 I'll admit that I was actually pretty ambivalent about the prospect of John Stuart returning to the Daily Show because honestly I Kind of expected him to disappoint me I mean after seeing so many people who I previously looked up to disappoint me and do this heel turn and Become a hack or just shift Political ideologies. I just felt like man. I'm not ready for I'm not ready for John Stuart to disappoint me like that But thankfully I was wrong and after watching the first episode I can confidently say that this is the same show as it was in the 2000s and the 2010 it's the same show that I enjoyed as a young man and John Stuart didn't miss a beat now I was really relieved to see that because John Stuart had such a significant influence on my own political development That if he did some sort of a change or heel turn or became more hacky I would just feel really disappointed by that I mean I feel like that was the direction that Trevor Noah took the show in honestly I gave it a try but tapped out pretty quickly because I felt like he was just a more funny version of MSNBC Which is not what I was looking for I wanted objective political commentary and Trevor Noah was just a hack for example when leftists criticized Obama for taking money from Wall Street for speeches Noah's response was basically, you know what? It's fine make that money Obama as if there was nothing inherently wrong with politicians cashing in and chumming it up with Donors who got them elected after they refused to regulate them while in office. I mean it's elitist It's hacky and Noah just took the show in a direction Where he was more differential to power at a time when the country was in populist mode And that's why I think the show wasn't as successful as John Stuart also I mean those are really big shoes to fill but that's why for me at least Trevor Noah just wasn't it But what made John Stuart so effective in the first place is his willingness to poke fun at both sides the entirety of the Political establishment all it leads that's not to say that he created this false equivalence between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to policy But when Democrats embarrassed themselves with political gaffes or by doing something stupid by capitulating to Republicans He wasn't afraid to criticize them for it. He didn't treat politics as a team's ward He was objective and didn't pull any punches and that's what made him such an outstanding political commentator and In 2024 he's still doing the same thing Which has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way actually because he said what everyone was thinking that you're I guess not supposed to say He said both presidential candidates are really old Which is just objectively true And he also stated that questions about the cognitive capacity of both Biden and Trump are legitimate And he's not saying this to make it seem as if both candidates are equally bad But what he's saying is that when the stakes are so high When we have someone like Biden who's told an abtush to save us from Trump. That's that's pretty bad We're in a pretty bad predicament or as he put it He said when the barbarians are at the gate you want Conan not the chocolate chip cookie guy And he phrased it that way because he made fun of Biden for this tiktok Jason Kelsey your Travis Kelsey mama Kelsey Great chocolate chip cookies and Stewart's response that that was basically look Fire everyone because in their attempts to make Biden seem more hip and relatable and young by posting on tiktok They somehow made him look even more old and out of touch But John Stewart didn't just make fun of Biden for his cognitive decline He gave Trump the same exact treatment and that's a good thing because as Sean put it Liberals mad at John Stewart for doing a Trump and Biden are both really old and confused bit Don't realize how much that equation favors Biden. He continues we can all see Biden's brain is mush You should be thankful for comparisons to Trump on that front even with how incoherent he is himself And that's exactly right, but since Stewart's been gone Americans have become a lot more tribalistic and We've all kind of become insulated in our own little political bubbles and whenever that bubble is penetrated We get outraged, you know admitting the obvious and criticizing a member of the same team apparently is a huge no-no in this day and age And that was basically the response to John Stewart So let me show you what I mean by that rolling stones Alan seppenwall asks is John Stewart still the right person to host The Daily Show the comedy vet makes his return to the desk he left in 2015 this evening But his both sides are equally bad approach may not translate to 2024 He goes on to argue Stewart left the Daily Show in the early days of Donald Trump's presidential campaign when the whole idea still seemed Like a joke replaying the footage of Trump's descending an escalator to announce as candidacy seemed to provide Stewart as much Delight as any running gag in his time hosting. He likely couldn't have imagined what would happen in the 2016 election Never mind what was to come over the next four years where the sheer tonnage of falsehoods being proudly uttered in the White House Could have allowed the Daily Show to expand each episode to three hours without running out of material But even amidst all that mendaciousness the push toward racism and fascism or the sheer incompetence Displayed by so many people in so many important positions affecting the lives of every American Stewart was still sticking