Jon Stewart sparks debate as he claims Trump is ‘doing us a service’ by exposing fragile political system
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: During an episode of his new podcast 'The Weekly Show' for Comedy Central, Jon Stewart described former President Donald Trump as having given the country a “gift” by exposing the “soft hum of corruption that is the engine of almost all of our business.”
On the podcast, Stewart hosted Jane Mayer, chief Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, and Noah Bookbinder, President of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, delving into a discussion on threats to democracy and the presidential election together.
Jon Stewart says Trump exposes reality of corruption
Stewart raised the question of whether Donald Trump and his legal troubles, including his recent conviction on more than 30 felony counts, are shedding light on a reality of transactional corruption within the American political system that has long been present.
He asked, “Is he exposing a reality? I’m not saying he’s not pushing the limit of it. I’m not saying he’s not exploiting it, but isn’t he exposing at some level a reality of crony capitalism, a reality of transactional corruption that is the heartbeat of corporate and political America?"
The comedian and presenter of 'The Daily Show', renowned for his incisive political analysis, highlighted Trump's controversial phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
In this call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to locate 11,000 votes. Despite facing public criticism, Trump adamantly labeled the call as "perfect."
Presently, he is entangled in an election racketeering case in Georgia, although an appeals court has recently paused proceedings.
Jane Mayer defends government workers amidst corruption concerns
Stewart also referenced reports indicating that Trump pressured Ukraine in 2019 to investigate Joe Biden, his opponent at the time and now his presumptive opponent for November's election.
In response to these issues, Mayer defended government workers against accusations of being part of a "Deep State" or having political motives.
Instead, she highlighted the exorbitant amount of money required for successful political campaigns as the primary issue plaguing American politics today.
"What I’ve seen is the money has become bigger and bigger and bigger, and it is corrupting the government but it wasn’t always this way. It’s not the whole story. There are incredible numbers of people in Washington who are really dedicated to doing the right thing for the right reasons, both Republicans and Democrats," Mayer stated.
Later, Mayer elaborated that the government serves the interests of "a handful of people who are funding it."
On this point, Stewart remarked, "He’s identifying through a dissatisfaction and two things can be true. One is there are a lot of really good, dedicated policy people and good-hearted with great integrity people working in Washington every day to make the country work better. And number two is the system is so removed from the needs of its people and so insulated and isolated within the Beltway and within that very peculiar system within the Beltway, that it can’t actually accomplish the goal even those good-hearted people of integrity want it to.."
Later on, the comedian suggested the need for "reverse engineering" following Trump's tenure, contending that the former president has exposed certain "vulnerabilities" within the system.
“In some ways, he is doing us a service in that he is like…you know how they employ a white hat hacker who will go into a system and find its vulnerabilities,” he said. “Now he’s not doing it for our benefit, he’s doing it to exploit it. But what I’m saying is, what if we take the information that he’s delivering us which is, here are the vulnerabilities in your system that I can exploit, can’t we reverse engineer that?”
Social media divided over Jon Stewart's claims
Stewart's remarks on the podcast sparked debate among viewers.
One of them expressed, "The world is a better place with Jon."
Following suit, another observer added, "With so many worthless podcasts out there it’s about time Jon starts blessing us with a thoughtful and intelligent one. We need as much Jon Stewart as we can get."
Additionally, a viewer pointed out, "Agree with Stewart on this."
A follower contributed, "Great podcast….this is exactly what we need in today’s society….common sense conversations…with a laugh mixed in with the knowledge of our world…..love you Jon."
A critical comment claimed, "The Democrats are as bad as the Republicans. Get real."
Another echoed, "That’s dumb. Stop blaming the political system we’ve had in place for over 200 years. Blame republicans. They went from Romney WSJ style republicans to psychopath slurring Trump. It’s because they are bad people."
An individual elaborated, "No, Jon. Sorry to rain on your parade. Your constitution is byzantine, there will never again be any new amendment, and even if: it can't fix all the problems the U.S. has. What you need is to lose a war, like Germany in 1945. After that we got a real good constitution. With the help of the Americans. Which did not incorporate the "lessons learned" into their own constitution. Which is why you're all in that mess right now..."
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