After nearly nine years away, Jon Stewart made his long-awaited return to The Daily Show desk on Monday night, delivering a scathing 20-minute monologue in which he relentlessly mocked the two leading presidential candidates for their age-related gaffes and missteps.
Stewart’s criticism of President Joe Biden, however, did not sit well with the majority of The View’s hosts on Tuesday, who complained that it was “offensive” and ageist. At the same time, they groused that focusing attention on the president’s increasingly frequent public miscues only helps Donald Trump, who they described as a “stupid fascist” who would lead America into a world war.
During his Monday night broadcast, Stewart described Trump and Biden as “similarly challenged” when it comes to questions about their mental fitness and advanced age, noting that they are by far the two oldest candidates to ever run for the White House. While noting that Biden has “lost a step” and ridiculing the president’s latest blunders, especially in the wake of a special counsel report that depicted Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” Stewart also noted that Trump and Biden are not the same.
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“He hasn’t been indicted as many times,” he declared. “He hasn’t had as many fraudulent businesses or been convicted in a civil trial for sexual assault or been ordered to pay defamation or had his charities disbanded or stiffed a shit-ton of blue-collar tradesmen he’d hired.”
Still, with Stewart saying it is not up to voters but rather the candidates to “silence concerns and criticisms” about age and fitness, liberals and Biden supporters have been up in arms over what they see as the comedian’s “both-sideism” over the upcoming election. Conspiracy-peddling X owner Elon Musk’s praise of Stewart’s return only ramped up the criticism from the left.
After airing a clip from Stewart’s show, The View’s resident conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she loved that the comic “takes shots at both sides.” She added that Biden’s age is a “legitimate issue” and that the president should be open to intense scrutiny due to the high stakes of the race, prompting liberal panelist Joy Behar to disagree.
Grumbling that the topic of Biden’s age has become “repetitious,” Behar suggested that the 81-year-old president’s lifelong stammer is the reason he “looks a little doddering.” She went on to blast the “77-year-old criminal who only cares about getting out of jail” before bringing up Trump’s recent attacks against NATO. “I don’t think people understand what that means,” she added.
Saying “the stakes are so high,” Behar directly compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hilter, claiming that a Trump victory will lead to young Americans getting drafted to fight in a large-scale war caused by Russia. “They will have the draft back again,” Behar exclaimed.
Co-host Sunny Hostin, meanwhile, praised the 81-year-old Behar for being the “sharpest tack in the box” before taking issue with what she saw as Stewart’s ageist attacks on octogenarians.
“I love that Jon Stewart is back but what’s so offensive to me is there’s a difference between age and intelligence, there’s a difference between age and vitality,” Hostin declared. “There is a difference between age and really being up on things and having that quickness of wit that Joy has.”
Rattling off the names of a number of celebrities and politicians over the age of 80, Hostin said “they look like they know what they’re doing” due to “their wisdom.” Growing increasingly agitated, Hostin fumed that “the problem with this country” is that “we don’t value seniors,” sparking loud applause from the pro-Biden studio audience.
“We don’t value octogenarians!” Hostin shouted. “I’m sick of this ageism!”
Devoting a second full segment to Stewart’s monologue, the show came back from a commercial break to longtime host Whoopi Goldberg wondering if the comic thought the president was too old “when Biden signed the bill that Jon Stewart fought for” 18 months ago.
“As I said yesterday, yes, he’s old, OK, but the minute he stops being productive, and this sounds terrible, but the minute he stops being able to do his presidential duty, he’s got to go, but I’m not advocating for him to go,” a rambling Goldberg continued. “I’m advocating for people to not dwell on the fact that he is an age that we cannot change. And if he’s… bad now, you know, I need to see that because I don’t want to just chuck him out because he’s old.”
Goldberg also defended the president forsaking a Super Bowl interview for a TikTok appearance, saying, “Everybody bitches and moans he’s so old that he’s not on TikTok” but “now he’s on TikTok, everybody is still mad.”
In the end, after Griffin bemoaned that the majority of voters actually would prefer something other than a Trump/Biden rematch, Behar said Americans are only left with this choice.
“That ship has sailed! This is what you got,” Behar proclaimed, prompting Hostin to call Trump a “stupid fascist.”
