I may not be a fan of “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, late night’s liberal-iest liberal, but I’ll give him this much in his second tenure hosting the program: He’s gone from being a blind squirrel who occasionally found a nut to being a blind squirrel with a seeing-eye chipmunk that occasionally helps him find a few extra nuts.
Sure, his 15-plus-minute rant about Joe Biden’s mental state after the disastrous June 27 presidential debate was about a decade too late, but at least he wasn’t covering for the then-presumptive nominee the way the rest of the establishment media was. (Although his contention that Biden’s decline was somehow new information was indeed risible.)
Well, Biden’s now gone, both mentally and atop the Democratic ticket. He still cuts a hole in the air behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, but his decisions attributed to him are likely made by the bubble that protected him before the debate dumpster fire and are signed off on by the prez with a stroke of his crayon. (If he’s really good that day, they’ll let him use periwinkle!)
Surprisingly, though, Stewart hasn’t gone into full-on cheerleader mode for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. No, he’s not jumped on the Trump train overnight — indeed, he’d probably be committed to Bellevue were he to do that — but let’s just say that his opinion of the Democratic National Convention of 2024 wasn’t the love-fest that you might have seen elsewhere in the media.
Especially when it came to former President William Jefferson Clinton.
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Stewart’s shot at the 42nd president came as he criticized one of the more edifying moments of cognitive dissonance at a political gathering in recent years, in which Sen. Bernie Sanders spent a goodly part of his speech railing against billionaires and was then followed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker … who bragged about how he was a billionaire.
Alas, as Stewart pointed out, this wasn’t the only instance of incongruent messaging at the DNC, particularly as it relates to one of the more, um, problematic headliners.
For instance, as he noted, they “had guys making fun of people for going to Yale” — namely Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, who went to Chadron State College — along with a bunch of speakers “who went to Yale,” including Hillary Clinton and Walz’s fellow Minnesotan, Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
And then, flash to a picture of Kamala Harris, the nominee, a former prosecutor. Stewart: “The Democrats had people who prosecuted sexual predators, and…”
Do you trust the Democrats?
Cue a split-screen with William Jefferson Clinton, credibly accused numerous times of sexually assaulting women.
Stewart’s reaction proves that not only can the blind squirrel find the nut with the seeing-eye chipmunk, he can actually do some rather amusing physical comedy while he’s at it:
I’m telling you man… something strange is happening. You got a guy on CNN making some sense, and now Stewart? pic.twitter.com/QYwhq6aRcq
— John C. Barry (@ShrinkGov) August 23, 2024
And yes, even Stewart’s liberal audience laughed along with him, with nary a groan to be heard. Even the Democrats won’t defend Slick Willy now.
Then again, he’s not the only Democrat (or former Democrat) to leave the reservation. Consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — now in Donald Trump’s corner — or former CNN host Chris Cuomo, now with NewsNation and not a particular fan of the entrenched Democratic establishment on display in Chicago:
This speech from RFK Jr. will go down in the history books:
“The DNC and its media organs engineered a surge of popularity for VP Harris based upon nothing. No policies, no interviews, no debates. Only smoke and mirrors.” pic.twitter.com/B0ilERBIEF
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) August 23, 2024
Chris Cuomo gave the best speech of the night on day three of the DNC and it wasn’t from the stage.
🔥🔥🔥
Cuomo ripped Democrats for lying to their voters while wealthy donors are sitting in $1M suites above them at the DNC.
“Look at the ring of suites. This is not unique to… pic.twitter.com/7Sp2rn92ib
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 22, 2024
A wider trend? One hopes so. However, as for the Clinton burn, that hits quite a bit closer to home with the Democratic Party. RFK Jr. and Chris Cuomo can be dismissed as outsiders. Stewart, however, practically weaned this generation of liberals via his Comedy Central show.
We’ll award Stewart points for this one, albeit not many.
See, we’re now well over 25 years since it became public knowledge that multiple women had accused the then-president of criminal sexual impropriety. In one case, that of Juanita Broaddrick, she only reluctantly came forward when forced to by the Kenneth Starr investigation and gave sworn testimony about an alleged assault that took place when Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
At the time, The Washington Post — a paper that is now fervent #MeToo champions and still insists “Democracy Dies in Darkness” — called Broaddrick’s sworn testimony a “sensational yet ancient and unproven allegation” in 1999.
I mention this because — for those of you who weren’t yet alive when Allosauruses roamed the streets of Washington, D.C. and almost all internet was 28.8k dial-up — Stewart started his first stint at “The Daily Show” in 1998.
This was one year before Broaddrick went public with her allegations against Clinton — and many, many years after it was known to all who cared to know that the commander in chief was a man who had no effective control over his sexual appetites. (The Broaddrick allegations came to light, after all, thanks to a lawsuit by a woman named Paula Jones who said Clinton exposed himself to her in an Arkansas hotel room and importuned her for, ahem, additional activities. It’s not that these allegations were necessarily true, but the fact you could believe them speaks volumes about President “Boxers or Briefs.”)
Twenty-seven years later, now that neither Clinton holds any practical sway over Democratic politics, Jon Stewart has finally noticed — mirabile dictu! — that maybe Bill was a bit rapey. Allegedly. This means that, if he manages to hold on to the gig until 2036, he’ll finally start cracking jokes about what a crock “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” was.
That seeing-eye chipmunk is awfully slow, but at least we should be thankful he helps a very deliberately blind squirrel the nut eventually. And, however long it takes, it’s always fun to see Democrats devour their own — and justly so, as it turns out.
