Normally when The Daily Show pays attention to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), it involves Jon Stewart and a ridiculous antebellum accent. There was a bit of that earlier on Monday night's show, but correspondent Jordan Klepper also tried something different... something remarkably similar to political reporting. Except funnier, of course. Noting that Republican incumbents tend to be most worried about challenges from their right, Klepper traveled down to South Carolina to find out who's the most conservative GOP candidate for Graham's Senate seat: Graham or the local politicians running against him.
Klepper only talked to one of the candidates, Bill Connor, but surrogates provide pretty emphatic cheerleading for Graham and a state senator named Lee Bright. This an impressive use of Comedy Central resources, given how few people care about the 2014 election this far out, but it's also an amusing look at the metrics we use to gauge ideology in today's purity-over-pragmatism political culture. Watch for the endorsement race alone. --Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why is MAGA turning on Amy Coney Barrett?Today's Big Question She may be the swing vote on Trump cases
-
Gavin Newsom's podcast debut is not going over well with some liberalsIN THE SPOTLIGHT The first episode of the California Governor and potential presidential candidate's 'This is Gavin Newsom' featured cozy conversation with far-right operative Charlie Kirk and a surprisingly conservative stance on transgender athletes
-
'Extremists still find plenty of digital spaces'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump eases Mexico, Canada tariffs again as markets slidespeed read The president suspended some of the 25% tariffs he imposed on Mexican and Canadian imports
-
Trump tells Cabinet they are in charge of layoffs, not MuskSpeed Read The White House has faced mounting complaints about DOGE's sweeping cuts
-
Rep. Sylvester Turner dies, weeks after joining HouseSpeed Read The former Houston mayor and longtime state legislator left behind a final message for Trump: 'Don't mess with Medicaid'
-
Trump pauses Ukraine intelligence sharingSpeed Read The decision is intended to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin
-
Supreme Court rules against Trump on aid freezeSpeed Read The court rejected the president's request to freeze nearly $2 billion in payments for foreign humanitarian work
-
Trump touts early wins in partisan speech to CongressSpeed Read The president said he is 'just getting started' with his sweeping changes to immigration, the economy and foreign policy
-
Trudeau blasts Trump's 'very dumb' trade warSpeed Read Retaliatory measures have been announced by America's largest trading partners following Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China
-
Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine after public spatSpeed Read Trump and J.D. Vance berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy for what they saw as insufficient gratitude