with the same both sides are equally bad approach which was on display again in a Irresistible the toothless 2020 political satire he directed now. I have not seen irresistible in fact I don't think I've ever even heard of it, but regardless what this person is saying is look He's both sides in this situation, right? We have Joe Biden and we have Donald Trump One is a fascist and one is a pretty standard establishment politician. So when you have these two options Why would you both sides the situation and that's not necessarily what John Stewart is doing, right? He's not saying they're both equally bad. He's saying what we're all thinking and what we can all see They are both very old men in cognitive decline and Biden should have retired as should Donald Trump But they're both very very selfish. I mean, this is not what John Stewart is saying But I mean he's kind of implying this with his commentary But Rolling Stone was not alone because other liberals online echoed the same exact sentiment For example Aaron Rupar writes John Stewart still has it in terms of being funny and entertaining But the political content of this monologue is basically the New York Times op-ed page in TV form Both sides are not in fact equally bad. That's not what he's saying, but he continues on one hand We have an old president who has skillfully led the country through a difficult period. That's debatable on the other hand We have an also old aspiring dictator who is largely responsible for said difficult period Both candidates are challenged Keith Ulberman chimed in saying well after nine years away There's nothing else to say to the both sides is fraud John Stewart bashing Biden accept Please make it another nine years predictably unhinged response from Keith Ulberman here This person says John Stewart is no longer up to the task He is incapable of an original idea relied on lazy tropes that appealed more to the white dude bro demographic And most importantly has joined the DC press corps and their inability to see the force for the trees a fail I guess you're supposed to just be a propagandist for Joe Biden I mean, I don't know what else this person expects this person adds. I'm calling bullshit on John Stewart It's funny how he didn't have a problem with age when it came to Bernie Sanders who's even older than President Biden How can you say an 81 year old man can't run this country when Biden is 81 and running it very well? Well first and foremost that's debatable second of all nobody was questioning Bernie Sanders mental acuity man I mean, these are very different people were talking about here Twitter user thambo shared a couple of other examples here This person says John Stewart is 20 years younger than Joe Biden, but they look the same age I'm just adding that to the discourse. Um, that's no. I'm sorry. Don't agree 61 year old John Stewart looked and sounded so tired and old Repeating tired old material from almost a decade ago definitely passed his prime incredibly sad This is more of a no you response to John Stewart telling Joe Biden that he's old John Stewart complaining that 2024 is too old guys again Is like me complaining that it's too white guys again It misses the point and minimizes the stakes and those were just a couple of examples But I think that all of these responses to John Stewart kind of proves how badly we needed him again, right? We need this commentary now more than ever and I'm sorry But he's not minimizing the stakes by saying what is objectively true what all of us can see with our own two eyes, right? You are the one missing the point. He's saying when the stakes are so high You don't roll the dice with someone this unpopular and out of touch and old right as Nate Silver of all people put it quote You don't demonstrate your seriousness that Trump is an existential threat to democracy by going through the motions to Renominate an 81 year old with a 38% approval rating who 75% of voters think is too old without giving anyone a choice Because that's just how things are done and Nate Silver is absolutely correct which is not something that I thought I would ever say but He's just saying what everyone is thinking right and when Nate Silver can see it, but other liberals cannot that's when you know They've lost the plot. That's when you know, they've become too out of touch. We never should have renominated Biden, right? Going with him is so dangerous. It's like you're playing chicken with fascism by choosing the weakest possible candidate Yes, he did defeat Trump the first time I will be forever grateful to him for doing that but that doesn't necessarily mean that he can do it again things are different now times have changed and He's not as strong as he was going into 2020 But that's where we're at Biden shows to run again The decision was his party leaders should have intervened and try to convince him to step down But that didn't happen. So it's Biden, right? He's the only thing that stands between Trump and the White House and that's really sad. It's a bleak situation, but We should be able to laugh at the bleak predicament that these elites put us in right But we should be able to poke fun at them for doing this for being so concerned about Authoritarianism from Donald Trump rightfully so but then running the weakest candidate imaginable Criticizing Biden is not tantamount to an endorsement of Donald Trump If anything Biden should be listening carefully to criticism to become a better candidate But I understand the fear that liberals fear about the prospect of Trump becoming