- Dan.

- Thank you for being here.

Your thoughts on the changes in the past few months at the Washington Post?

- [Jonathan] Gee, would you like to narrow it down?

(everyone laughs) We have a whole other show's worth of material on that actually, right, yeah.

- And Telneas having to leave for her reasons?

- [Jonathan] So what I, what I- - The change in the opinion columns?

- Yes, so here's what I will say about, broadly speaking, I was only half joking about your question.

What folks need to understand... Also, to your point about folks not knowing the difference between the news side and the opinion side.

The opinion side of the paper is where the publisher of the paper can exert his influence.

It's the only place where the publisher can or should exert his influence.

And so when the publisher says, "We are not going to endorse in presidential elections anymore," that is his prerogative.

It might not be one that the rest of us like, but it's his paper, and we technically, report to him.

If the publisher decides, you know, I think we should focus on personal liberties and free markets, that is his prerogative.

It's his paper.

We work for him.

Whether we want to stay working for him under those guidelines, that's a whole other conversation.

I think where you should get concerned is if the publisher decides to exert his influence on the news pages, and starts pushing the news pages and those journalists to change their reporting, to shade their reporting, to pull back on their reporting.

The moment that happens, that's when you should fear for "The Washington Post."

- [Host] And that has not happened.

- And that's my next point, and that absolutely has not happened.

And so that is the one thing that gives me hope for the paper.

- And look, let's just also acknowledge, thank you.

The news pages of "The Post," the reporting at "The Post," is undiminished, right?

- Right.

- There have been departures, but "The Post" has really done extraordinary reporting, maybe with different bylines, than before- But over the last five months.

- Oh sure, I mean, everyone thought, I mean the whole national team that was there, Phil Rucker- - Ashley.

- Ashley Parker, Josh Dossy, they've all sprinkled themselves at other elite institutions, and yet "The Washington Post" is still holding up a mirror to the Trump administration and reporting as aggressively as it always has.

- [Host] Okay good.

Sir.

- Thanks for coming.

We all know that endorsements in political elections, even presidential ones, really don't move the needle, and I'm curious, I know you just addressed this a second ago, do you have a personal opinion if newspapers, particularly "The Post," should give endorsements in presidential elections?

- I mean, as someone who has written endorsements, they're fun to do.

The interviews are really terrific.

I mean, would you turn down the opportunity to sit across from someone running for President of the United States, and putting them through their paces, asking them tough questions, seeing if they're ready, if they're capable, are they serious, can they answer even a simple question, like, "Why do you want to be president?"

There's nothing like it.

And so you go through that process.

Why not run an editorial that says, "This is the person we think should be the next leader of the free world, and here's why this other person shouldn't be."

Now I can see the argument on the other side that, "Well, you guys are just writing to each other.

No one's paying attention to it."

But I would err on the side of doing it, because there are people who actually, maybe it's just a "Washington Post" thing, but you know, they take it into the voting booth with them because they want to know.

I haven't paid attention to this ordinance, or that school board member, or this judicial race, but these people who have sat across from these folks have taken the measure of them, and I trust them.

So this is how I'm going to cast my vote.

I understand that it is a decidedly old school way of looking at things.

And you know, as a result of Mr. Bezos' decision to no longer endorse in presidential elections, has me thinking, well, maybe the paper shouldn't endorse in any elections.

If you're not going to endorse for president, why endorse for mayor?

Why endorse for governor?

- Is there not a world in which the endorsement of a particular candidate by a newspaper reinforces the idea that that paper is partisan?

Right, if you endorse Kamala Harris, people go, "Well, of course, "The Post" is liberal because "The Post" endorsed Kamala Harris, which is unfair to the news pages because it wasn't the news pages that did that.

- But also, it would be unfair to the editorial pages, because then that just means that the person thinks that those folks on the editorial board are just knee jerk, whatever, instead of taking the measure of the person, what they've said, what they voted on, what they've been saying on the campaign trail.

You know, how would they be, just given what they said?

If somebody wants to think that "The Post" is liberal because it would have endorsed Kamala Harris, I think that says something more about the person than it does about the paper.

- Certainly.

- First of all, thank you for coming to Austin.

Hopefully we can have you back for Trip Fest, hint to Evan.

- [Host] I've already pitched him on it.

There you go.

(everyone laughs) Had the conversation backstage.

Good one.

(Jonathan laughs) - Yeah, awesome.

What I wanted to say, something that's different about your show that I found very enjoyable, is Aunt Gloria.

- (laughs) Everywhere I go, everyone asks me about Aunt Gloria.

