Jordan Klepper Talks To A Jan. 6 Supporter Who Admits He Felt Like He Was In A ‘Cult’…Yet Still Can’t Quit Trump

For the last year and change, Jordan Klepper has been doing the lord’s work, throwing himself into massive pro-Trump gatherings, bravely asking the unhinged damning questions. He was even there on Jan. 6! (For balance’s sake, he’s been able to find some nutty SoCal progressives who happen to be anti-vaxxers.) Earlier this month he found himself back at the nation’s capital for the Jan. 6 anniversary march by…well, the people who helped foment the deadly Capitol riot. He even pelted Matt Gaetz with some admittedly “childish” questions.

On Wednesday, Klepper was back with more. The Daily Show correspondent attended a vigil for jailed Jan. 6 insurrectionists, where he found maybe the most deeply confused person he’s ever happened upon on his show.

The person, a middle-aged man, opened up to Klepper, seeming to be atoning for his past self, which happened to be someone who believed Trump’s lies about massive voter fraud, for which he’s found no proof.

“I had never been to a protest event before the 2020 presidential election,” the man told Klepper. “I had become completely consumed. It took over my life. For three months, I slept in my car. I traveled from rally to rally, from #StopTheSteal event to #StopTheSteal event, for three months, sleeping in my car, going to see the evidence. And then I had to recover. I had PTSD. So, it took me a long time to find myself again. I feel like I just got out of a cult.”

But then the man kept answering Klepper’s questions, one of which was whether or not he still believed the election was stolen, which it wasn’t. His response was…well, baffling is too light a word. And yet even after he said, after all that, “I don’t think the election was stolen, I know the election was stolen,” he still had another twist. He added, “This is how someone that is, was in a cult often responds.”

So to sum it up: A man who was brainwashed to believe nonsense acquired a level of self-awareness, and yet still believes the lies that destroyed his brain, but knows that…he’s still in a cult Psychologists will be studying people like this for ages to come.