Before you sit down,
in case people missed it,
can we...
What does that say?
(cheering and applause)
-Okay. -Yeah, you know,
since it's Halloween,
I thought I'd come dressed
as a first lady
who really does care.
(cheering and applause)
-Welcome back to the show.
-Thank you. It's been a while.
-Thank you for being here.
-Welcome to Mi...
 -Bienvenidos a Miami.
-Oh.
-(cheering and applause)
 -Muchas gracias.
-Have you had Cuban coffee?
-Have I had...?
-Cuban coffee.
-I've had Cuban coffee.
I've had Cuban sandwiches.
I've had, um, Cuban friends.
-I've had Cuban nights out.
-(laughs)
-Cuban everything.
-Stop right there.
(laughter)
Um, this is quite a time.
You know, you know,
what's interesting is, I mean,
I have a lot of people
who come to the show,
and we talk about politics,
and a lot of the time--
I won't lie-- many of the people
who come to The Daily Show
have political views that match
with mine or the audience.
But you're
in an interesting position
because you are a Republican.
Are you still a Republican?
You know, here's the thing.
I was a Republican when
Donald Trump was a Democrat.
I was a Republican when
Donald Trump was an independent.
And I'm a Republican
now that he's pretending
to be a Republican
and so many other Republicans
are enabling him
and allowing him to pretend.
(cheering and applause)
So, that-that presents
an interesting dilemma for you
-and for many Republicans
out there, right? -Yeah.
-Because a day like today's...
-Like Paul Ryan.
Yeah. A day like today's
a perfect example.
So, you have Donald Trump,
who comes out and says,
"I want to change
the Constitution.
"I want to say
that birthright citizenship
is no longer part
of the Fourteenth Amendment."
And Paul Ryan comes out
and says,
"Hey, that's-that's not
something that you can do.
That's unethical.
It's impeachable."
And Donald Trump replied,
and he said to Paul Ryan, um,
"You need to focus
on maintaining the House.
"I'm gonna do
what the new Republican party
needs to be done."
-(booing) -And that's...
No, no, hold on, hold on.
That's an interesting space
for many people to be in,
because it does feel
like in some ways,
Donald Trump is redefining
what the Republican party
is all about.
-What does that mean to you?
-I, uh...
Look, I think Donald Trump,
in a very short time,
in less than two years,
has redefined
the Republican party.
He has redefined the presidency.
It is now a place that is used
to bully other Americans.
It is a place that is used
to lie and spread fear.
And he has changed America.
He has changed the country.
He has polarized us in a way
-that's much greater
than we were already. -Right.
He has fabricated culture wars.
He has sown discord.
And he's handed the keys
to the kingdom to the Russians.
(cheering and applause)
So...
But I-I grew up--
You know,
to answer your question, look,
I grew up
in the Republican Party.
And many of us here in Miami
understand this,
where, uh, it-it was--
you know, we-we tried
to be more inclusive,
tried to win,
have a bigger tent.
Dinosaurs were not roaming
the Earth
when George W. Bush got 44%
of the Hispanic vote.
That was way before
they were doing things
like separating children
at the border
and putting them in little pens.
If you-- if you look at--
if you look at the situation
that-that America's in now,
in many ways, you see
Donald Trump and his effect
mirrored in politics
on a local level, you know?
For many Republican politicians,
it has now become
a clear choice:
either you are with Donald Trump
or you have to see your way out
of the Republican Party.
And people like Jeff Flake
have chosen that.
People like Paul Ryan
are saying, like,
"I'm out of the game."
Um, and then you have people,
like, politicians locally
like DeSantis,
who have run specifically
on a message of
"I am everything
that Trump embodies."
-Are you seeing that connecting
with people? -(loud booing)
Certainly.
Certainly so in primaries.
Look, um, Ron DeSantis is
Donald Trump's parasitic twin.
-But for Donald Trump,
-(cheering and applause)
-Ron DeSantis would not have won
the Republican primary. -Right.
And even after the primary,
instead of distancing himself
from Trump--
as, for example,
Rick Scott has done,
who's treating him
like a Zika mosquito--
Ron DeSantis embraces him.
Uh, Donald Trump is going
to be rallying for Ron DeSantis
in Florida today
and again before the elections.
And so he's, you know-- he's
modeled himself as a mini Trump.
He is now saying
that he, too, agrees
with, uh, repealing
the 14th Amendment
through executive order,
which is ridiculous
and unconstitutional.
And, uh, that's just the way
he's playing it.
Look, Donald Trump
had so much to do
on both sides
in deciding primaries.
Often, the ones who won
in Republican primaries
-were the ones who embraced him
the most, -Mm-hmm.
and the ones who won
in Democratic primaries
were the ones who opposed him
and confronted him the most.
And, you know, unfortunately,
many of the Republicans,
so many of the Republicans
who tried to stand up to Trump,
who tried to rebuke him
when he merited it,
uh, are either retiring,
like Flake,
have lost elections,
or have died.
And so you are-- you are left
with a Republican Party
that is more and more like Trump
and that depends on him
and knows him more.
If Ron DeSantis wins in Florida,
he owes it to Donald Trump.
