Sebastian Junger & Ken Harbaugh - “Against All Enemies” & Protecting Democracy | The Daily Show

well hello thank you so much for being on the show pleasure uh this movie scared the out of me was that was that was that the goal yeah it's a it's a it's a um tough time in America right now and I think we all have to pay attention to whether we stay in democracy or not and that's what the point of this film was is to get us to think about that yeah it it really really does um uh can you're a military veteran a former Navy pilot uh it you can absolutely say that the vast majority of veterans ha

ve not joined these extremist groups but but for those that have what's so compelling to them to join the oathkeepers the proud boys three centers well I'm glad you recognize that the vast majority of my buddies my brothers and sisters in arms don't go join the proud boys or the oathkeepers but the ones that do in many cases do it out of a sense of needing to recapture that camaraderie and that sense of belonging that they felt in uniform when you take the uniform off that goes away almost overn

ight and one of the things these groups do really really well is recreate that by giving these veterans that sense of purpose and that sense of mission the problem is that mission is undermining democracy uh Sebastian you you explored you you co-directed an award-winning documentary Restrepo that explores the the the war in Afghanistan and you've extensively talked about combat veterans reintegrating into civilian life in your book tribe uh what is it specifically about the wars in Afghanistan a

nd Iraq that play a role in everything that we're seeing right now yeah I mean it's complicated the guys I was with in Afghanistan off and on for a year you know they they sort of trended conservative but I can't imagine any one of those guys doing anything like what happened on January 6 the the real combat veterans usually don't have anything to prove and I think one of the ways that the January 6 crowd is dangerous they're dangerous in two different ways one is that there are some real deal S

pecial Special Forces guys who know what they're doing who could organize a very serious violent situation in this country and uh and and we have to be very very careful of those guys most of the I would say most of the guys on January 6 with the beards and the you know camo the Tactical pants etc etc might have been in the milit but probably never saw combat and I think that makes them extremely dangerous because they have this sort of fantasy of them themselves as a hero along with probably so

me psych disorders and that creates that creates a very very dangerous mix yeah well you bring that up would you say that is it fair to say that in this country we could have stronger support systems for those veterans who are coming back and and reintegrating into society yes I don't think that's the problem here with these guys I think they're sort of willing dupes of a dishonest pres ex-president and and they were sort of they wanted to they wanted to believe something and they wanted a war t

o fight and they wanted to be act in a supposedly heroic way at a crucial moment in history and like save the nation except it's all nonsense right and um but that aside just generally for vets absolutely we live in a a an amazing but alienating modern society and vets come back and it's very hard to fit in and frankly it's very hard for all of us to fit in I mean the depression and suicide rate in this country is through the roof like why would that be right right um so extremist groups have be

en in the US for a long time but what makes this particular moment so so impactful and so dangerous yeah we have dealt since our founding as a country with extremism with extremist groups but you have to go back a long ways to find a period in American history where a domestic terrorist movement has the cover of a political party that is a new situation when you have a former president name-checking an organization the proud boys deemed by Canada as a terrorist entity name checking them from beh

ind a presidential Podium that is incredibly invigorating for these organizations and you probably have to go back to the the rise of the KKK in the South to find an analog to a terrorist movement that had major political cover uh and used it to wreak havoc the you bring up the former president he uh has certainly said some controversial things about veterans somewhat disrespectful some might say uh he's asked wounded vets to not appear at his events he's called uh American Service members who h

ave passed suckers and losers why is it that you find that your military brothers and sisters are coming to his side we all know he has no respect for the milit AR he disdains the very idea of service he didn't just call those who serve suckers he calls those who died fighting for the country suckers he called those who put on the uniform to serve their country losers I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that every single veteran knows between now and the election just how disdainful of t

he very idea of service the former president is there's there's no real evidence so far that Trump and his followers will accept the election results uh upcoming uh how do you how do you see this playing out it could go a number of ways I mean I certainly hope that the the person who tried to end democracy doesn't win a second term even if he loses though I think we all know that he's not going to concede he tried to overthrow uh the the results of a a free and fair election once I I assume he'l

l do it again I know Sebastian has thoughts on this but I think we need to be prepared for the worst yeah yeah absolutely I I mean I I I can I don't I can't think of a good reason why there wouldn't be violence if Trump loses he hasn't I mean he's all in now right like if he doesn't get reelected he's wide open to criminal prosecution he the only thing protecting him and it shouldn't even protect him but it seems to be for the moment so he's got nothing to lose a lot of these far-right extremist

s don't trust the government they don't trust the media they are untrusting of our intelligence agencies is there do you see any kind of hopeful time in our future where we're all dealing with the same facts I think glimmer of hope please I think it starts with conversations like this it starts with films like against all enemies but at the end of the day it's going to come down to one-on-one conversations it's going to come down to a family member who cares about a veteran who is at that crossr

oads between doing something Noble like joining team Rubicon and helping disaster relief victims across the country or joining the proud boys and oathkeepers and undermining democracy that decision often comes down to a conversation with someone who cares about that veteran well thank you so much for being on thank you for making this incredible film and starting this conversation against all enemies is in Select theaters and available on VOD Ken Harbaugh and Sebastian [Applause] [Music] Young