It has become fairly routine for Democrats to liken President Donald Trump’s actions over the last week to fascism, and “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart for one is sick of it.
The Comedy Central host started the crux of Monday night’s monologue by talking about Trump’s firing of at least 17 inspectors general, an event that many leftwing pundits dubbed “the purge.” After pretending to be terrified and breaking out a definitely-not-fake axe, Stewart revealed that the president is allowed to fire inspectors general if they are given 30 days notice. He then likened pundits’ outrage to complaining about a font.
“This is the cycle we find ourselves in. The first law of Trump-o-dynamics: Every action is met with a very not-equal overreaction, thus throwing off our ability to know when s–t is actually getting real,” Stewart explained.
He then proved his point again by showing intensely negative Democratic reactions to Trump’s pardoning of multiple people. “That is his constitutional power. Again, for some reason, we have given presidents the power of a king. And then we say, ‘Oh, by the way, with that power, you are not going to get all kingly and s–t on us right?’” Stewart said before breaking it down in simpler terms.
“Do not hate the player, hate the founding fathers,” Stewart added.
Watch the monologue below:
The Comedy Central host went on to criticize the political left for yelling fascist, calling it “almost a reflex.”
“I have a lot of fear that as this term goes on, things are going to get a little fascist-y, and we must be vigilant. But part of vigilance is discernment. Republicans control the House, the Senate, the executive and the judiciary. Just about every move until this point we have granted them electorally. It is our f–king fault,” the late night host explained. “The constant drumbeat of encroaching fascism will erode the credibility we will need if — hopefully, if and not when — it hits. But the truth is now his most objectionable actions have taken place almost entirely within our designed democratic system.”
Stewart ended his opening monologue by telling Democrats to ask better questions than “how dare he?”
“The question should be what are you learning from this? How would you use this power?” Stewart said. “It is enough with the ‘He is a Hitler’ … Stop doing that. What would you f–king do?” Watch the full monologue above.
