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.”
via: Rolling Stone
The host has taken up the chair at the satirical news program on a part-time basis through the 2024 election season and will be hosting Monday night’s broadcast, with a roster of rotating correspondents from Tuesday to Thursday. His temporary comeback follows Trevor Noah’s departure in December 2022 and the series’ unsuccessful, yearlong search to find the show’s next permanent host.
Within three minutes of being back behind the desk after signing off nine years ago, Stewart took aim at President Joe Biden and former President Trump — firing off at both 2024 presidential candidates for their age-related blunders.
Declaring “Indecision 2024: Electile Dysfunction,” Stewart took on special counsel Robert Hur’s report that determined Biden did not violate any laws in his handling of classified documents while also characterizing him as an elderly man with a poor memory.
“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 cutting to video footage of Trump being claiming he was unable to remember simple facts about his life during depositions. The host quipped, “Biden’s lost a step, but Trump regularly says things at rallies that would warrant a wellness check.”
After playing a clip of Biden’s cringe-worthy, Super Bowl-themed TikTok video from Sunday and a snippet of Trump bizarrely declaring dunking magnets in water was “the end of magnets,” Stewart asked the audience: “The question then becomes, what the fuck are we doing here, people?”
“These two candidates, they are both similarly challenged,” Stewart said. “And it is not crazy to think that the oldest people in the history of the country to ever run for president might have some of these challenges.” He continued, “We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive or even capable. But they’re both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world. What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones as voters who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidates job to assuage concerns.”
Stewart noted that while Biden is not Trump — who among an array of legal woes, faces four indictments and was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation — the “stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny.” The host added, “It actually makes him more subject to scrutiny.”
Before wrapping the end of his first night back, Stewart concluded: “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,” he added. “I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it, and every day after, forever.”
Luckily, he pointed out: “I am told that at some point, the sun will run out of hydrogen.”
Jon Stewart w/ some advice for Biden’s team: “If you’re telling us behind the scenes he is sharp and full of energy and on top of it and really in control and leading….you should film that. That would be good to show to people instead of a TikTok.”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 13, 2024
