Jon Stewart said, “somebody has been making the wrong lists,” after he and California Gov. Gavin Newsom were named as two of 2028’s top “Democratic Presidential Contenders” by Nate Silver in an opinion piece for The New York Times, along with 16 others.
“I think I should have been on a different list,” Stewart told producers on his Weekly Show Wednesday, after a fan asked if he thought he should have been ranked “higher or lower” than he was at number 13 of 18.
The ranking put Newsom as number one, followed by, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (2), Pete Buttigieg (3), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (4), Sen. Ruben Gallego (5), Gov. Josh Shapiro (6), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (7), Kamala Harris (8), Sen.Cory Booker (9), Sen. Raphael Warnock (10), Sen. Jon Ossoff (11), Sen. Mark Kelly (12), Stewart (13), Gov. Gov. JB Pritzker (14), Gov. Andy Beshear (15), Rep. Ro Khanna (16), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (17), and Sen. Chris Murphy (18).
Stewart didn’t have much to say about his placement on the list—and seemed to be learning in the moment for the first time that he was named. But he did have a few jokes about the number one spot holder, Newsom.
“Newsom’s been training for this, this is his Olympics,” Stewart said. “He’s been training for this his whole life. Do you guys remember when we interviewed him for the show?” he asked his producers, referencing his 2023 interview with the governor for his former Apple TV show The Problem with Jon Stewart.
“It was about prison reform, and I sat down with him, and the first thing I said, I go like, ‘Pretty handsome, right? I just wanna tell you something. Look at me. This s--t doesn’t last forever.’”
The 73-year-old host recalled telling Newsom, 58, “‘Just understand, this is coming for you.’ And I looked at his eyes, and I saw genuine hurt,” he joked.
“I think he was genuinely like, ‘That’s how… what? I’m gonna end up like… No, that can’t be.’ I felt like I was giving him a little bit of a, you know, Christmas Carol-look into the future. ‘I am the ghost of Christmas future.’”
Stewart continued to joke about the “contenders” list, sidestepping the implied question about a future run.
“I think somebody has been making the wrong list. Wouldn’t it be nice to be, like, ‘Young Actors to Watch?’ Or how about this—‘Zaddies: Silver Foxes That Still…,’ you know, that’s this list,” he wants to be on, he quipped. “You wanna be on the list with, like, John Slattery.”
Last month, when asked on The Daily Show if he’d ever consider running for office, Stewart didn’t exactly rule it out.
“I think it speaks to this desperation and dissatisfaction that we have with the status quo,” he said. “So then you see somebody on television saying some of the things that resonate with you and go, well f--- it.”
