Podcaster and stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe spurred national outrage with his speech at a Sunday Trump rally where he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” on top of other crass racist jokes. Jon Stewart couldn’t get that worked up about it, however, as he explained in his Monday monologue on The Daily Show.
“Now obviously in retrospect, having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before election day and roasting a key voting demographic, probably not the best decision by the campaign politically,” Stewart responded. “But to be fair, the guy’s really just doing what he does. I mean, here he is at the Tom Brady roast a few months ago.”
Stewart played a montage of Hinchcliffe telling a string of shock-heavy jokes at the roast, and responded, “Yes, of course, terrible. Boo, yes,” before cracking up.
ADVERTISEMENT
“There’s something wrong with me,” Stewart confessed. “I find that guy very funny. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I mean, bringing him to a rally and have him not do roast jokes? That’d be like bringing Beyoncé to a rally and not have…” Stewart faltered, referring to how Beyoncé didn’t perform at her recent Texas rally appearance with Kamala Harris.
The real target of Stewart’s anger this week was Donald Trump, who vowed at the same Sunday rally that he’d “launch the largest deportation program in American history” through the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
“Who the f--- told Donald Trump about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798?” Stewart quipped. “Because I’m going to bet you something: He did not come to the meeting and go, ‘Hey, why don’t we use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act? Would that apply?’”
Stewart ripped into Trump’s inconsistent promises about exactly how many people he plans to deport, ranging from 2 million to over 21 million, and expressed severe doubt that Trump would be able to do any of this in a humane manner.
The Daily Show host showed an interview clip from last month of Trump responding to concerns about him accidentally deporting a legal citizen, saying, “You put one wrong person onto a bus or onto an airplane, and your radical left lunatics will try and make it sound like the worst thing that’s ever happened.”
Stewart replied, “Because it’s the worst thing that ever happened to them, the American citizens you mistakenly deport.”
Stewart warned viewers that they might not be as safe from Trump’s extreme deportation policies as they think, given Trump’s talk of deporting special prosecutor Jack Smith or pro-Palestinian protesters. He also pointed out that the rhetoric Trump uses against Latino immigrants today matches the rhetoric used against Italian and Irish immigrants in the early 20th century.
“Right now you think you’re safe,” Stewart told his audience, “because the group Trump’s talking about, it’s not you. As if … Donald Trump can tell the f---ing difference or even cares that the day one implementation of the 1798 law, that was last used to intern Japanese and German citizens in World War II, will be a fine-toothed comb.”