president again because I mean he could very well and Democracy like I genuinely believe that that is a possibility But that doesn't mean that we turn off our brains and force ourselves to pretend as if the alternative is good Because Biden is not good. He's better than Trump and the bar is low But nonetheless, he is still better than Donald Trump But being better than Trump doesn't automatically make him good and it worries me that so many liberals refuse to hear good-faith criticism from the left about ways that Biden can improve but listen if you adopt the mentality where Your party is above criticism and the party leader should not be criticized under any circumstances ever You are no better than the magocultists to worship Donald Trump Objectivity matters being honest and truthful matters and a Sawyer hack it put it If you have a problem with how steward presented the dynamics of this race You have your head buried in the sand and haven't talked to a regular voter in three years Exactly and listen. We are all in a bubble in some way, right? But when you adopt the entire world view of msnbc pundits, you are no longer in touch with average americans Now that's not to say that msnbc pundits are equally as bad as fox news pundits and that they have the same effect on older generations As fox news pundits But I mean when you exclusively get your politics from cable news You are not hearing a range of perspectives that you should be hearing You're hearing from elitists with different interests than you whose ideas are filtered through an establishment friendly pro-corporate lens But getting back to john stewart his show very clearly had an impact on washington And I say this not only because of the discourse that took place after his first episode But because the white house press secretary was literally asked about his criticism The following day Expecting that I I would have to ask him did he watch john stewart last night? Sounds like you did jeff. Was it good? He was pretty critical of the president as well as the former president and I guess my question is He said this about President biden he was critical of both. Okay. Got oh, he said as well as well as the former. I got you got you got you Just and so my kind of follow-up to that More joking question is just does the white house feel like it made the right decision putting president biden out on thursday night To have the press conference that he did and related to that Do you feel like the white house's response pushing back against that our report was as quick and as robust as you would have liked it? I'm assuming this is responding to john On the daily show Okay, um, so look you I think and we believe the president went out on thursday on the day that the report came out It was important We believe it was important for the for the american people to hear directly from this president And to lay out in a very forceful way What we thought about about the special counsel report what he thought about the special counsel report and now only that He took your questions. He stood there and took questions from all of you. I think that's important It's important. He believed that's important to have to do and then the next day By the request of the white house correspondent association, which we obviously have a good relationship with and respect We we were asked to bring to bring ian sams to the podium From obviously the spokesperson from from the white house council and he did and stood here for 45 minutes Approximately and took questions And so I think we are going to do everything that we can especially as it relate Obviously as it related to the special counsel report, which we believe And let's not forget it said there is no there there, right? It said that the the case is closed So let's you know, that's what they said there's nothing to prosecute. So we want to be really clear there But we also the president's going to stand and defend himself The characterization the way that report was characterized was not not just me saying this legal experts on both sides said it was flatly wrong And it was gratuitous And it was inappropriate and so the president's going to defend himself I mean, I expect joe biden to defend himself obviously, but as john steward pointed out He's not doing a great job at it, right the people who are most concerned about his cognitive decline Aren't being reassured the more that they hear biden speak He's not a very good advocate for himself at this point now personally I care more about policy than the age of the candidate after all I did vote for bernie sanders twice who's actually older than joe biden But to be fair there was there wasn't this question About whether or not bernie sanders was in cognitive decline But his age was still an issue for a lot of voters and personally I find it baffling that Trump wanting to become a dictator isn't more of a pressing matter to voters than biden's cognitive decline But voters don't agree That's the reality and biden chose to run despite knowing that this would be a liability that he would be a liability And this would be an issue right now polls indicate that Voters are leaning more towards the fascist over the man that they think is senile That is the reality of the situation So to the extent that i'm personally concerned about biden's mental acuity It's purely from the standpoint of electability and whether or not that's going to hinder his ability to defeat donald trump But in conclusion john steward is right and if we're unwilling to admit obvious truths, we've lost the plot