Jon Stewart mocked both President Biden and former President Trump during his return to “The Daily Show,” saying both 2024 candidates are “stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.”
After a nine-year absence, the 61-year-old comedian returned to hosting duties on the Comedy Central show to raucous applause Monday. The cable network announced last month that Stewart would sit at the anchor desk on Monday nights, with a rotating lineup of other hosts on other weekdays.
Stewart took aim early in his monologue at Biden and his response to special counsel Robert Hur’s classified records report that drew attention to the president’s age and cognitive ability.
“This guy couldn’t remember stuff during his deposition. Do you understand what that means? He had no ability to recall very basic things under questioning,” Stewart said, before then zinging Trump and playing footage of him being unable to recall facts during depositions.
“Biden’s lost a step, but Trump regularly says things at rallies that would warrant a wellness check,” Stewart said to laughs.
“The question then becomes, what the f‑‑‑ are we doing here, people?” said a seemingly exasperated Stewart.
“We have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history of this country,” Stewart said of the 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump. “They are the oldest people ever to run for president — breaking by only four years the record that they set the last time they ran!” Stewart exclaimed.
“We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive or even capable,” Stewart said.
Striking a more sober tone, Stewart said: “What’s crazy is thinking that we are the ones as voters who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidates’ job to assuage concerns — not the voters’ job not to mention them.”
While Biden “isn’t Donald Trump,” Stewart said, mentioning the 45th president’s multiple indictments and legal cases against him, “the stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny.”
“It actually makes him more subject to scrutiny,” Stewart said.
Come Election Day, Stewart said, “If your guy loses, bad things might happen, but the country is not over. And if your guy wins, the country is in no way saved.”
“So the good news is: I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election,” Stewart concluded.
“I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it, and every day after, forever.”
You inserted yourself into a conversation I was having, in which the other person (P03 Locke) was disputing Stewart’s assertion that the country would not be over, and asserting that
That is the context in which I felt it was necessary to define Democracy.
You then jumped in and said
despite the fact you had not actually said that previously, and that it is a different stance from what P03 Locke said.
P03 Locke never asserted Trump was eroding Democracy, they said he would be killing it, and they said that as a direct counter to Stewart’s assertion that the country would not be over, which indicates that in P03 Locke’s mind, the death of Democracy is equivalent to the end of America.
In that case, it’s incredibly important to define Democracy, in order to understand exactly what changes P03 Locke believes Trump will make, so we can actually assess the likely impact of those changes, and see what precisely they think qualifies as the end of Democracy.
I “inserted” myself? This is a public forum. You made a public post and public comments. You know people - anyone - can comment. What are you even going on about? If you don’t want people chiming in to conversations and don’t have them on a public forum. You don’t get to use the veritable megaphone that is the Internet and then get summarily pissy and throw an entitled tantrum when people don’t agree with you.
If you don’t like what I have to say, then stop responding to me and/or block me. The tools are available to you.