Seth meyers. Goodnight, everybody announcer tonight on late night with seth meyers, Kelly Clarkson safety for the new orleans saints, athlete and activist, malcolm jenkins. Author and journalist michael schmidt. Featuring the 8g band with sonny emory. And now seth meyers. Seth welcome to late night, everyone i hope im not jinxing it, but i think this is the week america gets back to normal. Whats that . Oh, i jinxed it . Oh, man. Lets get to the news. President trump held a latinos for trump roundtable discussion in las vegas yesterday at the Treasure Island hotel and casino because nothing makes trump feel at home more than an empty casino several Major Television networks including cnn reportedly decided not to send crews to cover President Trumps indoor rally in nevada yesterday due to safety concerns, and not, wasnt news. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer appeared on stage yesterday at a new York Comedy Club with jerry seinfeld, and the event was very funny, but to his credit, President Trump also killed President Trump claimed over the weekend that former Vice President joe biden has lost support among hispanic voters and said, quote, remember, miami cubans gave me the highly honored bay of pigs award for all i have done for our great cuban population. What the hell is the bay of pigs award . Thats not a thing wait, what am i thinking . Oh, you know what . It was a nick kids choice award for home alone 2. It was given to me by Gloria Estefan thats why i assumed cuba. Yesterday was the first nfl sunday of the season thats right one week down, two, maybe three more to go according to a new fox news poll, more voters believe that former Vice President joe biden is mentally sound than President Trump. In fact, trump didnt even come in second. Journalist megyn kelly is reportedly launching a new Podcasting Company called devil may care media. And before everyone gets all up in arms about it, yes, the devil is also white. Home depot recently announced that they will not offer black friday sales due to the coronavirus pandemic, and will instead offer discounts from november to december while kmart announced that everythings going to be free, and the first 500 customers also get a switchblade. And finally, the makers of the marshmallow treat peeps recently announced that due to the coronavirus pandemic, they will so, kids, if you want some peeps this halloween, youll just have to eat the ones you never touched from last year and that was the monologue ladies and gentlemen, weve got a great show for you tonight season two of the Kelly Clarkson show starts september 21st my friend Kelly Clarkson is here he is a twotime super bowl champ and has a new documentary, black boys, streaming on peacock. Malcolm jenkins is back on the show plus, he is a New York Times pulitzerwinning correspondent who has a new book, donald trump v. The United States inside the struggle to stop a president. Michael schmidt will join us too. But, before we get to all of that, as wildfires and an out of control pandemic continue to rage, the president and his party are descending deeper into lawless authoritarianism for more on this, its time for a closer look. Seth donald trump and his allies desperately want you to believe that for the last four years, joe biden has been the president. For example, last week the Trump Campaign released an ad with the text this is joe bidens american. I mean, he does live here, but thats about it. By the same token, this is ben afflecks america, or cue card wallys america seth, i would love to tell you about my Healthcare Plan seth not now, wally. And on meet the press yesterday, gop chairwoman Ronna Mcdaniel had this to say when asked about trumps coronavirus failures you compare us to the rest of the western world, and we have failed is there any way to look at this and compare to the western world and say that weve done better than other countries i will just tell you right now if democrats were in charge, if joe biden had his way, go look at his statements in january when he said the president was being xenophobic hes not the president. And hysterical for closing the borders to china hes not the president. No. No, no, he was running for president , and he had the same data and the same information. So i think its disgusting to take a crisis in our country and try and lay it at the feet of the president. Seth first of all, im not sure biden did have the same data and information as the sitting president. With that said, trump probably never looked at that data, so maybe thats what she means . Joe biden has access to cable news and twitter just like the president. And im not sure it is disgusting to take a crisis in our country and lay it at the feet of the guy whos in charge of our country what other options do we have . Should we just leave a negative review on chipotles yelp page that hardly seems fair seriously, you guys are the party of personal responsibility, except when the person is donald trump on friday, we recorded 1,200 new deaths in one day. Canada recorded zero and yet, when she was asked about trumps failures, mcdaniel blamed the death toll nonsensically on increased testing. How do you account for the fact that its the United States of america that accounts for 25 of the worlds deaths . Well, we do have more testing. Seth wait, what . Do you think the tests are killing people how deep are they pushing those swabs . We test people to see if theyre sick, not to see if theyre dead you know that, right have you ever watched an episode of law and order when the m. E. Shows up, its to determine cause of death, not, are they going to be okay . Trump has catastrophically mishandled the worst crisis in this country in over a hundred years, and hes lied to the American People about it, as we learned last week from the bombshell woodward tapes but its not just that hes an incompetent liar hes also actively making it worse. Last night he held his first indoor rally in months in nevada, in violation of the states covid restrictions there were lots of chanting and very little social distancing. And many refused to wear masks at all if you were actively trying to get people sick, this is how you would do it. The only way he could spread the virus more efficiently is to hold a rally at a meatpacking plant and charge one french kiss for admission. At his next rally, theres going to be one make America Great again kleenex that everyone has to share just blow your nose and pass it around trump fever we know these events can seed outbreaks because its already happened after trumps tulsa rally in june, the local Health Director said it was likely the source of a surge in cases there even the current director of the National Institutes of health, francis collins, whos normally very mildmannered, had harsh words for how irresponsible these events are what do you think when you see these images of an event like this it just deeply puzzles me, sanjay how did we get here . Imagine you were an alien who landed on planet earth, and you saw that our planet was afflicted by an Infectious Disease and that masks were an effective way to prevent the spread and yet when you went around, you saw some people not wearing them and some people wearing them and you tried to figure out why, and it turned out it was their political party. And you would scratch your head and think this is just not a planet that has much promise for the future seth well, i mean, at this point im guessing most intergalactic ports have travel advisories warning aliens not to come to earth. And what a terrible time for an alien to land here if they were looking for any kind of attention. I am bylor from grammaxseven oh, okay, good for you just put on a [ bleep ] mask if an alien landed on planet earth right now, theyd take one look around, shift into reverse, and hightail it out of here like a family of tourists who took a wrong turn on vacation. Theres a deadly virus, and the sky is orange . You know what, kids, get back in the spaceship. I dont care you can pee when we get to venus. As controversial as this may sound to republicans, the fact is, donald trump is currently the president. And hes overseen an era of crisis unprecedented in our lifetimes. Its hard to watch whats happening in our country right now and avoid the conclusion that everything is broken. Rich ghouls are dismantling the post office. Kids cant get to school there are massive lines at food banks. Were nearing 200,000 covid deaths and in the west millions of acres have burned. The air itself is a Health Hazard, and the sky is literally orange i mean, holy [ bleep ] this looks like a scene from total recall. No wonder kuatos been all over the tv lately. Im sorry, americas kuato when trump flies in to tour the damage, he should have the guitar guy from mad max fury road strapped to the front of air force one. You know, the apocalyptic nature of the trump era has really been on the nose in many ways but even i never thought wed have to lock ourselves inside and wear face masks while the sky turns blood red. I feel like im in a y. A. Novel. The only thing were missing is Forest Whitaker in a mech suit telling us we have to find time crystals to restore balance to the universe schools are closed, the sky is orange, and tom brady is on the buccaneers we must reset the time line. The only upside of 2020 is theres a good chance the film adaptation will star Jennifer Lawrence and timothee chalamet. We could all use just a little just a little bit more chalamet also imagine finally reemerging from six months of quarantine only to be told you have to go back inside for a different thing. Oh, is it covid surging again . Um, no. Its not that. Its oof, oh, how do we put this the sky is on fire. More than 3 million acres have burned in california alone in oregon, than 40,000 people have been evacuated, and half a million are in potential danger zones. There is no doubt that thets han super charged by Climate Change. New res. L. A. County just set a new record temperature of 121 degrees. Thats insane. Scientists and experts have been clear that what were seeing right now is the direct result of Climate Change. We just had two unprecedented heat waves backtoback. Some of the hottest temperatures ever experienced in the southwest and in california. Both of them basically unprecedented, made worse by Climate Change and that really dries out the foliage. It dries out the brush it dries out the trees what that does is it adds energy and heat to the atmosphere that dries out the brush it dries out the atmosphere. It causes a moisture gap or moisture deficit in the atmosphere and Research Shows that that moisture deficit can explain almost all of the increase in burned area since the 1970s. Seth thats right. Climate change has produced a moisture gap thats making wildfires worse. Of course, a moisture gap is also what you call the distance between trumps lips and a bottle of water. Damn you, water come here, stop stop playing so coy, water. You guys, weve got to get someone to close the moisture gap. Can we put fauci on it to work on a solution . Why, whats he working on . Covid . Still . All right. Six of the top 20 largest wildfires in californias history have all happened just this year. And if we dont take mass collective action to address Climate Change now, things are only going to get worse. Unfortunately, Climate Change is happening right now in california and weve been lengthening the fire season quite considerably as we warm up the planet we know because of research from scientists that we have 500 more risk for wildfires during this climatechanged world than we would have before and thats because its really hot and dry because we have had droughts and of course that drought, which is caused by Climate Change, has led to a lot of vegetation dying, meaning theres a lot of brush lying around that can easily light up. The fact is, Climate Change is the real culprit behind what were seeing right now should we expect that trend to continue . Unfortunately, we should. What scientists are telling us is that we are entering a period of mega fires. Seth i love when Scientists Say the hell with it and give something a simple to understand, yet terrifying name just so we might pay a little bit of attention to it most of the time Scientists Use jargon like anthropogenic Climate Change or atmospheric aerosols but when they discover something really bad, they just give it a name that makes you [ bleep ] your pants so as you can see here, rising heat combines with wind turbulence to form eddies of air that create a vortex of combustible gases and hexapod invertebrates or what we in the Science Community call a giant killer fire tornado full of wasps and bees we all laughed when syfy came out with sharknado, but if they make another one, im going to be watching it with a notepad. Sharks can penetrate cinderblock. Okay good to know good to know so while a deadly pandemic continued to grow in at least 11 states with the nations top Infectious Disease expert calling the situation disturbing, and historic wildfires scorched millions of acres across the west, turning the sky orange and making the air a Health Hazard for millions of americans, what was the president of the United States doing . He was watching hours and hours of fox news. I watch some of the shows i watch liz mcdonald shes fantastic. I watched fox business i watched lou dobbs last night, sean hannity last night, tucker last night, laura. I watched fox friends in the morning. You watch these shows, you dont have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are its really an amazing thing seth my god, man you just named like six different fox news shows were you stuck overnight in an airport . No one should watch that much fox news in one sitting. Thats like telling your doctoru cram 50 cigarettes in your mouth at once. Also, can we go back to this comment . You watch these shows, you dont have to go too far into the details. Seth yeah. Heaven forbid we get caught up in the details on our news shows. You know what i like about hannity . Never uses words that are longer than one syllable. Very easy to follow. Thats the president of the United States bragging that as several states were on fire and the death toll from an out of control pandemic neared 200,000, he was sitting in front of his tv watching fox news like a grandpa whose rascal scooter ran out of batteries someone push me into the other room. And when hes not watching fox, hes on fox. Like on saturday, when he sat down for an interview with Jeanine Pirro where he threatened to send federal forces to put down protests after the election, falsely claimed shadowy figures were behind civil unrest, and celebrated extrajudicial killings by state forces lets say there are threats they say that theyre going to threaten riots if they lose on Election Night assuming we get a winner on Election Night what are you going to do well put them down very quickly if we do that. How are you going to do that . We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want. Look, its called insurrection the suburbs are going to be next yeah. Look, the suburbs, the people, these same protesters but theyre not protesters, theyre anarchists, theyre agitators and theyre rioters. Who are they . Theyre people that in many cases are paid we sent in the u. S. Marshals for the killer, and in a short period of time they ended in a gunfight this guy was a violent criminal. A lot of them out there and the u. S. Marshals killed him. And i will tell you something. Thats the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this seth i mean, just listen to the words hes using retribution, agitators, insurrection its like fascist magnetic poetry and also no one is destroying the suburbs. What are you talking about the only thing destroying the suburbs is the proliferation of spencers gifts in our nations malls, poisoning our childrens minds with their sexy calendars. As a general rule, i wouldnt trust Jeanine Pirro as a source of information on anything, since im pretty sure her blood alcohol level is like 99 white wine spritzer. Her show on mute is still louder than an f15 taking off. Its hard to watch this and avoid the conclusion that these ghouls want a straightup fascist state where the government can put down protests with violence and seek extrajudicial retribution against suspects meanwhile, they dont care if the country crumbles large parts of the west are on fire, a deadly virus is on the rise in 11 states, and americans are lining up for hours at food banks. And if youre wondering which of those crises the president is currently keeping an eye on, dont worry, hes closely monitoring the shows seth this has been a closer look. Seth well be right back with Kelly Clarkson, everyone. Announcer for more of seths closer looks, be sure to subscribe to late night on youtube. grandmother thank you for taking me home. Its so far. young woman dont worry about it, grandma thisll be fun. young woman two chocolate milkshakes, please. grandmother make it three. young woman three . grandmother did you get his number . young woman no, grandma grandma grandmother excuse me young woman vo some relationships get better with time. Thats why i got a crosstrek. avo ninetyseven percent of Subaru Vehicles sold in the last ten years are still on the road. grandmother im so glad you got a subaru. young woman i wonder who gave me the idea . avo love. Its what makes subaru, subaru. We believe in good we can all afford sing it, yeah, yeah from coffee that opens more eyes to black business. All gold to me to a hundred shades of beautiful. Yeah, good to me swipe, lift, spin, dry. Slam, pan, still. Fresh move, move, move, move aaaaand still fresh. Degree. Ultimate freshness activated when you move. Do i use a toothpaste that or one thats good for my teeth . Ultimate freshness now i dont have to choose. Crest 3d white. It removes up to 95 of surface stains. And strengthens enamel. From the number one toothpaste brand in america. Crest. I like big jeans. Ittybitty jeans. Feelin trendy yall, with the straight jeans showin off those curves, cause you the queen meri. With fits for the whole fam. Only at old navy and oldnavy. Com has a stronger signal and faster speeds. Its not just fast its super fast. We like it. But how can we say its more than super fast . Boost mobiles upgraded network its eeeeeyooouuuuuuuu fast curious how do you spell eeeeeyouuuuuuuuu . . . Get boost mobiles shrink it plan, and watch your bill shrink to 35 month after just 6 ontime payments. Plus get a free Samsung Galaxy a11 when you switch, all on our new, upgraded network. Seth this weeks drummer is a master musician and performer whos played with everyone from earth, wind, and fire to the b52s, and is currently working with the great eric clapton. His new album full tilt, featuring sonny emory is available now. Sonny emory is here. Welcome back to the show, sonny. Our first guest tonight is a grammy awardwinning singer and songwriter, a coach on nbcs the voice and host of the Kelly Clarkson show, which will kick off its Second Season on september 21st right here on nbc. Please welcome back to the show my friend and a daydrinking legend, Kelly Clarkson, everyone hello, kelly hello seth it is so oh, im trying to fix this. There we go. Is that good seth oh, thats so great im so close [ laughter ] seth youre so close, but i youre not close enough for my money i would much rather see you in person, but were doing what we can. I know. Im, like, one of those people that likes to hug. So this is definitely not my cup of tea seth and i should say when i i went to l. A. And i was a guest on your show once, and it is an incredibly warm atmosphere, unsurprisingly, that you have built in that show. I know youre coming back to do a Second Season like this, with guests remotely. How are how are you guys going about it i mean, we have a limited crew here im assuming itll be the same for you. Yeah. I mean, all the restrictions you get, everybodys tested all the time, like crazy everybodys wearing all the gear and, even myself, unless im, like, on stage and, like, working. And its you know, we have virtual you know, we have people coming in virtually, like this, like an interview. And then we also have were allowed like one, tops two, i think, on a stage with us, and we all have to be so far apart luckily, i have a big stage, so thats possible. And then our audience is, like, virtual. But its kind of cool in a sense because weve had people from all over the world, now, at the show and usually its, you know, whoever can couldve flown to l. A. And whatever. But now weve had people from all over the world like sitting in the audience and im getting to talk to them and theyre interacting and everything so thats actually pretty cool but its you know its like your crew. We dont have everyone back yet, and its were definitely everyones working a little harder, obviously, to make it work but i think its good that all our people have work, you know and were trying to get people back as safely as possible just so i mean, this is a big financial crisis for a lot of people seth its both wonderful to have a crew back, its both wonderful to have you back for an audience that has, in a very short time, come to love your show and i should congratulate you since i last saw you you guys won a daytime emmy. Congratulations. We did [ laughter ] we were so excited seth i would imagine i didnt even get to, like, see it i feel gypped. I totally missed it. And i was called and it was hysterical, actually, how i found out. Because i was just with my kids. I was honestly building legos and it was a masterpiece but im used to being at the awards show, so you you never watch them because youre there. So, anyway, so that was i feel gypped for my firsttime ever emmy. So, yeah, that was really awesome because we you know, were still finishing up our first season and, man, what a first season it was. [ laughter ] what a way to start a 2020. Seth have they managed to get you the emmy in the mail yet . Has it shown up . No. [ light laughter ] im so excited though. I im literally im going to rub it in i think just going to bring it and set it on my voice chair seth yeah. Like, at the voice. And just be, like, oh, on of these . Well, actually, i guess john has one. Hes got an egot hes like an egot winner i just want to be an ego i just want an oscar so i have an ego i dont want an egot seth you know, thats true i think most people with most people who only have an emmy also have an ego so youre pretty close but for those who dont know, the egot is the emmy, the grammy, the oscar, and the tony you are now halfway there. You, obviously, won some grammys over the years what would you say is most likely to happen next . Do you feel more confident about the oscar or the tony . Im going to be honest. I dont feel confident about either [ laughter ] i dont live in new york, so the tony will be hard. And while im not meryl streep, i dont think thats shocking, so i dont see an oscar in the future [ laughter ] seth see, but theres a lot of paths i think youre being negative about this first of all, you just let somebody make a musical called, like, since u been gone, and its just all your songs [ laughter ] and you, basically youre just a producer on that, right it still counts. Well then i feel like youre cheating to get it at this point, im satisfied and content with eg. Seth yeah, but like but it wasnt like john legend won his oscar for being in a movie you write a song for a soundtrack you can do that. Okay. I can see doing a song for it, okay but, see, then id get the ego seth yeah, there you go. All right, so were saying oscar is more likely next. And were saying youre, like, 98 confident within two years im saying zero percent, never going to get the other two. [ laughter ] seth you i do want to ask, you know, because its not just your show coming back the voice is coming back as well you guys had figured out that to some degree last season. Are you excited to, as much as you can, see your fellow colleagues from that show . Yeah. We actually have been able to see each other, all at a safe distance, obviously. But its been really good because the end of last season was a little weird the lives, nobody saw each other. You missed that energy and, you know, music. Its a hard thing to translate remotely, you know so, everythings really, really cool for this next season in a sense that theyve really navigated it quite well. And we felt really lucky, the coaches, because we were, like, god, nobodys heard live music in a hot second. And we were having all these amazing singers and the band perform for us but its been a lot of work for the crew and for our teams, and, obviously, its a minimal crew were only allowed to have, like, one person in the whole, you know, place. So, its been i dont know. Its been kind of fun, though, too because the intimacy is kind of cool, like, with the singers. And, you know, that vibe, we dont have anything getting in the way of that, so. Seth it is it is really exciting to think about. I think in the way that people feel about seeing sports again that at any level watching the things that were used to seeing live has been a nice, at least step towards what i hope will be normal soon. God, yes. Seth i want to ask this because im very impressed obviously, youre a very busy person you are juggling, you know, a lot of different things. And yet, you also found time to work on an album in this time. And i wanted to ask, did you conducive to being creative . Because i knew writers who felt that i knew others who just couldnt get a single word on a page. Can you just talk about your process being creative during this time . Yeah. I mean, honestly, i wasnt feeling creative in that sense, at first, until my personal life just took a nosedive so [ light laughter ] so, you know, i think how i get through my emotions is through music. Thats actually how ive always kind of been able to its very therapeutic for me. So its how ive always been able to kind of process everything and so, actually, my i am so thankful for, like, the gift of being able to do that, because its keeping all of that in while going through something so huge, and everybody around you going through something so huge, and theres just a lot of weight with decisions and everything. And you know, that was really helpful for me so, my whole next record is, obviously, just kind of like about a relationship in the sense of how beautiful and, you know, puppy love it can be and how intimate and all you hope for, and then reality of it sometimes, and then it just kind of goes with this whole ride and its just very honest. You know, um, and i dont know i just i dont know how anybody goes through something this traumatic any kind of loss, honestly, without having some sort of Creative Outlet or therapy or something because its so its a lot. And especially this year was already a lot. You didnt need to add any kind of cherry on top of the Dumpster Fire were all experiencing. So, its kind of its a catch22 im excited that i had it as an outlet im not so excited about, like, you know, everyone hearing all of it. But, you know, i guess we go through things to experience them with everyone, and, you know, have a sort of testimony, i guess. But i was glad, like i said, i had that outlet for that time. Seth i obviously am sorry that you went through such turbulent times, but im happy that you have that gift. And not only is it cathartic for you, but its really great that that youre gonna that you can share it with the rest of us i think thatll be really helpful. Yeah. Do you do that as a writer do you is that when you when youre kind of struggling with anything . Seth yeah. I mean, i think that it was really hard for me i thought, when it started, like, oh, im going to get so much done because there will be more time. But then, you know, i did find it not in a negative way, but redirecting that energy towards a family that i saw a lot more, and it was like, oh, you know what i think i will use these extra hours right now to, you know, be with people that my job often takes me away from. So since i didnt get anything done, if you could just if you could just pick one song to say that i helped you write. [ laughter ] ill just give you credit one word, onethird. [ laughter ] seth hey, kelly, its always such a delight to see you. And all the best to you and your family and well see you soon all right nice to see you, seth. I miss you seth i miss you too. Kelly clarkson show Second Season starts next monday. Well be right back with malcolm jenkins. Imagine the places well go. Together. Expedia is the people you share it with. Tmobiles new offer on iphone better so right now switch and get two new lines of unlimited for only 90 and get 2 iphone 11s or 2 iphone 11 pros on us. All on tmobiles most powerful signal that goes farther than ever before. Hurry into tmobile now and get two iphone 11 s or two iphone 11 pros on us. Only at tmobile. Killer attitude. Good moves. Or hydration. Neutrogena® hydro boost. The number 1 hyaluronic acid moisturizer instantly delivers 2 times the hydration. And keeps hydrating all day long. Running dry of supple, bouncy skin . Never hydro boost. 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Seth our next guest is a twotime super bowl champion, a safety for the new orleans saints, a cnn contributor, and the executive producer of the new documentary black boys, which is currently streaming on peacock. Lets take a look. What are we listening to . You start to see these images over and over of people losing their lives at the hand of police seth please welcome back to the show, malcolm jenkins. How are you, malcolm im doing well, seth. How are you doing . Seth im doing well. And congratulations, you opened the season with a i know youve been at this for a while. How sore are you on a monday after a game day um, im pretty sore right now. But you know, you get in a cold tub, you ice up a little bit and youre back at it tomorrow so but nothing out of the norm seth so last time we spoke, you were here, you were a newly crowned super bowl champion. And now were speaking after a game in which you played in front of no fans how was that as an experience for you . I mean, again, youve been playing football for a long time, but im sure youve never played in an empty stadium like that yeah, its weird. The first couple drives felt very much like a practice or a scrimmage. They talk about having, like, crowd noise pumped in thats about 70 decibels. Thats like about as loud as it sounds like somebodys, like, vacuum vacuuming the stadium. Thats how loud it was but you know, at the end of the day, it was a game and you start to get into the competitiveness of it and you get used to it but it definitely was a weird feeling not having your fan base there. Seth i know this summer, you had expressed some doubt, some hesitation about playing this season now that youre a week into it after a very obviously weird Training Camp and no preseason, how comfortable do you feel with the protocols and Safety Measures that are in place yeah. I think there has been a lot of ground thats been made up since the spring when we really didnt know much about what our protocols were going to be a lot of it was negotiated between our player union and league and i think weve gotten to a point where, you know, guys feel comfortable, were getting tested every day, the positive tests have been really, really low. So i think guys are comfortable, but that came about through a lot of negotiating, a lot of pushing and pulling. And you know, im glad we created an environment that at least allows some guys to feel as safe as possible as we try to play this game seth so, we also spoke before about your foundation and this is basically an organization thats trying to serve underserved communities. And at a time like this, you know, we always find out when something along the lines of a pandemic happens, it of course affects underserved communities disproportionately i assume you have to shift your focus and the way you approach helping people out have you found that to be the case during these incredibly difficult last six, seven months yeah. I think to what you alluded, you know, whenever you have these national crisises, you know, often times the communities that are already disadvantaged are get it the worst and also, so does those nonprofits that help those communities. And so, for us, weve had to pivot not you know, as with social distancing and a lot of restrictions we have a lot of inperson programs and what we did was say, okay, how do we make this virtual and turn all of this into the needs of today . And so, we are creating an online curriculum, an ecurriculum that kids can go and experience for free and get job training and job readiness, not only for kids who are going to go off to fouryear universities but also those who are going to take those nontraditional paths and go directly into the workforce. And so, were doing that and trying to not preach to kids at what they should be but really give them opportunities to see other people who have taken these paths and have been successful so they can see themselves as creatives, see themselves as entrepreneurs and really pursue those types of paths seth youre also a producer now, and one of the things youve produced is this really eyeopening documentary that i think allows voices that youre not used to hearing tell their stories. You were originally supposed to be just one of the subjects in this documentary and can you talk about the path from that to ending up on the producing side of it yeah. I mean, the film i was supposed to just be interviewed, and it was about kind of this spectrum of black boys and their humanity and i was intrigued because it was directed by a white woman. And she wanted to tell the story because at some point, she realized she had a fear of black men that she couldnt really explain. It wasnt taught to her, but that shed just kind of been conditioned by the things that shed seen and been you know, how black men are portrayed. And i think ive had a good loo george floyd and how somebody can put their knee on a mans neck for eight minutes almost nine minutes is because you have to either see him you have to see him either as superhuman or subhuman and often times, when we look at how we depict black men and black boys, its in those two buckets. And so there is a wide range of who we are were not monolithic you know, we have creativity, we are we have minds that are brilliant. We are creative. We have fears, we have joys, we have pain. And so really just being able to explore that and what does it look like as early as grade school what do our educators look like . What are the messages that were sending our kids and really just celebrating who we are as black boys and now, im really excited to do the same kind of project with black girls. Because i think they are subject to a unique experience thats even, you know, further kind of in the depths than black boys. Seth well, congratulations on the documentary you are definitely as adept a producer as you are a Football Player and an activist theres got to be something youre not good at, malcolm. Maybe we can get to it next time youre here. [ laughter ] golf. Seth golf. All right. Thank you. You and i, finally we have something in common. Thanks for being here. Black boys is streaming now on peacock. Well be right back. Im a verizon engineer. And im part of the team building. A powerful 5g experience for america. 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Bounce forward, with comcast business. Seth please come back all week well have wendy williams, blake griffin, cynthia nixon, michael stipe, larry wilmore, stacey abrams, and david byrne and, of course, all new closer looks. Well be right back with New York Times pulitzer prizewinning reporter, michael schmidt. This is my body of proof. Proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis. With humira. Proof of less joint pain. And clearer skin in psa. Humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. 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Theres a tidy cats for that we believe in good we can all afford sing it, yeah, yeah from coffee that opens more eyes to black business. All gold to me to a hundred shades of beautiful. Yeah, good to me only lexus asks questions like these, because we believe the most amazing machines are inspired by you. Experience the rewards of our curiosity. Rush to work, grab a drink, hurry home. [cell phone beeps] stop dont be on your phone. Let someone else take the wheel. Make a little eye contact. Make a plan. Its a busy world out there. Were all in it together. Go safely, california. A drink with friends can turn into two, and a prescription can be stronger than you thought. Stop there are a lot of ways to get a dui. And a lot of ways to go text a friend, call a cab, share a ride. Whatever you choose to do, go safely, california. Seth our next guest is a pulitzer prizewinning washington correspondent for the New York Times. His book donald trump v. The United States inside the struggle to stop a president is available now. Please welcome to the show michael schmidt. How are you, michael great thanks for having menk you so mr being here so i was fascinated by the contents of this book, but also, just what goes into covering stories like these the comey firing, the mueller investigation. You met sources at airports late at nights. You had to chase them down in d. C. It mustve been quite an undertaking. I mean, covering a trump story was like another like nothing we had ever covered before, primarily because of the speed. It was just so fast. And the news cycles turned over so quickly and we went to Great Lengths as you were saying, i lay out in the book about getting up at 3 00 in the morning and driving to airports to pick people up that were flying in who i wanted to talk to, thinking that was the only time i would get a chance to actually speak with them and to stay competitive and in this story, we pushed ourselves in ways that i think we never thought wed be tested in. Seth you have a brilliant piece of wording in describing what its like to interview donald trump, which is you say its like unzipping fog, which will stay with me a long time. You did manage to sit down and interview him at maralago, but it wasnt really scheduled how did it come about . So, what i was able to do was i was able to have one of the president s friends take me to lunch at his club. And the friend basically said, when the president comes off the course, well go over and talk to him, and maybe you can interview him. So, we did this. I was there. I looked like i was wearing golf clothes and we went over, and the president greeted me, and i crouched down next to him like a catcher because i wanted his undivided attention. I knew if i was just standing there at the table with other people, then i wouldnt get a chance to talk to him. And i needed to sort of convince him that he would sit with me for an interview so i crouched like a catcher, and i sat there as long as i could, and he was going on and on about state and local taxes and stuff. And i said, mr. President my legs were killing me and i said, mr. President , this is all really interesting why dont we sit down and do an interview . And he said, okay, let me just finish lunch, which i describe as him eating a head of lettuce that looked like it had been dowsed in thousand island dressing so i go back to my seat, and within a matter of moments, i hear michael, michael, get over here. And i had a chance to sit and interview the president for a half an hour seth its really amazing the energy he has for talking when hes had his lettuce [ laughter ] you draw attention to you know, i think people who follow the story have heard the name don mcgahn but maybe dont know him as well as they, say, know a comey or mueller you describe him as one of the most fascinating people of this story. Can you talk about how you came to that conclusion insofar as the role don mcgahn has played in the Trump Administration . So, mcgahn, to me, is consequential for so many reasons. First of all, he was in charge of the umbilical cord, the tie between trump and his base, which is the judges, the thing that allowed conservatives to stay with the president when he behaved in ways that they found to be unsavory because of that, and because of the impact mcgahn had, we will be living in don mcgahns america for decades and decades to come because of how he remade the federal judiciary. He was also a chief container of trump, someone who was stopping the president from hurting himself and the country and the office of the presidency and on top of that, he was a witness against the president in an existential threat to the presidency, being the mueller investigation. So mcgahn, as a lawyer, was being used as a witness against his client now, the question you probably may have is why would mcgahn stay if this was all going on . He stayed because he had a never and again opportunity to remake the courts and was willing to endure all of this and the risks of it in order to get the courts remade seth there is this idea that you talk about, and obviously others have talked about, you know, especially when we talk about why did people stay, which eory in dea of adults in the the end turned out to be a bad one, that they were not particularly good adults in the room or was it just a reminder that some adults cannot control their children i think that there were more adults earlier in the administration and they had more success. That does not mean that they had complete success or should be absolved for anything that happened in the first few years of the administration. But the john kellys of the world, the don mcgahns, were more of a barrier around the president. The president effectively got rid of people like that and has people less barriers in his way now. And i think that has left the president even more emboldened than ever before and he has a very unusual use of power and interest in using power. And there are those fewer guardrails now around him. Seth well, michael, i am so impressed that you wrote this book while you continue to be a working reporter i do not know how you juggle them both. But i am happy on each count and thank you so much for being with us tonight. Ld trump v. The United States is available now. Well be right back. Give you my world how can i, when you wont take it from me you can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. This is an ad for a chip we dont need a logo. Its the threesided crunch. You know, that cheesy, spicy, crispycrunchy, flavor packed bodega snack that rhymes with. I need those. An ad with no logo . Its another level. When you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. But when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. 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