak it out, buddy.

[Samantha Bee]

Freak out time?

[Amber Ruffin]

Freak out? No, I mean I am, you know, I have my Google Docs open at all times for throwing jokes in there and little thoughts I'm having. But I can't help but to be like, because we're a little ways out.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah, right.

[Amber Ruffin]

News is happening at such a freaking clip that how are we supposed to hit this moving target? Also, like how could you forget any of this stuff happened? You know what I mean?

[Samantha Bee]

So you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to write the whole thing that afternoon.

[Joanna Coles]

That afternoon. That afternoon.

[Samantha Bee]

There's no.

[Joanna Coles]

And do you, Amber, do you accept expect the president to show?

[Amber Ruffin]

No, I don't. But I just honestly don't think it's an important thing to him in any way.

[Joanna Coles]

It was important to him in 2011 when he got teased mercilessly during the Obama years. I mean many people say that was the ground zero for him deciding to run for president. Although I can't help believing that. Donald Trump knew from the age of five that he wanted to be president.

[Samantha Bee]

But he took over the whole Kennedy center. So he doesn't need to come to the correspondence dinner anymore. He can just have like WWE in the most beautiful space where it's all that beautiful craftsmanship and woodworking is and they can break the beautiful organ or whatever. Haha.

[Amber Ruffin]

How cool would that be? It'd be a little cool. It'd be a little cool. That's a little wrestling. I wouldn't go, but I would watch tick tocks of it.

[Samantha Bee]

I would, I would watch the clips after. I will watch the clips as they oil up all those beautiful old refined herringbone parquet floors. Oh yeah, in my version, everybody's oiled up.

[Amber Ruffin]

Yeah. To walk in you have to get oiled up.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah, you do now you do.

[Amber Ruffin]

Just a slippery, slippery place.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, maybe you could do that for the White House correspondents. Just change it up this year.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh my goodness. Oh God. Okay, so will anyone from the administration be attentive? How much do you actually know about who will be in attendance? Do you get like the rundown?

[Amber Ruffin]

I'm sure that I will at some point. I, I know the news organizations that will be attending. I don't think the people confirm until quite a bit later. I don't necessarily, like, I'm not 100% interested in being like, ha, you're here. Look at your stupid head, you're burned. I care. Like you're kind of a bunch of murderers. I mean, so like they were like, you need to be, you know, equal and make sure that the, that you give it to both sides and blah, blah, blah. I was like, there's no way I'm gonna be frickin doing that, dude. Under no circumstances.

[Samantha Bee]

I, I, when you, okay, like when you as a performer, you know, like when you have, you have like a, a live performance that you're doing for the people who are there and you are, do also. Are you doing it more? It's for the cameras or it's for the people in the room. And how do you make, I don't know. Is that just an organic process of figuring out?

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, it's a tough room, right? It's a big room. It's 2,000 people in the Hilton Ballroom in Washington, which is hard to command. And then you've got the audience, the television audience.

[Amber Ruffin]

Yeah, it's never great to do both, especially in a bad environment like that. And they say It's a bad audience. And sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not. They're certainly poorly miked for sure. Times a thousand. Everyone I've talked to said it feels a lot better than it looks.

[Samantha Bee]

Right.

[Amber Ruffin]

So that makes me feel hopeful. But also, it's just a horrible room. It's a bad room for comedy. It's not great.

[Samantha Bee]

Right.

[Amber Ruffin]

High ceilings, warm. That's the last thing you want. Thousands of people, far, far back. It's not ideal, but I do think, like, there will be a, like, sense of what the hell are we doing. Like, it's bonkers that we're still acting like things are normal. I don't know. We're all going on this roller coaster. Right. Like, you spend five minutes like, hey, we've had worse. Then you turn a corner and you're like, no, this is as bad as it will ever be. Nothing is this bad.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah.

[Amber Ruffin]

I'm glad to be on that roller coaster with you guys.

[Joanna Coles]

Is it. I mean, did they actually say to you that it needs. You need to go after both sides equally?

[Amber Ruffin]

They said. What they said was, is that they had been. They had people bring it up in the past how uneven the comedy was.

[Joanna Coles]

Because usually the comedy is. Is directed at whoever is the president at the time. So even when you went to the Obama White House correspondents dinner, which he did attend, there were tons of jokes about him, and he was probably more aligned with the media than. Than any other most recent president.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Amber Ruffin]

I think it's just that burns on Trump hurt badly and. And then it trickles down to everyone who's around him because y'all also guilty. So I think it just. They got their feelings hurt, but. And they want that false equivalency that the media does. They want that. It feels great. It makes them feel like human beings. But they shouldn't get to feel that way because they're not.

[Samantha Bee]

Some people are more culpable than others. That's right. And they get more jokes made about them, and the jokes are meaner because they're doing things that are meant worse. Yeah. In a lot of ways, that's how that goes. It can't be even. It actually can't.

