Jon Stewart on Monday's episode of "The Daily Show" roasted former President Donald Trump's attempts to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
Stewart welcomed viewers who may have been tuning into the show from X/Twitter, after watching a rambling and wide-ranging interview between Trump and tech magnate Elon Musk. "You know, when they started quoting their favorite Maya Angelou passages to each other," Stewart said, before riffing as though he were Musk. "'My interpretation — the caged bird is singing for Bitcoin.'"
Stewart then honed in on Trump's attempted takedown of Harris, a sharp pivot the MAGA campaign was forced to make after President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race last month.
The show aired reports that the ex-president has grown increasingly frustrated with Biden's decision to step aside as well as Harris' surging poll numbers.
“A month ago, he was basically already the f***ing president. He had cheated death, started a new ear accessory trend," Stewart said, referring to Trump's bandaged ear in the wake of his assassination attempt. "Back then, people thought his VP selection was a smart choice. He had it all in the bag, and it was taken away.
"But now, instead of enjoying the fruit of six years of Biden attacks, got to start all over again. And the audience has to literally sit through him getting up to speed," Stewart continued, before showing a montage of Trump referring to the Veep as "Kamabla," questioning her race, and accusing her of using AI to fake a large crowd that was seen in countless live photos and videos. The former president even alleged that once, during a nearly calamitous helicopter ride with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown — whom Harris used to date — Brown disclosed "terrible things about her." Brown denied the interaction ever took place, saying in an audio clip the Stewart aired, "I just assumed he was on a helicopter ride with somebody Black and he made a mistake and thought it was me."
Even Trump's efforts at “trying out some good catastrophizing on Harris" have proved a fool's errand; Stewart said, airing back-to-back video clips of the ex-president reusing insults — pegged to hypothetical disaster scenarios like a stock market crash, World War III, and the destruction of suburbia — he once directly attributed to Biden. “This is just a remix?” Stewart asked. “Dude, you can’t just find and replace Biden with Kamala. That’s lazy apocalypse-ing.”
Stewart then delved into Trump's unfounded assertions that Biden will reclaim the Democratic nomination. In one clip from a MAGA rally in Montana last week, Trump said, "I hear he’s going to make a comeback at the Democrat convention. He’s going to walk into the room and he’s going to say, ‘I want my presidency back. I want another chance to debate Trump. I want another chance.’”
“He’s not coming back. He’s not coming back,” the comedian said, as though he were speaking to Trump directly.
“I get it, you wanted to run against Joe Biden. Just two old dudes going toe to toe fungus. Last Hurrah,” Stewart said. “It’s not fair. Now you’ve got to run against someone who appears healthy and youthful and happy, her vigor standing as a stark counterpoint to whatever front butt thing you have going on.”
“And it’s pretty clear that Biden isn’t going to do what needs to be done to stop this steal,” he continued. “Someone I know loves stopping steals, right? Kamala Harris accepts the nomination next Thursday night, which means it may be time to get the gang together storm the convention, pull an August 22, this time on behalf of Joe Biden. All you need is thousands of supporters who have not yet been sent to jail yet for being part of the last mob, or sent to jail so early in the process, they’re already out.”
"The Daily Show" airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central and streams on Paramount+
