On Thursday’s “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah took a look at a newly released recording made by Richard Nixon in 1971, in which Ronald Reagan said some extremely racist things, and in the process jokingly identified the person who killed Tupac Shakur.
In the recording, made public this week by The Atlantic, then-California Gov. Reagan called Nixon to complain about U.N. recognition of the People’s Republic of China, and specifically the delegation of African nations who voted for it. “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” Reagan said. Also, yikes.
“So now, Reagan officially has a racist asterisk next to his name,” Noah said about the president who opened his 1980 campaign with a speech about “state’s rights” delivered in a Mississippi locale associated with the murder of three civil rights activists.
“As do many former presidents. Woodrow Wilson was a segregationist. Andrew Jackson wiped out Native Americans, Thomas Jefferson had sex with his slaves,” Noah continued.
“And George H.W. Bush shot Tupac. Yeah, I said it, prove me wrong,” Noah joked.
“So on the one hand, it is disturbing that America has a history of racist presidents,” Noah concluded. “But look on the bright side, it also means Donald Trump is a lot more presidential than we thought.”
Watch the segment above.