[Amber Ruffin]

How you could do it.

[Samantha Bee]

It can't be even handed.

[Amber Ruffin]

And becoming a part of what's wrong.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah.

[Amber Ruffin]

You know, so, yeah, talk to me in five minutes when I'll be like, we have to stick together.

[Joanna Coles]

Who knows?

[Amber Ruffin]

I'll feel.

[Samantha Bee]

I picture this being maybe the drunkest year ever. Like, I think that I've been. I'VE only gone once in my life. I've never hosted or anything like that. I went one time and I've never seen more drunk journalists in one place. Like, it was incredible, actually. I'm sure you've been. Have you been lots of times? You've never been. You never have. Okay, well.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, well, I have many years to.

[Samantha Bee]

Joanna, because I've been there for the.

[Joanna Coles]

Last 10 years probably or 15 years.

[Amber Ruffin]

He told me everything.

[Samantha Bee]

People get wasted beyond imagining.

[Joanna Coles]

People do get very drunk because the dinner itself is four hours long. So it's incredibly long. So people have nothing else to do. They're talked out. There's endless cocktail parties before the actual dinner. It takes forever to get into the room.

[Samantha Bee]

I saw a man throwing up like violently into the potted plants in the hotel lobby where I was staying. Violently. And so many people getting kicked out, like so many trucks.

[Joanna Coles]

Everyone to me, I, I grew up in the north of England. That was a regular Saturday, okay? I swear, all the time. That's nothing to do with journalism, to be fair.

[Samantha Bee]

It's just free drinks. It's just free drinks.

[Joanna Coles]

If you walk down any high street in Oslo, in Norway, you will also see that that's just a northern European thing.

[Samantha Bee]

It's just free drinks for hard working people.

[Amber Ruffin]

That's right.

[Samantha Bee]

Who are in a state of total chaos and in many ways persecution. They're like, I'm getting my fill tonight.

[Amber Ruffin]

That's right. They deserved it. They earned these drinks. I want them to each get messier than the last.

[Samantha Bee]

Yeah. Joanna, what was the funnest one you ever went? What, what's the, what's the best one that you've went to, that you've gone to Attended.

[Joanna Coles]

I was gonna say I actually, for the most part, there's always a sort of report that says, oh, the comedian was a disaster. It didn't work. But when you're in the room, I've always found them to work.

[Hugh Doherty]

So.

[Joanna Coles]

I loved Michelle Wolf, I loved Larry Wilmore. Those are the two that I remember the most. I loved Obama doing it with his mic drop. And I've always, actually shamefully, because I've never met a party I don't want to go to. I've always, I've always enjoyed them because you come across people you haven't seen. It's like a crash course. It's a, it's a weekend crash course. By the end of it, you are exhausted. I remember coming back on a train once with Mindy Kaling after it and the two of us were just hysterically. Laughing because we were so tired. We'd been up for 48 hours and the man sitting opposite us just slammed his bag on the table and told us to shut up. So it's sort of one of those weekends where you get giddy with having talked to people, but obviously at the core of it is something very important, which is journalists ability to write about what's going on in the White House. And we come at a period when we had a group of White House correspondents who couldn't write about what was going on in the White House, which was that the president was not entirely competent, which we then saw fall out at the debate. And now we have a White House where they don't want the press or the certainly independent press in the room at all.

[Samantha Bee]

No, they just call them up. They call them up on signal. They just give them the story by included. They just include them. They don't need to. They don't need such more of a man such as.

[Joanna Coles]

Such a suspicious story. Isn't it how Jeffrey Goldberg was there in the first place. But, Amber, I'm very curious about how you think of it through the lens of comedy. I mean, there's so much that is so serious right now. Is comedy the only. Is comedy the only thing left to help us interpret this?

[Amber Ruffin]

I feel like comedy is so.

[Samantha Bee]

I'm putting on my glasses. Weird.

[Amber Ruffin]

I'm like so drunk. I'm already so drunk. She's in her house. She can be however she wants.

[Joanna Coles]

She's got funny little French frames with her French glasses. She's brought back. She's trying to look like we're on that show. Apostrophe.

[Samantha Bee]

That's right. Oh, very important. No comedy. Comedy is going to save us, Amber. It's going to be you.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah. I think it might just be down to Amber Ruffin, but the woman who came up.

[Samantha Bee]

You do it.

[Amber Ruffin]

I do love laughing about things when they get terrible. I feel like that's definitely a black thing. It's certainly a roughen thing. And it's definitely. My thing is when things get really terrible, to be like, I can't believe this. You can't help it. You can't help but to laugh.

