Leave to “The Daily Show” to ask the big questions in the wake of President Joe Biden seemingly calling Trump supporters “garbage.” That’s exactly what Ronny Chieng did on Wednesday night … after a while.
“Wait hold on — Joe Biden is still the president?” the senior correspondent incredulously asked during the show’s opening monologue.
In the wake of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at a New York Trump rally, Biden said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” The comment immediately sparked backlash among Republicans.
“That’s a crazy thing to say even if you believe that. Just wait six more days, man,” Chieng advised President Biden. The Comedy Central host then tried to give Biden the benefit of the doubt and carefully listened through the president’s other comments about Puerto Rico. But between Biden’s stumbling and somehow connecting the territory to Delaware, he gave up.
“Oh, I see. This guy is too f–king old and his brain is a floating pile of garbage,” Chieng said.
The Comedy Central host also mocked the White House’s response to the gaffe. The institution later released a transcript of Biden’s comments, which included an apostrophe on the word “supporter’s (suggesting it was only referring to Hinchcliffe).” Biden later posted on X, stating that Hinchcliffe’s “demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
“That’s right — in the last week of the campaign Republicans are calling for a roundup of immigrants and Democrats are like ‘You have to put the apostrophe in the right place,’” Chieng said. “This election is really coming down to Nazis vs. grammar Nazis.”
Chieng also said this election is “f–ked” if it comes down to Americans understanding how apostrophes work. “Republicans aren’t accepting any of these excuses because they don’t know what an apostrophe is,” Chieng joked.
But just like Jon Stewart earlier this week, Chieng was frustrated about the latest garbage scandal because it’s drawing the media’s attention away from an actually important part of the Trump campaign. This time around, it’s the fact that Trump “promised” RFK Jr. control over public health agencies — “HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others,” Kennedy told his supporters on a Zoom call.
In an interview with Kaitlan Collins, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said that he had a long meeting with notable vaccine skeptic, where they discussed Kennedy’s plan to gather data that could trigger the removal of certain vaccines.
To figure out why the media is talking more about bad jokes and possible gaffes rather than bigger issues, Chieng turned to fellow senior correspondent Jordan Klepper.
“It’s because focusing on institutions like the CDC is what we in the media call boring,” Klepper said. When Cheing pushed him more on Kennedy’s plan, Klepper shot back, “I don’t know. It’s not my job to ask.”
“It is! You’re the media!” Chieng yelled. Watch the full monologue above.
