CLEANING HOUSE

Jon Stewart Has Tough Message for Dems After Blowout Victory

The late-night host explained what needs to happen next.

Jon Stewart is sharing some strong words with Democrats after their landslide midterm-election victory.

On the latest episode of The Weekly Show, Stewart celebrated the blue wave that swept through the country on Tuesday, but said, “This victory means nothing if squandered.”

Stewart, 63, urged the Democratic Party to “govern sanely, govern competently.”

His message came alongside criticism of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with the veteran late-night host saying it may be time for Democrats to shed hierarchical tendencies and the old guard.

“By the way, that’s job one of this opportunity,” he explained. “Job one of this opportunity is to tear down the obstacles and old way of thinking that got us into this mess. Someone has to meet this moment, and they have got to show—and this moment is not, ‘Oh, we get to impeach everybody.’ Like, f--- that.

“You have an opportunity to actually govern. Do it. Take it,” Stewart continued passionately. “And one of the first things you need to do is remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics. It is a bulls--t system and it needs to go. They’re already like, ‘Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this…’ Chuck Schumer deserves—Chuck Schumer fought tooth and nail against half of these f---ing people! And even if he didn’t, he does not understand the urgency of the moment and what the future demands. I truly believe that.”

Stewart’s rebuke of Schumer, 75, is not new. In March, Stewart accused the New York Democrat of “passivity.”

“I don’t understand the idea of Schumer to begin with. His passivity in the face of these really kind of existential crises that occur is beyond me and even the subtle adjustments that he makes, given the frustration of the Democratic constituency writ large, is ‘I’ll curse me.’ Even that is all show, and it’s frustrating,” Stewart said then.

In September, he slammed both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, 56, ahead of the midterms.

“What’s going to happen is they’re going to have to f---ing do something,” he said. “They’re going to have to deliver. It will not be sufficient to make their entire personalities opposition to whatever Trump’s politics are; they’re going to have to have a prescription for rebalancing this economy in a smart and urgent way.”

Schumer has been widely seen as bending to President Donald Trump’s will and not resisting GOP policies. He has been increasingly unpopular amongst his own party.

But Stewart was largely optimistic about MAGA’s wipeout.

“The Democrats ran actual good candidates who seem in it for virtuous and non-political salesman reasons. It was an incredible night. This was like the Knicks Championship. This was ‘Knicks in 5,’” the die-hard Knicks fan said.

Stewart said the elections filled him with a “feeling, one that is a little bit alien to me within these times.”

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“I believe it’s referred to as hope,” he said.

“Oh,” the late-night host said. “The beauty of hope and opportunity raising its delicious head. And boy, have I been waiting for a night like this for a very long time.”

“And I hope you’re feeling that same feeling of it’s not it,” he told his audience. “It’s an exhalation that creates the space for progress. And I just am so excited for it.”

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Meera NavlakhaEntertainment Reporter

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