Jon Stewart Reacts To Trump’s Disdain Of Late-Night Comics: “Isn’t Being On Basic Cable Punishment Enough”

Jon Stewart is an undecided voter, he joked, as in part of a group that’s “basically, me and six people who were kicked in the head by very powerful horses,” he said on Monday night’s installment of The Daily Show, which kicked off with a long segment comparing the two presidential candidates VP Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

“I’ve been leaning towards Kamala Harris, because of her impressive resume and her ability to switch from Indian to Black — like that!” he said, making a rapid movement and snapping his fingers together.

As the program went on, the comedian skewered Trump’s claims left and right — from his inability to articulate an economic policy plan to the jarring juxtapositions between his image versus his speech; in one example, Stewart played a stream of clips in which various politicians and pundits claimed Trump was pro-worker, only to then follow it up with excerpts of Trump conveying his disdain for paying his employees overtime.

“I gotta say every time Trump talks about workers, it’s like watching A Christmas Carol in reverse,” Stewart joked. “‘I’m just trying to fire these three ghosts who are trying to get overtime,'” he said, mimicking Trump’s way of speaking.

But the gem of the night came when Stewart unpacked Trump’s presentation as a free speech advocate alongside his various statements that would curtail such demonstrations, including his aim to deport pro-Palestinian student protesters and jail those who burn the flag, a Supreme Court-affirmed protection established in 1989 via Texas vs. Johnson. He then zeroed in on an excerpt from a Rolling Stone article, detailing Trump’s ire with late-night comedians, which read that the candidate was “venting about the need to punish late-night comedians.”

“Isn’t being on basic cable punishment enough?” the comic joked in response.

Elsewhere on the episode, Stewart lambasted the United Nations’ recent assembly in New York, sarcastically calling it a “successful” meeting: “The world just exploding with peace right now. Great session guys.”