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Trevor Noah

After that 'Daily Show' interview, is Tomi Lahren Trevor Noah's Bill O'Reilly?

Jayme Deerwester
USA TODAY

Throughout his years on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart had Fox News' Bill O'Reilly as his friendly foil. While diametrically opposed, they frequently appeared on each other's shows and were able to laugh together.

Won't some conservative please explain to Trevor Noah what the right way to protest is?

And now, successor Trevor Noah may have found his own Bill O'Reilly in The Blaze conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, who appeared on Wednesday night's show. They engaged in a spirited but respectful debate and managed not to talk over each other, a feat that's become all but unheard of on cable news the last few years.

And viewers noticed — and appreciated it.

Thursday morning as fans on both sides of the political spectrum heard about the interview, Lahren went from combative to conciliatory. After a late-night twitter swipe at "liberal snowflakes," she had another message for both her fans and his: "Trevor Noah is not an (expletive) or a jerk. I'm not an (expletive) or an (expletive). We are people with opposing views, that's it."

Noah extended an open invitation for her to come back. "Our goal should be to destroy these 'bubbles,' not each other."

If those two can do it, maybe so we can the rest of us when we reconvene with relatives next month — if we listen instead of lining up our next talking point.

Six minutes of their 26-minute interview aired; you can watch their entire conversation below or scroll down to read some of the most interesting threads.

On anger and Ellen

"I'm actually not that angry," she told Noah. "It's just that there are things that need to be said and a lot of people are afraid to say 'em."

"You can't say you're not angry," he pressed. "This is what you're known for. It's a strange thing to say, 'I'm not angry' but that's like Ellen saying, 'I don't like dancing.' Yeah, you do, Ellen, you do. You are angry, about everything, it seems."

"Sometimes, people just need to be called on their (expletive)," Lahren said calmly. "Protesting a free and fair election? You're going to get called on your (expletive) a little. It's time to clear the street, accept reality and move on."

BLM is not the KKK

Noah called Lahren out at times, especially regarding her previous comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, whom she compared to the Ku Klux Klan on Twitter.

"For someone who's not racist," he pointed out, "you have to spend a lot of time a lot of time saying, 'I'm not racist.'"

Asked to name her biggest bone of contention with BLM, she said, "It started with good intentions. The moment they started pushing up 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot,' which is a false narrative proven time and time again — the minute that became their slogan, the moment protesting turned into rioting, looting and burning and militant actions, that's when I lost respect for Black Lives Matter."

"How are you labeling the actions of a few and condemning an entire group?" he asked.

"I saw it in my city of Dallas," she explained. "Point blank, the shooter (Micah Xavier Johnson, who killed five police officers in July) said he was doing this because of Black Lives Matter."

Dallas shooting marks deadliest day for law enforcement since 9/11

Noah earned cheers from the audience when he came back with, "Just because you say the thing, it doesn't mean that's what it stands for. You're the same person who argued on your show that just because Donald Trump has supporters from the KKK, doesn't mean he's in the KKK."

Black Lives Matter: Don't blame movement for Dallas police ambush

It was all going pretty well until ...

Lahren remarked "To me, true diversity is diversity of thought, not diversity of color. I don't see color."  That one drew a loud response from the audience.

"I don't believe in that at all when people say that," said the biracial Noah, who writes of growing up under apartheid in South Africa in his memoir Born a Crime. "There's nothing wrong with seeing color. It's how you treat color that's more important."

Trevor Noah recalls childhood under apartheid in new memoir

On Colin Kaepernick and the right outlet for political protests

"(Kaepernick) says he's protesting the anthem and the flag because of the oppression of black people in this country," Lahren said. "I'd like him to further explain what he's talking about. Is it against police? Is it against the government? I'm not sure what kind of oppression he's discussing. I'd love to have him come on my show and discuss it with me. To me, when you make the flag and the anthem the outlet for your anger or the outlet for which you're going to protest your country that you live in, you reside in and that you take $19 million a year from, I don't think that's the correct outlet."

That prompted Noah to ask a question that he genuinely wanted to know the answer to: "What is the right way for a black person to get attention in America? How should a black person bring up their grievances? ... I just want to know if you've thought of the how."

She pointed out that women didn't receive the right to vote until after blacks did, but that she refuses to feel marginalized by that. "I don't protest my country. I don't see what he's protesting ... I don't protest. I'm not a victim."

 

 

On keeping Donald Trump honest

"As you've said, your side has won," Noah acknowledged. "The liberal snowflakes are melting in the street as they protest and now I would like to know from your side, do you believe that Donald Trump will follow through on his promises?"

"I will be a vocal opponent if he doesn't," she promised. "I'm not somebody that gets on the cheerleading bandwagon. If he does something I disagree with, I will discuss it."

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