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So Jon Stewart weighed in on the calls for Biden to drop out.
And this is quite a segment here.
So let's dive in and we'll break it down.
Now, since the debate, it's been quite interesting, actually.
Many Democrats have expressed concern that the president has a hard time expressing thoughts.
And then there is this other camp who thinks that those people should shut the **** up.
Stop this whining. Stop the complaining.
Stop trying to be the cool, cynical kids.
I would not want to be in a foxhole with any of the people who, you know, were clutching their pearls all of a sudden.
Pearl-clutching and hand-winging.
Or bed-wetting and soaking all the way through the mattress.
We panic and piss our pants.
Oh, my God. Look, here, the reason I find this kind of commentary so dishonest is because people are just being descriptive, right?
It's just like seeing something in objective reality and acknowledging, hey, that's a thing I'm seeing.
And that's why this is classic gaslighting from these Democratic politicians and these media figures.
This is just classic gaslighting.
What they're saying is, force yourself to unsee or not acknowledge the thing that you very obviously saw.
Because they do have an issue.
If you just describe what you saw, just soak it in and then relay that this is what you saw, to them, that's heresy.
And that's the hallmark of political dishonesty.
It really is blue-MAGA shit.
It really is blue-MAGA shit.
All right, here we go.
First of all, I'm not sure incontinence is the metaphor you want to go with.
And second of all, when are we going to free Senator Federman from the Turkish prison he's being held in?
That's, I don't know, piss his pants.
But to those of you who say these concerns are simple pearl-wetting and bed-clutching, we all make mistakes,
I thought I would take a moment to explain where the concern about Biden's performance might be coming from and why these concerns may be seen as a more foundational issue.
You see, even before the debate, there had been some troubling moments of disconnect from the president.
You know, perhaps this chart could, if I may...
Sorry, the pen caps are made of Kevlar.
Very difficult to...
Perhaps this chart will illustrate and illuminate the point more clearly.
For instance, in 2022, when we saw Biden give a shout-out to Representative Jackie.
Representative Jackie, are you here?
Where's Jackie?
I didn't think she was going to be here.
Unfortunately, Jackie was dead.
It's something that the president seemed to have known six weeks earlier when he released a condolence statement about her death.
So, huh.
Then there was the recounting of a recent conversation that the president had had with his counterpart, the president of France.
I made Iran from Germany, I mean, from France, looked at me and said, you know, how long are you back for?
Unfortunately, Mitterrand is also dead.
For longer, even, than that first lady.
So, huh.
And even on teleprompter, things continue to, huh.
Like the reading of the instructions people sometimes add to teleprompter scripts.
The percentage of women who register to vote and cast a ballot is consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so.
Repeat the line.
At the Catholic school I went to.
He said, end of quote, repeat the line.
Oh, my God.
Guy named Riley, last name.
Four more years.
Four more years.
Four more years.
Oh, man.
Huh.
Then, of course, to be fair, State of the Union.
Concern dropped a little bit at the State of the Union.
He kind of nailed it.
But then the debate happened and we kind of, what the, what is, what?
Now, to my mind, the debate was a shocking display of cognitive difficulty, recognizable to, unfortunately, anybody who's dealt with aging parents and it's a hard watch.
But there were many viewers who felt it was not as noteworthy as Biden's opponent in the debate.
It's pretty amazing that, you know, 90% of the conversation is around Joe Biden's style when up on that stage Donald Trump was engaged in a level of pathological lying that we've never seen.
Shouldn't the discussions also be about Trump's fitness to serve?
Every time he opened his mouth, he said something insane or that was a lie.
Why aren't there calls for Trump to drop out?
Where are they?
Yeah.
Why doesn't anyone ever speak out about Donald Trump?
Or, let's say, every night for 10 f***ing years.
But you know what? Fair point.
Yeah, man, that's why this shit is so hollow, bro.
Let's stop pretending like CNN and MSNBC and the various nightly news like ABC, CBS, all those, et cetera.
Like, let's stop pretending like their perspective isn't we support the establishment Democrats.
Because it is. Because it is.
And let's pretend like, oh, the media is not anti-Trump enough.
Now, look, I would submit the way in which they're anti-Trump is usually the dumbest way possible.
Like when they were Russiagating when he was president as opposed to looking at his policies, which destroyed the country.
So they're not anti-Trump in the right way.
But let's stop pretending like, oh, the media keeps giving Trump a pass.
On what planet? See, that's why this is gaslighting.
It's never going to work.
All of the arguments for Biden at this point to stay in are just gaslighting.
