You're listening to Comedy Central now. I spoke with Academy Award nominated actor Mark Ruffalo. We talked about what's been happening in his hometown of Kenosha and so much more. Check it out. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. Thank you for coming back. Not in person, but like the way we do everything now.

What it was just it feels like it was yesterday that we write in a thousand years ago, both at the same time that we were just sitting like we would never have thought we would be like this.

I feel like I would have. I would have. I should have and would have enjoyed those moments. More like I would have hugged you for longer. I would have talked to you for longer. I would have I feel like there's so many interactions that I didn't fully appreciate because I didn't know that I would not be having them for like seven months of my life.

But exactly what you mean, maybe that's part of what this is all about for us.

It's just it's just to appreciate what we take for granted, like hugging people, being next to people without a gun or being around people who don't have masks on and not wanting to hit them or berate them or ask them, like, what the fuck is your problem?

What's the big deal, man?

This is I feel like this is the part where Scarlett Johansson starts talking to you very softly and it brings you down.

And just like you, one of the most versatile actors of our generation, you know, I feel like in many ways, you know, what we see of you in the movies is who you are in real life, because Mark Ruffalo in real life is somebody who's been outspoken for a long time. And it's no different right now.

You know, Kenosha is in the news, Jacob Blake, Kyle Rittenhouse, the protests, the shootings, the racial tension.

And you wrote a really powerful piece that speaks to Kenosha because it speaks to closure from your heart.

As somebody who's from Kenosha, what do you wish more people would understand about what's going on there?

Well, you know, it was shocking, first of all, to see Kenosha in the news at all. I mean, it's just not a place that you hear about other than factory closings. And and my family's there. And, you know, I, I it was devastating to see what happened there and then what followed know to see Jacob Blake shot like that in front of his family and then to see, you know, all these people go out and protest for black lives, which is what we're doing.

And that's the truth of the smoke. And I and I feel bad for anyone who doesn't join us, especially for the people who say all lives matter, because if you truly believe all lives matter, then you should be on the streets right now. If you're black and brown and white brothers who are all fighting for one of the races where obviously it doesn't appear like they are being considered the same way the rest of us. All right. So that's what all lives matter, really means, is that all lives do matter and that black lives have got to be lifted up.

Then you should be out. You should be the first one out on the street, you know, but these protests have been predominantly peaceful. We don't hear about that. We only see the guys like in Kenosha, Wisconsin. They made one hundred and seventy arrests over those days of protest. And one hundred and twenty of them were from out of town and they were provocateurs and they were trashing a town that they're not even from. That was what broke my heart, because that's not what I know about Kenosha, Wisconsin, as is as disparate as the it is economically.

As much as people struggle there, there is there is a community there. That being said, that community is also facing, you know, generations of of racial injustice and inequality. But what the news I was seeing coming out of there didn't feel honest to me. It felt salacious. It felt, of course, they're going to go for the worst things. And then, of course, you have what the kid was a 17 year old, just an AR15 being called from out of state to come and be a vigilante and basically shoot people.

All this is heartbreaking. And I and I was honestly, Trevor, I was paralyzed. I didn't I didn't know how to respond to it. And I and usually I get some sort of message like, this is your time to go. This is your time to be there. This code that I couldn't go, you know, I'm taking care of my family here and and then and then something opened up. I was reaching out to the community, I heard about this black, black, black lives activist of Kenosha, and and so I reached out to them and did that Instagram Meji live right through to counter this kind of story that was coming out of the Kenosha News at the time, that was coming out of the media, that was coming out of the Trump campaign, that Kenosha, Wisconsin, was some kind of hellhole where a black terrorists were terrorizing the community, which is an utter bullshit, as we all know.

I think a lot of people would appreciate the fact that you don't just speak out, but you also advocate for action. This election is one of the most important that America will ever face. And you've gotten out there and people have known for a long time that you are a huge Bernie Sanders supporter. And now you've been going out saying, people, we have to get behind Joe Biden and we have to vote. You know, for a long time, it felt like the Bernie faction of the party would never coalesce behind Joe Biden.

But it feels like this election is different.

When you say yes, we vote. We learned a big lesson from twenty sixteen. Know the propaganda of the United States elections and election cycle is that the presidential election is going to solve everything. But an election really is only a come on a movement. And so we have to look at who is who are the candidates and how do they align to what this movement is about, which is going to bring us closer to racial parity. Which candidate is going to bring us closer to a green new deal?

Which candidate is going to bring us closer to debt, student debt reform? Which candidate is going to bring us closer to universal health care? If you have any sense of long term movement building, then you have to say that's Joe Biden. We're not going to get that from Trump. We all know that now. OK, and so at this point, if you're an activist, if you really care about the movement and the things that you say you care about, the closest thing you're going to have to coming to making that happen is Joe Biden.

And when Joe Biden is in office, we're not going to stay on the White House long like we did with Obama. We are going to keep coming. We are going to keep demanding and we are going to make sure that we have movement on this thing. Because you want to know what we put you in office this time. Like when I was in Kenosha and I and I and I wanted to know what was happening there. That was happening there.

They were having a block party, Trever, and they were dancing and they were doing covid testing and they were doing haircuts and they were feeding people and they were registering people and they were having people sign up for the census. Now, that's what the community does. And and that's what's beautiful about what's happening in this moment. The gold and the silver lining of Trump is that all of these organizers who have been doing this work for years are all coming together from whether it's from the environmental movement to the racial justice movement to the criminal justice reform movement.

We're all interconnected now and we've never been that way. There's so much to be hopeful about right now. And I think that's the message that we're missing, you know?

Well, I. I hope that your optimism is rewarded. And it's great to see that you still have the passion that you've had for so many years. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. And good luck when you get back out there on the streets, buddy.

We got it. We got to make a plan for voting. We got it. I mean, make a plan, check your registration, call a friend, take a rain, check your grandmother, make it a party, make a plan, and that's how we'll win. Mike Gravel, thank you so much for joining me. Love you, man, you're the best. Thank you, Trevor. The Daily Show with Criminal Lawyers edition once The Daily Show weeknights at 11:00, 10:00 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central Watch full episodes and videos at The Daily Show Dotcom.

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