Mary Trump is doubling down on her criticism of Jon Stewart’s monologue last week, in which the reprised “Daily Show” host stated that both front-runners in the 2024 Presidential Election — former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden — are old.
Mary Trump argued Tuesday on Substack that Stewart “took a swing” at her and “missed.”
“I criticized him for erroneously elevating my uncle by claiming, ‘We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive, or even capable,’” she added. “Any honest, objective person knows this is completely false ... [and] the kind of both-sides-isms I was calling out.”
“I find it dangerous,” Mary Trump continued, “coming from an incredibly influential public figure, because it leads to voter apathy, which is unacceptable in an election year when … one side threatens to eliminate our democracy and the ... other … seeks to strengthen it.”
Stewart had returned to his seat on Comedy Central after nine years of semi-retirement with a segment about Biden’s alleged cognitive decline — and rued that voters are being forced to choose between an 81- or 77-year-old candidate in Biden or Donald Trump, respectively.
“Not only is Stewart’s ‘both sides are the same’ rhetoric not funny, it’s a potential disaster for democracy,” she wrote last week on X, formerly Twitter, before adding in a follow-up post: “I know Donald, and the media has to stop with the both sides bullshit.”
Stewart rejected that notion on Monday’s episode by suggesting liberals were historically more capable of handling critiques to power. He incredulously said that “we’re just talking here” before joking: “I guess as the famous saying goes, ‘Democracy dies in discussion.’”
Mary Trump, who hasn’t stayed quiet about the perils of Trump’s potential reelection, wrote Tuesday that she was “surprised” to be “living rent-free” in Stewart’s head — or that he even “felt the need” to respond to her public criticism of his monologue.
The writer argued Stewart “pretended my objection to his comment was that he had made a comment at all” before listing what he got “wrong”: mischaracterizing her point, insinuating she “couldn’t take a joke” and downplaying his supposed influence on voters.
Stewart’s comments about Biden are certainly helpful to his Republican critics.
They also followed a special counsel report with damning commentary on the president’s mental fitness, however. Stewart seemed to preempt criticisms from fellow Democrats like Mary Trump, who shunned him for expressing such concerns, in his own segment last week.
He argued both candidates are “stretching the limits” of their age before stating: “What’s crazy is thinking that we are the ones, as voters, who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns, not the voter’s job not to mention them.”