Jon Stewart ripped into liberal media pundits’ recent rhetoric in response to Donald Trump’s first week back in office.
Early into his Monday monologue, Stewart played a montage of news anchors referring to Trump’s firing of 17 inspectors general as a “purge.” The Daily Show host sarcastically pulled out an axe and pretended to freak out at the news.
“Ah! Trump has ushered in the purge!” Stewart yelled. But when he showed a clip of ABC news explaining what the purge in question was, he seemed unimpressed.
“No! He got rid of 17 inspectors general! That only leaves... No one knows how many there are,” Stewart joked.
Stewart acknowledged the “purge” in question was illegal—federal law dictates that Trump should’ve notified Congress 30 days ahead of time—but he still thought Democrats’ reaction was a little overdramatic.
“Oh, apparently you can fire them, but you have to give them 30 days notice,” Stewart said. “So that’s what we’re upset about? ‘No! You can do it, but not in that font!’”
Stewart clarified that he had no shortage of his own criticisms of the Trump administration, but he was worried the constant accusations from the left of fascism were counter-productive.
“Look, I have a lot of fear that as this term goes on, things are going to get a little fascist-y, and we must be vigilant,” Stewart said. “But part of vigilance is discernment. Republicans control the House, the Senate, the executive, and the judiciary. And just about every move that has been made till this point, we have granted them electorally. It’s our fault!”
Stewart argued that at the end of the day, Americans did knowingly vote Trump into office, so Democrats should respond with less moral outrage and more persuasion.
Stewart asked Democrats, “What are you learning from this? How would you use this power? What’s your contract with America?”
The Daily Show host advised prominent Democrats, “Tell people what you would do with the power that Trump is wielding, and then convince us to give that power to you, as soon as possible.”
“That’s the goal,” Stewart said. “It’s enough with the, ‘He’s a Hitler, he’s a thing. Stop doing it, that’s terrible...‘"
The big question Democrats should be answering to the American people, Stewart argued, was, “What would you f---ing do?”
