“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart wants President Donald Trump’s critics to cool it on one line of attack, at least for now.
“The ‘this is all fascist’ argument has become almost a reflex for the left,” Stewart said, and played clips of Trump’s critics on cable news calling him a “fascist” for his extensive use of executive orders and mass pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters.
Stewart called the pardons “shitty” but said Trump was using a power given to him under the Constitution.
“Don’t hate the player,” Stewart said. “Hate the Founding Fathers.”
So far, Stewart said, Trump has been testing the limits of those powers. And when he’s gone too far, such as attempting to end birthright citizenship via executive order, the courts have so far pushed back.
“It’s like when you have an electric fence,” he said. “You never check it and you’re not really sure if it works ’cuz you have a good boy… but then one day, ZAP.”
So far, he said, everything has been working how it’s been designed to under the Constitution.
But that doesn’t mean it’ll remain that way, which is why Trump’s critics need to be careful with how they characterize things right now.
Stewart said:
“Now look: I have a lot of fear that as this term goes on, things are gonna 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, and just about every move that has been made ’til this point we have granted them electorally. It’s our fucking fault!
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 that for now, his most objectionable actions have taken place almost entirely within our designed democratic system.”
Stewart said he hoped Democrats can contain Trump, but also urged the party to exist outside of the president and offer its own contract with American voters.
“Tell people what you would do with the power that Trump is wielding,” he said. “And then convince us to give that power to you, as soon as possible. That’s the goal.”
See more in his Monday night monologue: