Jon Stewart went deep on presidential campaign analysis in his first time back at The Daily Show since Donald Trump’s election.
“It turns out the election was stolen by more people voting for Donald Trump,” Stewart quipped on Monday night. “It’s quite a caper.”
In his 15-minute monologue, Stewart played a barrage of clips from Democratic pundits and strategists analyzing Trump’s win. “It’s a delight to hear about why it happened from so many people who were so wrong about what was going to happen,” he joked.
Stewart then addressed theories that Democratic campaigns were “too woke,” playing clips from news programs this week alleging that the Left was too concerned with politically correct virtue signaling to successfully win an election.
“I only have one problem with the woke theory,” Stewart said. “I just didn’t recall seeing any Democrats running on woke shit.”
The show then cut to a montage of centrist Democratic campaign ads positioning candidates as pro police, anti-illegal immigrant and critical of transgender healthcare.
“And don’t forget about Kamala Harris. It’s not like she was exactly waving around her NPR tote bag,” Stewart said ahead of the now-viral clip of the vice president saying, “I have a Glock.”
“They acted like Republicans for the last four months,” Stewart lamented. “They wore camo hats and went to Cheney family reunions. Do you know how dangerous it is to wear a hunting hat around Cheney?”
He continued, “Democrats were mostly running against an identity that was defined for them based on a couple of months of post-George Floyd, defund the police Instagram posts from four years ago. What happened was the country felt like government wasn’t working for them, and that the Democrats in particular were taking their hard-earned money and giving it to people who didn’t deserve it as much as them. So the Democrats got chill act.”
“I’m glad to say Democrats did protect democracy — just for the other side,” Stewart said after a series of clips about Trump’s threat to the country’s system of free and fair elections.
He concluded his monologue with a message of reassurance. “I’m sure any robust examination of better policies is very welcome. But I just want to please assure people: This isn’t forever.” The comedian then cut to a map of the electoral college results from the 1984 presidential election, when Ronald Reagan won re-election. Every state in the country except for Minnesota voted for the Republican Party.
“Everyone thought that was the end of the Democrats,” Stewart said, “but eight years later, there was a Democrat back in office.”
Stewart last hosted The Daily Show on the night of the election, when the show went live as results poured in. The episode ended before the race was officially called for Trump, and Stewart told his audience, “This isn’t the end.”
“I promise you, this is not the end,” he said. “We have to regroup, and we have to continue to fight and continue to work day in and day out to create a better society for our children, for this world, for this country, that we know is possible. It’s possible.”
Stewart, who originally hosted the Comedy Central show from 1998 to 2015, returned to The Daily Show in February, signing on as host every Monday through the presidential election. Last month, on the heels of a sharp spike in ratings, the comedian extended his bid as host through 2025. He will also stay on as an executive producer.
Stewart addressed the extension at the beginning of Monday night’s episode, when he assumed a deep and slow voice he labeled “The Resistance” and told the crowd, “I promise you for the remainder of the next four years, I will only speak to you in this tone of voice this close to the camera. I will be relentless — or, well, they will. I’m here Mondays, really not even that many. There’s a dark weeks and holidays. It’s truly about 15 hours of resistance total.”
