The last time Stacey Abrams was on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, she compared herself Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainians fighting for their freedom. Now with only eight days until Election Day, she returned to join the show’s namesake host in Atlanta on Monday to decry the “vile” attacks against her while spreading election conspiracy theories and labeling Gov. Brian Kemp “the architect of voter suppression.”
Noah decried the negative campaign towards Abrams, “You know, it feels ridiculous, it feels like people don't believe it but it really feels like a campaign against you has been particularly personal, it's been particularly vile.”
Naturally, Abrams agreed, “Part of standing for office is you know people will attack you. You can either internalize the attacks or you can use it as fuel to remind you of why you're doing this every single day. And these are real people with real lives. And, yeah, Brian Kemp wants to say vile things about me.”
Later in the interview, Noah went full conspiracy theorist, “It is going to be a hotly contested race. They’re going to be stories coming out about poll stations that close when they shouldn't have and people kicked out of lines and purging, et cetera, et cetera.”
However, Noah insisted that his conspiracy theories are different than Trump’s because his are real, but wondered how Abrams plans to deal with the accusation that they aren’t:
What it creates is a really paradoxical world where, on the one hand, you want to call out, you know, election processes that aren't fair and make it as easy as possible for people to vote. On the other hand, people will be quick to turn that on you and say, ‘oh, but if Trump doesn't accept the election then he’s bad, but you also don't accept the election so you’re bad.’
How do you navigate that and how do you speak to the issues around voting in Georgia without making it seem like you don't accept the democratic process?
Abrams began her response by praising Noah, “You’ve actually done a great job of this but some of your colleagues have been very easily duped into conflation. There is one thing to be used to winning everything you want and being told no and whining about it and inciting insurrection. That’s what Brian-- that's what Donald Trump did. Donald Trump denied the outcome of an election.”
Contrary to Abrams’s claims, many in the media have made that excuse for her, because they apparently believe election conspiracy theories are okay so long as they do not end in violence.
Abrams also claimed, “I know I'm not governor. I have not been governor for four whole years. I've been very clear about that.”
And Trump knows he’s not president, but he thinks he should be just like Abrams thinks she should be governor.
After the earlier lamentations about “vile” attacks, Abrams launched into a vile attack against Kemp, “Voting rights, voting access is about who gets to show up.
Election outcomes, that is up to the voters, but access is the responsibility of government. And Brian Kemp's greatest hits, Brian Kemp is the architect of voter suppression and the reality is, they tried to stop us from talking about the access so they can gin up the outcome they want.”
No doubt the self-appointed guardians of disinformation will find a convenient way to ignore this.
This segment was sponsored by Lexus.
Here is a transcript for the October 31 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
10/31/2022
11:36 PM ET
TREVOR NOAH: You know, it feels ridiculous, it feels like people don't believe it but it really feels like a campaign against you has been particularly personal, it's been particularly vile.
STACEY ABRAMS: Part of standing for office is you know people will attack you. You can either internalize the attacks or you can use it as fuel to remind you of why you're doing this every single day. And these are real people with real lives. And, yeah, Brian Kemp wants to say vile things about me. My daddy is watching and I'm going to tell.
…
NOAH: It is going to be a hotly contested race.
ABRAMS: Oh, yes.
NOAH: They’re going to be stories coming out about poll stations that close when they shouldn't have and people kicked out of lines and purging, et cetera, et cetera. What it creates is a really paradoxical world where, on the one hand, you want to call out, you know, election processes that aren't fair and make it as easy as possible for people to vote.
On the other hand, people will be quick to turn that on you and say, “oh, but if Trump doesn't accept the election then he’s bad, but you also don't accept the election so you’re bad.”
How do you navigate that and how do you speak to the issues around voting in Georgia without making it seem like you don't accept the democratic process?
ABRAMS: You’ve actually done a great job of this but some of your colleagues have been very easily duped into conflation. There is one thing to be used to winning everything you want and being told no and whining about it and inciting insurrection.
That’s what Brian-- that's what Donald Trump did. Donald Trump denied the outcome of an election. I know I'm not governor. I have not been governor for four whole years. I've been very clear about that. That's how I got to go on Star Trek.
But what I have always fought for, and it's, I mean, you can go back, I was on the March on Washington when I was 19, so this-- I've a pretty clear track record on this. Voting rights, voting access is about who gets to show up.
Election outcomes, that is up to the voters, but access is the responsibility of government. And Brian Kemp's greatest hits, Brian Kemp is the architect of voter suppression and the reality is, they tried to stop us from talking about the access so they can gin up the outcome they want.
