An International Take on the U.S. Election with Jon Stewart & Mayor of London Sadiq Khan [Preview]

This week Jon Stewart is joined by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan to discuss the polar differences between elections in the United States and the United Kingdom, the impact fundraising has on political campaigns, and the influence this year’s presidential election will have on the rest of the world.

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On Mondays, Jon Stewart hosts The Daily Show, but on Thursdays he hosts The Weekly Show — A podcast featuring in- depth conversations with special guests that explores the biggest threats to our democracy. Also hear from producers and friends of the show who discuss the latest headlines, what’s on their minds, and more!

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart releases new episodes every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts & full episode is available on YouTube, Fridays at 9AM ET.

[GiselleYoung-ll]

Nice to see you with Sadiq Kahn AND Ian Hislop recently. Possibly 2 of the most interesting people in the UK - great guys ❤❤❤

[mattpreece]

Wow that was the first time in years I felt a small twinge of pride to be British 😂 ... it's been a rough 15 years

[GiselleYoung-ll]

Sadiq Kahn is awesome & London’s best ever Mayor. He snubbed Trump when he came to the UK during his presidency too! He refused to see him and said he was not welcome in London ❤❤❤

[vaudevillian]

Have made this point for ages, well elaborated

[edwin]

Another thing to remember - the billions of dollars spent electioneering is largely spent on tv advertising, making media far more sympathetic to the ones paying them - the two major parties

[Arational]

The US has a perpetual campaign. Canada campaigns are 5-8 weeks.
In Canada each of the ridings(districts) has a spending limit which averages $100, 000 Canadian.
The 3 major National Parties each have an additional maximum amount of just over $30 million each.
Other parties have less.
The total National spending limit is $172, 373, 000 CAD for all parties and only the major parties come close to their limit.
Riding (district) spending maximum is about $33, 800, 000 CAD.
The total in USD is $150.5 million. We do not have legalized bribery.

[j.munday]

I would like to say the opening idea you have is something I dearly DEARLY wish we had in America. My British husband has no idea how we can go through years of campaigning for president every time. I would love a time cap for campaigning. If you can't talk to me in three months and get me on board, then two years of it won't work any better.

[Hari-v]

Mr. Stewart, you have shown people, during times of crisis, how to look on the bright side of life through satire and witticism.
You truly are God sent, thank you🫶

[nevertrumpfromthejump]

Considering the impossibly short attention span of everyone these days, it makes even more sense to drastically cut down on our election cycles. If the majority of people aren't tuning in to political news until the last few weeks or even last few days before election day, then why are we abiding by antiquated traditions? Make this process two, maybe three months tops.

[daniel]

Spot on. Many true and insightful comments from Sadiq Khan.

He understands the global stakes of the US elections and the short term focus better than many Americans do, unfortunately.

Must watch.

[BoggWeasel]

Wonder if that money that we don't have for education, healthcare and services could come from election

[FlamingSwordOfWisdom]

Leave it to America to comodify democracy

[ScottMansfield]

I love John Stewart. One of America's treasures

[trajanlee]

I can't remember where you guys want to hear our feedback but I thought I'd put this here. Would you consider doing an episode about the current situation in terms of how First Nations are treated? I live in Canada and we at least talk about all of the terrible things we continue to do to these groups. In the States, there is plenty of reporting on the issues affecting Black, Hispanic, and to a lesser extent Asian American populations. While these are clearly very important to talk about, there is almost no mention of native issues. Given your platform, you could make a big difference to this generally underrepresented group in the media.

[londonlady]

I'm proud of our Mayor. He gets SUCH a lot of bigoted abuse from the right/far right/poor & gullible sections of our society. For YEARS they've been shrieking that he accepts/supports terrorism. What he actually said was 'being ready & prepared to deal with terror attacks [as a Mayor] is part and parcel of the job'. I'm so very sick of these fools cherry picking the 'part & parcel' part & completely ignoring the rest of the quote. It's deeply disturbing that easily manipulated folk, who couldn't identify a reliable source if it walked up & introduced itself, attack him viciously without ever actually reading what he actually said.

[Simalacrum]

The speed of changeover when a new government comes in is also crazy - where the US takes months to change presidents after an election, once the election has been decided in the UK, the changeover time is counted in HOURS - not weeks or days, the old Prime Minister is booted out of no.10 and the new one brought in within hours.

[knowledgewizdom]

John you are truly a great gift from God and I hope you decide to run for public office in my lifetime! So grateful to your efforts to be honest and hold the establishment accountable

[singing-sands]

The very best thing about Canadian elections is that you don’t have to join a party to vote. You don’t have to reveal who you voted for, unless you want to. You have to be a citizen to vote, and this includes landed immigrants.

[Chavski]

8 weeks is plenty to get the job done in the USA. This 2 counter productive and tedious years of so-called campaigning are a nightmare. FYI the exchange rate today is roughly £1.00 = $1.34.

[missdebbie]

Imagine the amount of good that could be done with the billions ploughed into the US campaigning process if there were a sensible cap on electioneering spending!