The Daily Show recoils at the GOP's 'blatantly corrupt' power grabs in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina

"The midterm elections were a big win for the Democrats, but Republicans didn't make it easy for them," Roy Wood Jr. said on Tuesday's Daily Show, a voiceless Trevor Noah at his side. "They gerrymandered districts, they created new voting restrictions, they even printed ballots on nude photos of Mitch McConnell — and if the choice is vote or die, in that case I choose die. But even after Republicans were removed from power, they were saying, 'All right, fine, we'll leave — but we're taking the power with us.'"

Wood pointed to the "blatantly corrupt" lame-duck power grabs in Wisconsin and Michigan, where GOP legislatures and outgoing GOP governors are pushing through laws to weaken their incoming Democratic successors. "This would be like Marvel changing Spider-Man's super powers now that he's black," he said. "And the powers being taken away are not small things" in real life, with Republicans working to keep Democrats from fulfilling campaign promises the voters elected them to carry out. "The ballsiest part about all of this is that Republicans don't even care enough to come up with a good excuse," he said.

And while Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin are committing "voter suppression after the election," the race for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District "might have been outright stolen," Wood said. "So between Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, Republicans are doing everything they can to distort the will of the people. And what makes it so ironic is that for years, Republicans have been searching high and low for evidence of voter fraud — but it turns out, it was inside them all along."

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And if you are wondering why Wood, not Noah, was anchoring the show, Noah — well, Michael Kosta — explains why below. Peter Weber