On Thursday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” host Trevor Noah reverted to Wednesday’s coordinated school walkout against gun violence and the inability and/or unwillingness by lawmakers to do anything about it. And as has been a popular pastime amongst late night hosts since the shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, Noah wanted to look at the weirdly antagonistic response to kids speaking their minds by conservative TV pundits.
“I don’t know about you guys, but watching those kids marching yesterday against gun violence was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Didn’t you think it was amazing?” Noah said. “But what was even more amazing was watching all the short-circuiting that happened on Fox News. For instance, prime time anchor and guy who looks like he just walked in on his grandparents boning, Tucker Carlson. His angle was next level.”
Then “The Daily Show” played a clip of Carlson complaining about the marching kids, saying “If they’re too young to buy guns, why should they be making my gun laws? Why should people who don’t have the right to buy guns have the right to make my gun laws? It is a simple question.”
Carlson’s guest, Igor Volsky, tried to explain in vain that the kids who walked out of school on Wednesday are not actually members of Congress and that “as citizens in this country” even kids can try to influence policy. To which Carlson replied, “They’re not citizens. They’re children. They’re not 18.”
“Wow. Wow. Now American kids aren’t even citizens?” Noah said. “So I guess in Tucker’s mind, you are Mexican until you turn 18. Is that how it works? And then you smash a pinata and social security numbers fall out.
“And secondly, get the f— out of here, man!” Noah continued before delivering the sobering zinger of the evening. “If kids are old enough to be shot, they are old enough to have an opinion about being shot, okay. Like it’s not like a school shooter walks in and ask a kid for ID. Come on.”