Jordan Klepper appeared on Monday’s edition of “Morning Joe” to promote his new “Daily Show” special and to push back against President Trump’s Peace Prize campaign, bluntly telling MS NOW viewers, “I don’t see it.”
His new special, which airs Monday night on Comedy Central, is called “Give the Man a Prize” and follows Klepper as he asks Americans on both sides of the political aisle during recent protests in cities like Portland and Chicago whether or not Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. The special also sees the “Daily Show” host travel to Norway to ask Norwegians if they think Trump should receive the award.
“We had this narrative of this man who wanted a Nobel Prize so badly that he was campaigning to get it,” Klepper said of the special’s origins during his appearance on “Morning Joe.” “At the same time, we see what’s happening in Portland and Chicago, federal troops, masked men taking people off the streets, it was like, ‘This is very incongruous here for a man who wants a medal so much that he proclaims to everyone that he’s the peaceful president.’ I don’t see it.
Regarding his trip to Norway, Klepper noted: “[Norwegians] are the nicest people who often didn’t want to express their opinions on camera because they simply didn’t see the need. The people we talked to were so kind but so blunt about how they saw America and, quite frankly, it was, “Donald Trump doesn’t deserve this award.” It’s stupid. The Comedy Central star added that there is a “small part of Nordic MAGA” that supports the president’s campaign.
“But for the vast majority of Norwegians, the Nobel Prize belongs to them and should be awarded to someone worthy of it,” Klepper continued. “The only small caveat is that they also gave this prize to encourage certain kinds of change. An ambitious Nobel Prize is not out of the question.”
In addition to talking about the Trump Peace Prize campaign, Klepper spoke about the change he’s witnessed among the president’s supporters over the past year. “I was at Trump’s inauguration and saw a change in the supporters who were [there]. “It confirmed everything they believed,” Klepper said. “For a while in the Trump era, it seemed like people were aware of the cruelty inherent in some of these beliefs, aware of some of the incongruities of logic.”
“But all of a sudden, Donald Trump is elected for the second time and this defensive attitude has disappeared,” concluded the comedian. “There’s just an openness to believing what you believe.” Asked next about the state of mainstream comedy during the second era of President Trump, Klepper insisted that satirical and light-hearted resistance is more necessary than ever.
“I’m very proud to be a part of this late-night tradition,” Klepper said. “You see what’s happening at these cabinet meetings, you see what’s happening with FIFA. What you’re looking at is people capitulating. The emperor has no clothes and all these people are there to tell him how sexy he looks when he dresses. I think we need more people to call out the nudity that’s out there, and the late night hosts have been doing that for a while.”
