By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
In response to the online backlash he’s received for his criticism of President Joe Biden, Daily Show host Jon Stewart has decided to take a masterclass in speaking truth to power — and who better to emulate than his old pal Tucker Carlson?
It has been 19 years since the Daily Show host went on CNN’s Crossfire and took Carlson and co-host Paul Begala to task for fomenting partisan discord. After Carlson remarked that Stewart was funnier on his Comedy Central series, Stewart shot back, “You’re as big a d–k on your show as you are on any show.”
Three months later, CNN cut ties with Carlson and cancelled Crossfire. At the time, network president Jon Klein cited Stewart’s on-air criticism as a factor in the decision to dump the debate series. Carlson eventually landed at MSNBC and, later, Fox News, but was canned by Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing media empire in 2023 and went on to launch his own, direct-to-consumer streaming platform.
Recently, Carlson flew to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin and went viral for a segment praising Russia under Putin for its pristine subway stations and allegedly affordable groceries. He went so far as to suggest that low food prices under Russia’s communist leader were enough to “radicalize you against your leaders” in the United States.
“It will radicalize you… unless you understand basic economics,” Stewart responded. “See, $104 for groceries sounds like a great bargain unless you realize Russians earn less than $200 a week. But that’s the kind of context that — what did you call yourself earlier? — a journalist would have provided.
“But here’s the reality: You f–king know all of this because you aren’t as dumb as your face would have us believe,” Stewart posited. “Perhaps if your handlers had allowed, you would have seen that there was a hidden fee to your cheap groceries and orderly streets. Ask [Russian opposition leader] Alexei Navalny,” who was killed earlier this week, “or any of his supporters. The difference between our urinal caked, chaotic subways and your candelabra-ed, beautiful subways is the literal price of freedom.”
Stewart then surmised that the message “Carlson and his ilk are pushing is that there’s really no difference between our systems. In fact, there’s might be a little better. The question is why? Why is Tucker doing this? Here’s why: It’s because the old civilizational battle was communism vs. capitalism. That’s what drove the world since World War II… but now they think the battle is woke vs. un-woke — and in that fight, Putin is an ally to the right,” Stewart explained. “He’s their friend. Unfortunately, he is also a brutal and ruthless dictator, so now they have to make Americans a little more comfortable with that. Liberty is nice, but… have you seen Russia’s shopping carts?” Watch the full segment below:
Stewart kicked off his Daily Show encore on Feb. 12 with a segment that debated whether Biden, at 81, or Trump, at 77, is fit to serve a second term. But he also pointed out that Biden, despite his advanced age, does not have Trump’s rap sheet.
TVLine readers gave Stewart’s first episode back an average grade of “A-,” but many online would disagree with their assessment. Among Stewart’s most vocal critics is former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who took to X to declare that the comedian is a “bothsidesist fraud.”
What did you think of Jon Stewart’s second night back as host of The Daily Show? Sound off in Comments.
Per usual Jon Stewart’s wise and witty truth bombs upsets the right side of the isle because they hate the truth and he is a distraction from their narrative
The backlash wasn’t just from the right, it was members of the left that were upset he was criticizing Biden and by doing so would help the right. Honestly he wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t true, I wish Biden wasn’t the best choice out of the current options, but that’s how elections go nowadays you vote based on who you don’t want to see elected. I wished political parties weren’t a thing and we could just find a great candidate out of the million people in this country to do the best for everyone, but that is just a dream world.
If you want more than a two-party system, the Electoral College has to go.
More than two candidates leaves no one with a chance to reach 270.
YES! Get rid of the electoral college.
Getting rid of the electoral college will mean a hand full of states determine our President. No thank you.
Biden is not fit to be President. The Democrats need to stop playing politics and get someone to lead them if they don’t want Trump as President. Biden and those controlling him are ruining our country.
Democrat here. We’re good.
As for Trump, you folks better have a backup plan for him.
So you think it’s fair that a minority of people get to determine our President? The government is supposed to be “for the people,” not “for the states.”
No. Read a history book and understand why it was there in the first place. You can learn about how the small states were afraid to join the union for fear of being bossed around by big states, and demanded some safeguards against that. And other things your 7th grade teacher should have taught you.
Wouldn’t that be nice. Not having to have millions to run. Another part of my dream would be to not allow lying to the public i.e. false ads and say anything debates.
Agree.
.
If you’re on the House or Senate floor, on TV, or literally anywhere else in your official capacity as “Senator John Doe,” you’re under oath and subject to perjury if you lie.
It takes a real man to admit on-air that he messed up and will make a course correction. Glad to have ya back, Jon.
