Jon Stewart wasted neither time nor words responding to a viral op-ed calling for him to run for president in 2024.
“Ummm… no thank you,” the television host tweeted after Politico published an opinion piece declaring Stewart the Democratic Party’s best chance at holding onto the White House.
In the article, titled “If Tucker Runs in 2024, Here’s Who the Democrats Need,” Juleanna Glover insists that the former “Daily Show” host is “a better fit than most politicians for what modern politics has become.”
Referencing the time Stewart famously took down Tucker Carlson on a 2004 “Crossfire” episode, Glover said he might be the only worthy opponent should the Fox News host decide to run.
Stewart cut through the noise about the highly hypothetical showdown (and the chatter it generated across social media) with those four words. Still, he used his moment in the spotlight to call attention to a veterans’ healthcare bill that is currently being blocked by Republicans.
“But while I have your attention, could all of you (including news orgs) please ask @PatToomey why he is single-handedly stalling a veterans health care bill that passed w huge bipartisan support over a technicality?” Stewart, a fierce and longtime advocate for veterans wrote on Twitter. “Asking for 3.5 million friends. Thanks!”
Senator Toomey (R-PA) is one of 13 Republicans who voted against expanding medical benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. A month earlier, Stewart gave a powerful speech at a Washington, D.C. rally in support of the legislation, known as the PACT Act.
Glover, the CEO of a public advisory firm that has serviced Republicans like Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani, isn’t the first to rally for a Stewart run. At the ceremony for Stewart’s Mark Twain Prize, Dave Chappelle said he wished his fellow comedian would run for president – “but I imagine it would be hard for a coke guy to do,” he joked.
