Jon Stewart celebrated Kamala Harris’ performance during her first Presidential debate with Donald Trump overall, but there was one moment that left the Comedy Central host open-mouthed and awestruck: Harris’ answer on abortion.
“Holy s–t. She crushed it,” Stewart said during a live episode of “The Daily Show” on Tuesday night.
“This is like one of those ‘Groundhog Day’ movies where you get to go back and fixed the bad way something happened earlier to the good way,” Stewart continued before losing focus. “And then you learn Italian and the piano, and then you get sad and despondent, and then you learn how to love yourself.”
Heading into the abortion segment of the debate, Stewart was skeptical. “Not to get superstitious, but this is where the wheels fell off for Biden,” the late night host said. “He was asked about abortion and somehow spun it into why are immigrants raping people.”
Trump was the first candidate asked about the issue and used his time to defend overturning of Roe v. Wade during his presidency. “We’ve gotten what everybody wanted. Democrats, Republicans and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought back into the states,” Trump said. “I did something that no one thought was possible.”
Harris didn’t mince words in her response, directly responding to Trump rather than the moderators or the audience.
“I have talked with women around our country,” Harris said. “You want to talk about this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering a miscarriage being denied care in an emergency room because healthcare providers are afraid they might go to jail? And she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn’t want that.”
Harris’ answer was met with applause from “The Daily Show” audience as Stewart stared on, mouth agape. When he finally recovered, Stewart said that Trump will now “finally have to answer for his abortion policy.” Of course, those hopes were dashed as Trump used his time to talk, not about abortion, but about the “catastrophe” of student loan forgiveness.
“Oh, you don’t have an answer,” Stewart quipped. Watch the full segment above.