Oh, how I missed Jon’s Tucker Takedowns. It’s good to have him back
I warned my friends that Stewart was just going to double-down on his remarks. He’s notoriously bad at accepting criticism and always has been. I say that as someone who was once a big fan. Stewart is on the Bill Maher/Dave Chappelle trajectory. In a couple of weeks I expect him to start complaining about how people are “too woke nowadays.”
I agree with the twitter comments, Stewart played right into the loonies on the right’s hands last week, he allowed them to use his soundbites to make Trump and Biden seem like they are the same, it was horrible both sides crap that both minimized how horrible Trump is and overemphasized how bad Biden is. All that being said Stewart is still very good at this so its still entertaining TV, now just start doing pieces about they old man who is a sexual abuser, a con man, and an insurrectionist and not the old man who isn’t any of those things.
This. We know Biden is old. This is not news. This is stating the obvious. What exactly people expect Biden or anyone else to do about that, I don’t know.
.
But it’s clear he has no plans to step aside as of now, so instead of the left/Democrats constantly harping on this and throwing fits because “he’s not our first choice!” and so on and so forth, we need to focus on the bigger picture. It isn’t just Biden we’re voting for this year, we’re also voting on local and state levels for candidates who can help ensure that our party can actually get the stuff done that we want done. People on the right voted for Trump because, regardless of their own personal feelings about him, he got them a lot of what they wanted, up to and including a conservative-heavy Supreme Court that is ruling in the way they want.
.
Do Democrats care about wanting to ensure women’s reproductive rights, or LGBTQ+ rights, are safe? Do they care about getting people in office who can do more to tackle issues like climate change and gun control? Do they care about ensuring we get a majority in Congress that could allow us to make the necessary changes to the Supreme Court so that we have a court that actually rules in favor of the people instead of a select group of right-wing interests? If so, then we need to do whatever we can to ensure that happens, up to and including voting for Biden.
.
People did the whole, “Well, I’m not impressed woth the Democratic candidate, I’ll sit this one out” routine in 2016. We all saw how well that decision turned out. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not exactly eager for a second round of Trump as president.
.
(I’d also point out that we knew Biden was going to be one of our older presidents in 2020, too – we were well aware of how old he’d be when 2024 came around even then. And we had plenty of younger candidates running against him back then. Some of htose younger candidates were my personal first picks during the primaries, and I would’ve been thrilled if any of them had taken the nomination.
.
But people evidently didn’t want any of those younger candidates. Biden won the nomination in 2020 for a reason. So it makes the griping about Biden’s age now all the more pointless.)
This. This. This. This. This. This. THIS!!!!!!
Seconded. A perfect post. Needs to be everywhere. The only thing I’d quibble with is there were strong rumors in 2020 that he’d be a one term president, but maybe that’s because they thought Trump wouldn’t run again, or wouldn’t be able to run again (still holding out hope heh). Anyway. THIS!
Thank goodness Joe Biden won the 2020 primary and election!!! Have you all forgotten the shape our country was in when Donald Trump left office??? Or, that Joe was the first President not to have access to the White House till AFTER being sworn in???? He didn’t have the benefit of having 2 months to prepare for his presidency as past presidents.
How many young, inexperienced candidates would have known HOW to take over after January 6th??? NO ONE else had the EXPERIENCE (including without any preparation time) to immediately take over the shambles, except for Joe Biden! Having spent 36 years in the Senate and being Vice-President for 8 years he knew HOW and WHAT needed to be done. Past Presidents have stated it takes 2 years to learn the job! Joe came in and knew the job and exactly WHAT had to be done and HOW to do it!
He was already known and respected by our world leaders. He knew them by their first names. When all trust and respectability for our country was lost by Trump, the heads of government were willing right from the start, to give a well-known Joe, the benefit of their trust. He brought us and our world countries back together. What other candidate knew international diplomacy? And, can you imagine how much different the world would be, if anyone but Joe Biden, was in charge of handling Ukraine and Putin??? We all feared we were on the brink of WWIII! Everyone, including our own Congress, was in a state of panic. I thanked God for bringing us, a calm and cool-minded Joe Biden, who knew HOW to handle this world situation!
He readily knew there were infrastructure changes needed in our country. Due to years of past presidents having ignored them, we now have unsafe highways and bridges to drive on. Along with this infrastructure came an investment in added jobs.
Did you also forget how SHARP his mind was when he made complete as*es of the Republicans who came to challenge and cackle him during his State of the Union? I will take that “old man” any day. We are living in a difficult world, none of us dreamed could ever happen. His understanding of world affairs brings more to the Oval Office than any young Senator ever could! People complain about the economy, which isn’t as bad as Fox News wants us to believe. I am looking at the BIG PICTURE, at least we are living in a country with an economy. Joe Biden’s experience vs. other “younger” candidates’ inexperience, is what is keeping us safer from our enemies. And, for this, he has earned my trust to give him 4 more years.