Lewis Black may be the longest-serving contributor to The Daily Show, but his “Back in Black” segments are few and far between in the age of Trevor Noah. That’s what made it so refreshing to see the angry comedian pop up on The Nightly Show Tuesday night, where he used his place on the panel to rant about the ongoing Democratic primary process.
As host Larry Wilmore laid out at the top of the segment, Hillary Clinton has been telegraphing this week that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will be in charge of “revitalizing the economy” should she be elected president, presenting voters with a “two-for-one” offer she hopes they can’t refuse. Speaking to a crowd in Kentucky, where she appears to have narrowly beat Bernie Sanders, Clinton promised she’d be sending Bill down to coal country.
“Well, really, what she’s saying is that’s as far away as she could possibly get him, but he’s still in the United States,” Black said. On the two-for-one theory, he added, “It’s him. You can’t underestimate him. You can talk about this, that, whatever he did, whatever happened. Nobody gives a shit. It’s him! They love him!” Recalling the time he saw Bill Clinton speak in person, Black said, “You will buy anything the fucker wants to sell.”
But does Bill risk overshadowing Hillary? According to Nightly Show contributor Grace Parra, “I think she’s already being overshadowed by another older, graying man in the Democratic Party: Mr. Bernard Q. Sanders.”
“The thing about Hillary,” Black said later, “is the fact she never went away. Everyone who ever runs for president goes away. Richard Nixon went away. Mitt Romney didn’t appear until, like, four weeks ago! And then you go, ‘Wow! Oh, wow! I forgot! You’re not so bad!’ She’s the one who’s in the carpool with you for 10 fucking years, and every morning you got that cup of coffee and you’re going, ‘I can’t believe I gotta pick her up again.’”
Black first endorsed Bernie Sanders close to a year and a half ago, though more recently he admitted that the Vermont senator has no real chance of beating Clinton.
“I am a Bernie Sanders supporter and it’s only because it’s the first time I’ve ever had a candidate,” Black told The Daily Beast. “I’m a socialist. I finally have a candidate and he’s not going to win. Why? Because he said he’s a socialist.”