“Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper opened up about what he’s learned from attending dozens of President Donald Trump’s MAGA rallies over the years.
“They put on a MAGA hat, that red hat, because as soon as you put that on, you feel like you’re a part of this team. You see 10,000 other people who share something in common with you. And that, I see and that I understand, and I yearn for more of that in my own life,” Klepper told Gavin Newsom on a Wednesday episode of the California governor’s podcast.
The problem is “the manipulation” of that sense of community, he said.
“These people are vulnerable and open to this,” he added, criticizing the “lies and BS that is fed to these folks.”
Klepper has made a name for himself on “The Daily Show” by confronting Trump supporters at rallies, often producing ridiculous moments of hypocrisy.
He told the governor that when he has these conversations with people at rallies, he is often just “confronting them with information that is new to them.”
But people begin to see the “cracks” in their own logic when they have to defend their beliefs to those who don’t share them, he added.
“They have to articulate their opinion that they’ve shared with their friends over and over again,” Klepper said. “They have to articulate why, for the first time in real time with me, and I think that’s when you start to realize. It’s like, oh, they haven’t stress tested this idea.”
The comedian said those moments are the “most revelatory” to him because he sees “the propaganda and how it seeps its way into people.”
“You see how identity is something that forces people to cling on to things, even though they may see the cracks in the logic,” Klepper said.
Despite differences in opinion, Klepper said he has built long-standing relationships with those who have attended the rallies over the years.
“I was a rock star at CPAC,” he said, referring to the Conservative Political Action Conference that took place a “couple years ago,” revealing that attendees wanted to talk to him and take pictures.
“I have friends that I see at these rallies now,” Klepper said. “I know all of the T-shirt salesmen. We’re pals. We see each other every week. I do have multiple friends who I’ve talked to over the years that it’s nice to like, reconnect with and see how their thoughts have changed or if they haven’t, and it is remarkable.”
Klepper told Newsom his intention is to find humor, hypocrisy and irony, not to change a Trump supporter’s mind.
“When it comes to changing people’s minds, changing people’s identity is hard, he said. “Once you put on that hat, people see you in that hat, and it’s not just that you can take the hat off, because your whole community saw you as the guy with that hat.”
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