Longtime “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart has been off the air for a while now, but he showed up Thursday night during a standup performance by Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall in New York and offered quite a few choice words about Donald Trump and the recent Charlottesville headlines.
Stewart’s comments were essentially transcribed by New York Times culture reporter Sopan Deb, who posted the material on Twitter.
Other media outlets, including Salon.com, also picked up the story, quoting heavily from the Twitter posts.
Stewart is quoted saying of events in Charlottesville: “It wasn’t so much that there were Nazis. It was really the reaction by certain presidents.”
He added: “There are two sides? Motherfucker? Two sides. I believe they are called the Allied powers and the Axis powers, and we used to be with the Allied powers. This motherfucker signed a treaty that I don’t think any of us know about.”
Stewart also said: “In the president’s defense, he is a terrible person. … I don’t think everybody who likes him is a Nazi, but everybody who is a Nazi sure does seem to like him.”
Salon notes: “The comedian later addressed his short-lived Twitter feud with Trump where the then-reality star questioned Stewart’s name change away from Jonathan Leibowitz. Stewart recounted that, at the time, he responded by asking Trump why he had changed his birth name from ‘Fuckface Von Clownstick.'”
Stewart is also quoted saying: “Basically it goes back to an old white supremacist trope, which is, ‘Jews amongst us.'” Referring to his beef with Trump over the name change, Stewart said Trump “was signaling to the underworld that Jews are amongst us.” Stewart added: “Honestly, if Jews controlled the media why wasn’t I on a network?”
Salon adds: “During his appearance, Stewart said Trump’s election wasn’t actually a surprise — the election of Barack Obama as president was. ‘That is where we rose above our history,’ he added.”
Below is some of the material tweeted by Sopan Deb …
How does this type of diatribe help the country? This cannot be considered comedy. Whether you like Trump or not, people must work together. This does nothing to improve relations in the country and in fact this is the type of rhetoric that only continues to inflame the tensions unnecessarily. It is unfortunate that the intelligent people in the country like Mr. Stewart, lower themselves to these types of actions rather than using their celebrity to attempt to bring the country together. It is especially sad at this time as we are recognizing Princess Diana, who set the example for how to use celebrity to bring people together. Bringing the country together does not require supporting Trump, but it does require not inflaming people.
Why is it Stewart’s responsibility to bring the country together?? Seems that’s more the presidents responsibility…he’s just telling it like it is…
Leave poor Jon alone- he is just trying to make a living. As long as he can still find bitter misguided people to laugh at his obscene language laced rants against everything and anything Jon doesn’t like, he will be OK. His worry is that he already knows that the majority of citizens don’t like his act and won’t consume it. He realizes that more people will reject his outlook if our nation continues to improve under a Trump administration. So how can anyone blame him for his continual attacks on Trump – he is just trying to make a living!