- So can we have more of Aunt Gloria and might there be Uncle so and so from one of your co-hosts, or Cousin such and such, bringing real people into it?

- For the benefit of the uninitiated, would you say what Aunt Gloria is?

- So Aunt Gloria is my aunt, the ex-wife of my mother's brother, of my uncle.

And- (audience laughs) I know it's just break out the tree, and like, there she is, over here.

And in the run up to the 2020 election, it was the family barbecue, and my Aunt Gloria likes to talk politics.

And so I asked her, "Who are you looking at for, for 2020?"

And you know, she wanted then Senator Kamala Harris, but she said, and I'm quoting here, "This country is so racist that I think it's gonna take an old White dude to beat an old White dude, so I'm for Joe Biden."

And the moment she said it, I was like, "Oh my god, that's gold," and I pulled out my pad and a pen, and I wrote it down, and my husband said to me, "You know, you've got a yard full of people.

This is a focus group."

And so I asked everyone, and then I wrote a column, featuring my Aunt Gloria, and it just took off.

I mean, people then started asking me, "What does Aunt Gloria think about this?

What does Aunt Gloria think about that?"

And so I wrote another column, and another column.

Then I got my own show, and I was like, "Well of course I have to have Aunt Gloria on."

And she took off even more.

- Right.

- Whenever she was on television, on my show, she would trend on Twitter.

(audience laughs) You look on the side, it would just say, "#AuntGloria."

- Also, she's such a ham too.

- But I mean Aunt Gloria, she's just plain folks.

I think that's why folks like you, and wherever I go, no matter where I am, they say, "How's Aunt Gloria?

Aunt Gloria needs to come on the new show."

- [Audience Member] She's welcome at Trip Fest too.

- All right, we'll tell her you asked for her.

- My point is that she actually took to it.

- Yeah.

- She really did.

I mean, she didn't act like a civilian.

She acted like somebody who was like, I'm comfortable in this setting.

- Well right, because her attitude is, I pay attention, I've got stuff to say.

You're giving me an opportunity to say it, so I'm gonna say it.

- And she's real.

- Very real.

- Ma'am.

- Hello.

- Hi.

- I love your show.

- I have MSNBC on at my house, like pretty much 24/7.

- [Host] I would say, you should take a little break.

- Well- - Just not between 7:00 and 10:00 AM Saturday and Sunday, but go on.

- Since the election, I've had to turn it to yacht rock.

- You too?

- Yeah.

- I did the same.

- Come back next Monday.

- I have a journalism degree from UT.

I have a law degree, and one of the reasons I have to change the channel now, since inauguration, is that I'm afraid I'm gonna break my television with one of my own shoes.

(Jonathan laughs) So I'm asking, what can we do to fight back and not have my head explode?

'Cause I want to fight back.

I know that hiding under the bed isn't gonna work, but I can't take in as much as I used to when I was hoping for the other team to win.

- [Host] Good last question.

What do you think?

- Well, I mean, and it's good that you are stepping away.

Yacht rock is great.

I do the same thing.

Hey Google, play yacht rock radio, and it comes on.

I have an answer for you, and it just, it escaped me.

Oh my God, I cannot believe I've lost my train of thought.

Really quickly, restate your... - I wanna find a way to fight back.

- I remember, I remember, I remember, thank you.

So you're not the first person to say that they wanna figure out how to fight back, that they're overwhelmed because there's just a tsunami of nonsense and dangerous things that are happening.

And I've been hearing this from a lot of people, but particularly young people, for whom this is unreal.

And so, I said to one young person, "I get it, there's a lot happening."

It's like there's a hundred burner stove, each burner has a pot, and each pot is boiling over, and if that's your kitchen, you are racing around, trying to deal with all the boiling over pots.

And I said to this young person, and I'll say this to you and everyone in the room, it is impossible to deal with all 100 boiling pots, but there might be one pot, or two pots, maybe three pots that you really care about, that really, they burn from here, that they concern you so much and you want to do something.

Focus on that pot, or focus on those two pots.

Three pots, if you can stand it.

But if you focus on your three pots, and you focus on another one or two, and there's more than a hundred people here, everyone took a boiling burner, what ends up happening?

You take care of the boiling pots.

And so I say that as a way of telling everyone, and you included, to not be overwhelmed because that's exactly what the current president and his administration is counting on.

Don't get overwhelmed, we can survive the bumpy flight, and come out on the other side.

- All right, there you go.

Everybody, Jonathan Capehart.

Give him a big hand.

Thank you so much for coming.

We'll see you soon.

Excellent work.

- Thanks.

Thank you.

- It was really good.

- Thank you.