They're not remotely convincing.
Fair point. And let's take a look at Trump's chart.
It's all bad. The whole thing is bad.
It's been bad since he started. He started grabbing by the pussy.
I mean, what are you going to do? The whole thing's been bad.
The whole thing. The difference is this.
I will tell you the difference. I will tell you the difference.
The difference is Trump delivered at the debate to expectation.
We expect him to be crazy.
But Biden's performance and inability to articulate at times was stunning.
Like I could not believe what I was watching.
Just thinking about it again just makes me want to rip up my.
Why do we make this out of such strong material?
But then it got worse.
Rather than respecting the American people and having an honest, at least partial conversation about what we had all seen.
We were told immediately, these are not the droids you're looking for.
He has a stutter. He hasn't debated in four years.
He was almost overprepared. He had an off night.
People have an off night. You know, the president traveled six time zones forward to G7.
And he was also doing continue to do his presidential duties.
And also he had a cold. He was jet lagged.
He'd been home for almost two weeks.
He was jet lagged. How big is that jet?
By the way, I will say.
The media after the debate largely has been a lot more responsible, right?
They've been telling the truth more like Jake Tapper has been doing it.
There's even some on MSNBC were doing it.
And then some of them started to tell the truth, but then immediately ran away from it like on Morning Joe.
So it's more now on the political hacks who are the biggest problem, the politicians who are the biggest problem.
That's more who it's on.
But there are still some media figures that are saying like nothing to see here.
For a campaign based on honesty and decency, the spin about the debate appears to be blatant bullshit.
And the redemption tour hasn't gone that much better, whether it's been on the radio.
I am proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, first black president.
Yes, Queen.
Or whether the president is on prompter and fired up.
Let me say this clearly as I can.
I'm staying in a race.
I'll beat Donald Trump.
I will beat him again in 2020.
I got to tell you.
Somehow, confusion with confidence is even more unsettling.
Now, this is where the resistance liberals say, hey, you got to run the clip, because immediately after that, he corrects himself and says 2024.
That's true.
But again, he sort of lost the ability to get the benefit of the doubt when we're like, you know, 612 gaffes deep.
And it looks like there's a deeper, very serious problem.
Or when the president sat down with George Stephanopoulos to prove once and for all how cogent he is and to film a bronzer ad.
Orange man good.
None of this was reassuring.
And we're told that the threat of Trump is so great and the stakes are so high that even bringing up these absolutely legitimate concerns about the president's ability to do the most vigorous job in the world for the next four years is enabling fascism.
Yet even the president doesn't seem particularly alarmed.
If you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you're worrying about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?
I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do.
That's what this is about.
That's not what this is about.
There are no participation trophies in endgame democracy.
I remember FDR saying, well, if the Nazis take over Europe, at least both teams had fun.
Oh, it's dark, but it's so true.
Like to him, he's acting like the stakes aren't really that high, right?
That's what Biden is doing.
Oh, my God.
Look, you can't gaslight people out of this because the people who are concerned and in good faith want Biden switched.
They are saying that because they want to have a chance to defeat Trump.
That's why they're saying it.
So you can't try to flip it and say, actually, you're taking this position because you're pro Donald Trump and you're enabling fascism.
Right now, it's Joe Biden enabling fascism.
Troubling as this new information has been introduced.
We just learned about this and now we're all being told, well, you should have thought of that before you knew it.
We can't go against the will of the voters.
Democrats who voted in all 50 states in the primary, that is who they want to be their nominee.
He's the nominee because millions and millions of people voted for him to be our nominee and he will be our nominee.
End of story.
There was no real primary.
Biden ran against Dean Phillips.
That's not even a real person.
That's a stock photo on the package for a gardener.
That is kind of true about Dean Phillips.
But at the same time, I really don't.
Marianne Williamson, Dean Phillips,
Cenk Uygur, like these people tried and everybody mocked them for it.
You know, everybody treated them like a laughingstock.
It's really, honestly, it's more the fault of the media for not even trying to do their job and take them seriously.
Right?
Like we're going to have, we're going to eventually have the Libertarian candidate on Crystal Kylin, friends.
We're already in talks with them.
We're going to try to have Jill Stein back on.
Like we're going to do our job as media figures.
And by the way, I'm a pundit.
I'm a commentator.
It's not even incumbent upon me to be like a journalist, right?
But we're going to take people seriously.
And the media didn't say a fucking word about the platform of any of the candidates or what their concerns were.
It was all dismissive.
Eventually they got blackballed and weren't allowed to talk.