[Samantha Bee]

Okay. Have I got news for you. A great show. Good segue to talking about the show. Does the show help you process what you're. Is it like. I don't know. It is good. And I miss talking to people about like a Joanna. And I do it now once a week. But I do kind of miss that daily breakdown of. Yeah, like it is nice to talk to people who see the world through that kind of chaotic, weird lens. It's helpful in a way. Is it helpful to you?

[Amber Ruffin]

It feels great, right? It's a special added element because, you know, we would get the news breakdowns and we'd get setups and we'd write punchlines. I'm saying would, but I still do. But what happens at have I Got News for You is you just come in knowing what you know, and then you get quizzed on the rest of it. So you have to find out in real time while people are looking at you, horrible things that have happened. So then they know how dumb you are, and they know that you know a little too much about xyz. But also your. Your honest reactions come through. And that's all comedy is, is just, if this man does this again, I'll scream. And then the inevitable scream of it. That's basically all comedy is.

[Joanna Coles]

You've had. I mean, obviously your co captain, or your opposite captain, is Michael Ian Black, who writes a wonderful column for the Daily Beast. We love him. How do you get on with the sort of straighter conservative politicians that you've had on as the straight people?

[Amber Ruffin]

Really? Terribly. I mean, I'm fun and I'm nice, but I'm old. Kir, don't be coming around me with this bullshit, because I didn't invite them there. You know what I mean? Like, if I had invited them there, I'd be like, hey, this is my house. Welcome. But I. I don't have to do anything but stay black and die. So I'm gonna act however I was going to act to begin with. So I feel also like they don't mind it. Like, no one's saying, hey, make sure to be nice. They don't care. They're like, hey, rip it. Rip it up. Bang, bang, bang. So I just act as a surprise to no one exactly how I want to 100% of the time. It's fine.

[Samantha Bee]

It's great.

[Amber Ruffin]

And also, no one's dumb enough to be running up in there talking about, you got a blah, blah, blah. I wish somebody would, right?

[Joanna Coles]

You look like you're having enormous fun. I did the show last season, and I just had the best fun. Roy Wood is hilarious as. As the moderator. Michael in black is great. You're fantastic.

[Amber Ruffin]

It's just a really good episode. You did really good.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, that's nice for you. All I remember is my face was aching from laughing because you actually film it for two hours, and then the actual show itself is Edited down. But I couldn't stop laughing. I found the whole thing so funny.

[Samantha Bee]

It's a really funny show. It's such a good show. Do you. Oh, did you go to, okay, the Mark Twain Prize? They just gave out the Mark Twain prize to Conan O'Brien. Were you there? Were you there? Did you. Do you go to stuff like that? Do you. Are you like, sign me up? I gotta be at that thing.

[Joanna Coles]

Is that.

[Samantha Bee]

Is this the last one ever? Or does it go to Greg. Does it go to Greg Gutfeld next year? Oh, no, I. Oh, no.

[Amber Ruffin]

That broke my feelings so bad.

[Samantha Bee]

I broke.

[Amber Ruffin]

I broke because, Sam, you know it will. I know you know it would.

[Samantha Bee]

I do know.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh.

[Amber Ruffin]

Oh, my God. That hurts my feelings so hard.

[Samantha Bee]

I'm sorry.

[Amber Ruffin]

Because you shouldn't have it.

[Samantha Bee]

I wish that I could reverse the polarity of the earth and I wish that I could like reverse time and take back that. I said that.

[Amber Ruffin]

Actually that's what you would do.

[Samantha Bee]

That's what I would do. If I was super woman. I would. I would do it. I would waste. If I had one genie wish. That's what I would waste it on. Taking back that joke.

[Amber Ruffin]

I was so happy a minute ago.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, no.

[Amber Ruffin]

But you know, that's what. And that's the gross thing about all of this is we all can do the math. We know that this is going to get worse. Nothing's going to come save us. There is. There are. All of the breaks that are in place are failing. It's going to. It's a runaway train and it's going to smash everyone in the trolley problem. Somehow it's going to get the five people and it's going to get the person you love. It smashing us all.

[Joanna Coles]

No, no. Comedy is going to save us. I can't let this interview end on such a negative note.

[Samantha Bee]

Do it. Do it.

[Joanna Coles]

The ability to laugh in all times is going to save us. Listen, best of luck for White House correspondents. You've got a month to go. I'm sure there will be a lot of news before then.

[Samantha Bee]

I cannot wait. I think you're gonna kill it. I think you're gonna kill it too. I cannot wait to watch.

[Amber Ruffin]

I guarantee I'll have a blast.

[Samantha Bee]

That's right.

[Amber Ruffin]

Fun. And that's a guarantee.

[Samantha Bee]

That is all I need to see.

[Joanna Coles]

Thank you very much, Amber. And we will. Well, I'll look forward to seeing. I'll be in the room. I shall look forward to seeing you.

