President Donald Trump’s racist video of the Obamas was shocking enough, but MAGA’s attempts to justify his behavior are what really blew Jon Stewart’s mind.
“I mean, this is probably crazy, but would they try and justify it?” Stewart asked on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show. Turns out, they would.
The host ran through the many excuses that right-wing commentators and figures have made for Trump. The president’s racist social media post, made on Friday, featured a video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. He began with Trump’s former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who argued, “It wasn’t a video that was racist. It was a video that ended with a racist thing.”
Stewart appeared baffled, telling the audience, “Which doesn’t make—that doesn’t matter. If you say the N-word at the end of the sentence, it still ruins the whole sentence!”
He then turned to an interview with conservative commentator Chris Kohls, who had an even more bizarre explanation. “At the end of the day, human beings often point to other human beings and notice that they kind of look like this animal or that animal,” Kohls said, explaining that he know a “guy that looked like a monkey, but he was white.”
Stewart responded, “So in terms of racist justifications, he’s blown right past the ‘I have a Black friend’ and moved right into the ‘I have a white friend who looks like a monkey.’”
“What a way to find out you’ve got resting primate face,” Stewart said to roaring laughter from the crowd.
However, Stewart pointed out that “actual Republicans” criticized the video, naming South Carolina senator Tim Scott, who called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
Trump himself said he “didn’t make a mistake” with his post and has not apologized so far. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, accused the media of a disproportionate reaction and “fake outrage.”
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King," she said in a statement. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Levitt’s response was branded by Stewart as “f---ing crazy.”
