Jon Stewart Reflects on the Election: Not All Trump Voters Embody ‘the Worst of His Rhetoric’
The former "Daily Show" host criticizes the liberal community's hypocrisy and the GOP's "cynical" strategy in a TV interview with journalist Charlie Rose.Jon Stewart made a rare TV appearance on Thursday while promoting his new book, “The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests,” to reflect on post-election America.
Stewart met with journalist Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” and called out liberals’ hypocrisy for labeling all Donald Trump supporters as racists.
“In the liberal community, you hate this idea of creating people as a monolith,” said Stewart, who hosted “The Daily Show” for 16 years. “Don’t look at Muslims as a monolith. They are individuals, and it would be ignorance. But everybody who voted for Trump is a monolith, is a racist. That hypocrisy is also real in our country.”
Some of the people Stewart surrounds himself with voted for Trump, he said, explaining that they are worried about their insurance premiums, not “afraid of Mexicans, not afraid of Muslims and not afraid of blacks.”
While clarifying that he is not a Trump supporter—saying “I thought that Donald Trump disqualified himself at numerous points” in the campaign—Stewart defended those who are vilified and blamed for voting for Trump.
“There’s now this idea that anyone who voted for him has to be defined by the worst of his rhetoric,” he said.
In attempting to explain the election upset, Stewart was more critical of the Republican Party than of the president-elect himself, denouncing the GOP’s “cynical” strategy.
“They’re not draining the swamp. [Mitch] McConnell and [Paul] Ryan, those guys are the swamp,” he said, explaining that what they’re planning after Trump’s election is to make sure “government doesn’t work” and then “use its lack of working as evidence of it.”
He added: “They will reap the benefits of his victory, in all of their cynicism.”
Stewart’s distaste for the president-elect is no secret (and vice versa, as this tweet shows). During a stand-up segment last year, Stewart put the “easily mockable” Trump on blast.
He said: “It’s like an internet comment troll ran for president.”
Watch Stewart’s interview with Rose below.
—Posted by KiMi Robinson
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