[Samantha Bee]

Okay.

[Amber Ruffin]

But hey, love is not bad.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, bye.

[Joanna Coles]

Bye. I can't wait for her to. To take that room hostage.

[Samantha Bee]

I love Amber Ruffin. You know what? When people are having fun doing the thing that they love to do, that is when the audience loves it the most. And she is just authentically a person who seeks to have a good time when she's doing her work. And, like, I think that's why she. I don't know, for me, truly shines. And I just love watching her. I think she'll do a great job, like, and she will meet this moment, and then there will be only bad comedians from ever a while here on after. I mean, I don't know. I'm. Who knows how they're gonna run it? I don't know. Oh, God, I can't believe I made sentences today. I can't believe it.

[Joanna Coles]

I can't believe that we put this together. You came back from France. I'm in California. None of this makes sense. But we. We managed to. To put it together. And we should just thank people for listening if they have been. If they haven't, they should be subscribing to the Daily Beast. It's very straightforward.

[Samantha Bee]

Dailybeast.com yes, keep sending those emails, please. Would you please send us emails to bespod@the dailybeast.com or comment on YouTube. Comment on YouTube. Joanna, have you been responding to that?

[Joanna Coles]

I have been back at it.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, no. Joanna's gonna evolve longer, more slender fingers to type more efficiently.

[Joanna Coles]

I do it late at night, which is probably the worst possible thing.

[Samantha Bee]

Nothing is more restful. Nothing puts you into a deeper slumber than responding to 150 YouTube comments.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, well, there's more than that now, actually. What's interesting is when you get into an exchange with someone so very interesting.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, my God. Well, I hope everyone likes my sweater this week and that my cat's butthole was in the camera many times during our recording.

[Joanna Coles]

I think you're. And do we want to tell people what your cat is called?

[Samantha Bee]

Her name is Susan Collins, and that is because it makes me laugh every time I say it. Susan Collins. She's very cute. All right. Do we have to. We have more things to say.

[Joanna Coles]

We only have one more thing to say. Okay, this is your sign out line.

[Samantha Bee]

Oh, my God. Everybody listen. Times are rough. The world is a crazy place. And if there's one thing that we can all do to improve the world that we live in, it's to in the words of my muse, get out there and just be best.

[Joanna Coles]

We really need to be beast.

[Samantha Bee]

We could also be beast. We could be Beast.

[Joanna Coles]

Sam, you're a beast.

[Samantha Bee]

We should have a section of this called Beast Mode. And it's just, we should. I don't know what it is, but it'd be funny.

[Joanna Coles]

I would say that you. I think you're in beast mode today. I think coming back. What I'm amazed you were allowed back into the country. First, let's just give a little dance to the gods of global entry that you sailed through without being arrested. And we should remind people that the Daily Basis Beast podcast is produced by Sarah Demikoff, Sia Baron Reinstein, Jesse Cannon and Seamus Calder. It's edited by Deanna Chapman and it's engineered by Johnny Simon.

[Samantha Bee]

Brought to you by Hoolarious Stand Up Comedy now on Hulu. Hey everybody.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hulu has a bunch of new stand.

[Samantha Bee]

Up specials that aren't just funny, they're hoolerious. Very funny, Hulu. Anyway, they're launching new exclusive stand up specials from awesome comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Ilana glaser, Roy Wood Jr. Bill Burr, and tons more. A new special drops every month and they've got a huge library of stand up specials to check out. Go to Hulu and get your stand up fix now. This podcast is brought to you by Aura. By the time you hear about a data breach, your information has already been exposed for months. On average, companies take 277 days to report a breach. That's nine months where hackers have access to your personal data. That's why we're thrilled to partner with Aura. Aura is an all in one digital safety solution that monitors the dark web for your phone number, email and Social Security number, sending real time alerts if your info is found. It also includes a vpn, password manager and data broker removal to help keep you safe for a limited time. Aura is offering a 14 day free trial plus a dark web scan to check if your personal information has been leaked. All for [e-mail] safety. That's Aura.com safety to sign up and protect your loved ones. That's a u r a.com safety. Terms apply. Check the site for details. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.

[Amber Ruffin]

They said over and over and over.

[Samantha Bee]

Again and we just ignored it. What if a warning siren sounds from.

[Joanna Coles]

Lawfare and Goat Rodeo? This is Escalation, a podcast about the United States and Ukraine. We were all living in a bureaucratic.

[Hugh Doherty]

Process and Putin's living in the world of hard power.

[Samantha Bee]

And the word escalation.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Everyone just says it.

[Samantha Bee]

This latest Escalation paralyzed because of nuclear escalation. And you know what is interesting about the war? When you don't want to understand the war from the distance, it comes closer and closer. Escalation is out now. Wherever you get your podcasts, ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast. Com.