He is indebted to Donald Trump.
At that point,
Donald Trump owns the guy.
But then here's a question
I have for you as a Republican
who says you've been
a Republican your whole life.
We always speak about it
as if Donald Trump operates
in isolation, as if...
Politicians operate
in isolation,
-but somebody has
to vote for them. -True.
And if Republican voters
are voting for these people,
and Republicans are choosing
people who go with Trump,
Republicans are choosing
to oust people like Jeff Flake,
choosing to oust people
who stand up to Donald Trump,
then do you think
that maybe there was a side
of the Republican Party
that either you were not seeing,
or you were choosing to not see?
-Both. Both.
-(applause and cheering)
And, um...
Look, there were 15...
I think two things happened.
I think you're right.
I think there was a shift
in the base,
and a... and a side of it
that many of us didn't see,
including
the 15 other Republicans
who ran
for the Republican primary,
people like Jeb Bush,
people like John Kasich.
But I also think
Trump brought out a, uh...
a-a different type of people,
a different class of people,
diff...
He brought out people
who had not been engaged
-in politics before...
-Right.
...who had not been motivated
to vote.
Well, we saw that with
the mail bomber, funny enough.
People said he wasn't political,
-and then, Donald Trump ignited
something in him. -So, he...
-Look, I-I think...
-(laughter, groaning)
That was not intended.
I'm... That was not... Sorry.
Excuse the pun.
The, um...
You know, like him or not,
I think
he has awoken something
in America on both sides.
(indistinct shouting)
Uh, I think, you know,
he has brought out people
on one side, but on the other--
you know,
on the Democratic side--
we're also seeing people
more engaged.
We're seeing candidates running
for the first time.
-(applause and cheering)
-We're seeing more LGBTQ,
people of color, women
running as candidates
because... because they got,
uh, energized,
because they got enraged,
and because they decided
to be part of the process.
I think you, uh,
you owe the #MeToo movement
-in large part
to Donald Trump... -(applause)
...and women said, you know...
Because women were silent
and didn't talk
-about the Donald Trump issues
before... -Right.
...we ended up with his
as president,
and-and that ignited
a frustration and anger in women
that motivated them to speak up,
and not remain silent,
and, you know, and-and stick
together in numbers.
So when you look at,
let's just say Florida itself,
let's look
at the-the governor's race.
You look at race between
Andrew Gillum, Ron DeSantis,
and you see Gillum
exciting people
in a different way.
You see people
who are engaged with him,
not just on policy,
but also in the way
that he actually, you know,
I guess conveys his message.
When you look at that race
as a Republican in Miami,
what do you make of it?
Look, I... You know, for me...
It's a very...
For me, I'm a centrist.
I'm a moderate Republican,
I'm a centrist.
And so when I look at that race,
on the one hand,
I've got Ron DeSantis,
who is increasingly...
Or forget increasingly.
-He's not an option.
-(applause and cheering)
-(cheering, applause)
-And on the other hand...
I've got Andrew Gillum,
who is a progressive Democrat
who is much further to the left
than I am on policy issues.
I had not met him before.
I met him a couple of days ago,
and I got to tell you something,
part of the reason
that guy is awakening something
is 'cause he's likable.
-(cheering) -I had
forgotten what it was like
to have a likable person
running in Florida.
He... he's, uh, you know,
he could charm a cat
out of a tree.
-(laughter)
-He actually likes people.
You know, he's relatable.
He tells jokes. He smiles.
He inspires.
He's working through a message
of unity and being positive.
-(cheering)
-And so, you know, look,
I think...
I think it's a...
it's a huge contrast
that Florida voters
have to choose from.
They're going to have to choose
from a message of...
-fear...
-Mm-hmm.
and, uh, scare tactics.
Like, for example,
one of the things
that's got me really upset, um,
in the last few days is--
and I know there's somebody here
from Venezuela--
-(indistinct shouts)
-Donald Trump is out there
saying that Andrew Gillum--
and by the way,
he's also saying it
about Beto O'Rourke in Texas--
but he's saying that Andrew
Gillum is going to turn Florida
-into Venezuela.
-Right.
People are dying in Venezuela.
It is ruled
by a murderous dictator
who beats, kills,
jails, harasses his opponents,
who expropriates property.
There is no food in Venezuela.
There is no medicine
in Venezuela.
People are starving.
It is a dictatorship.
So to be... to-to...
to incite that level
of fear in people
and to cheapen the trauma
of the Venezuelan exiles
who live here in Florida,
-(cheering, applause)
-the Nicaraguan exiles,
the Cuban exiles, who
have actually fled communism,
who have suffered
under those systems,
by casually
and cavalierly saying
Andrew Gillum is going to turn
Florida into Venezuela...
Well, if he does,
we've got a real problem,
'cause you know what,
we got a Republican legislature
in Florida, we got
a conservative Supreme Court
in Florida, we've got
checks and balances in Florida.
That is not going to happen.
And I hope Florida voters reject
a campaign of fearmongering
-(cheering, applause)
-and scare tactics.
We can't fall for that again.
Thank you so much
for being on the show again.
-Thank you.
-Always wonderful having you.
Ana Navarro, everybody.