Then you had on the media, then you had, of course, they canceled the primary in North Carolina.
They canceled it in Florida.
They pulled every dirty trick in the book with New Hampshire.
They tried to dethrone New Hampshire as the first contest, even though it's in the state constitution, they have to go first.
They tried to put South Carolina first to rig it up front for Joe Biden.
You know, they did anything and everything, tried to keep people off the ballots, canceled events with college Democrats for Marianne, and they did everything they could to not have a primary.
And then now it's like the chickens are coming home to roost.
Because, oh, look, the guy's brain doesn't fucking work and everybody wants him replaced.
But you guys quashed the attempt to get rid of him.
So I don't, as much as I think Dean Phillips is a goofy person.
I mean, Crystal debated him not that long ago and he called us anti-Semitic.
It's not like this isn't really, it's not his fault.
Like he did what some people should have done.
He did what the Democratic governor should have done.
But oftentimes these people, they're planning into the future.
Hey, I'm going to run in 2028.
So that's my plan.
So now in this moment, it doesn't fit in for somebody else to step in for Biden.
And by the way, if like Kamala steps in, and let's say Kamala wins, then those Democrats were planning for 2028.
They're not going to be happy because then they know, well, I can't run in 2028 because Kamala's going to run for re-election in 2028.
Everybody's like politicking about it.
And so it's not really on the few people with the courage to try, even though it was long shots.
It's not on them.
They did their best, right?
And the Democratic establishment said, F you.
The media said, F you.
And it was only people like us who were trying to take them seriously.
Authoritarianism and Donald Trump aren't the only threats our democracy faces.
And our threatic status quo, unable or unwilling to respond in any way to the concerns of voters who just received new and urgent information about their candidate, also erodes confidence and faith in the system of government.
Get on board or shut the f**k up is not, is not,
Honestly, though, get on board or shut the f**k up is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker.
Nor is, what are you going to do?
I've gotten a lot of texts today from folks who watched a lot of West Wing episodes and imagine a very complex path through which we might have a robust primary process.
But Wolf, you know the reality.
There's four months left to the presidential election.
Four months is for f**k ever.
Britain, Britain just held an election in two months.
France had two in one month, defeated fascism.
And still had time to have an affair with Denmark.
Are you telling me, you sons of bitches, are you coming to my house and saying to my face that the United States or Bruce Springsteen's America can't hold an election better than a f**king French?
Is that what you're telling me?
It's four months, four months.
It's 119 days.
There are contestants on The Bachelor who haven't even met yet that will get married and divorced between now and the election.
We have nothing but time.
And by the way, I am in no way saying Biden's got to drop out.
But can't we stress test this candidacy?
Can't we open up the conversation?
Do you understand the opportunity here?
Do you have any idea how thirsty Americans are for any hint of inspiration or leadership and a release from this choice of a megalomaniac and a suffocating gerontocracy?
It is crushing our f**king spirit.
So he basically goes on to call for like an open convention, have some sort of a process, pick a new candidate, and he's sort of mocking the idea that this isn't possible.
And he's right about that.
Of course it's f**king possible, of course.
But, you know, look, if Biden is still intent on getting it, then it really is like a convention coup to oust him.
And at that point, you have to say pledged delegates aren't actually pledged, try to use loopholes to just give all the power to the party, which is kind of a bad precedent, because then in the future, they could kick off an actually popular candidate who wants to do good things for a more corporate candidate.
So really, I think the real path, if you want to have like the open convention style thing, that's cool.
You want to have a process tried to determine who should actually be, that's cool.
But I do think you actually need to have the entire democratic establishment put pressure on Biden and say, look, you have no path here, you got to go.
Right? I don't think it can be, he's still indignant and saying,
I'm the guy.
And then they try to oust him in some other way.
By the way, it is kind of ironic, right?
Because they rigged this primary up front and hid Biden to get him to win in 2024.
And then now they're thinking about maybe double-rigging it to kick him out.
Right? Now you could argue, hey, this double-rigging it is actually not part of the rigging.
It's undoing the fact that Biden who won was not really the will of the people in any serious sense, because there wasn't a real primary.
You can make that argument, or you could look at it like I just described it as they rigged it up front for Biden, now they're going to try to rig it against Biden at the primary.
Either way, look, there's an easy way out of this.
The way out of this is,
I mean, you can get a medical diagnosis of him genuinely having a degenerative neurological disorder.
You can get that, and that'll lead to like a forced resignation, or, you know, or he could just willingly step aside eventually after all the pressure.
But there are no good choices here, but the least bad choice is to get this fucking guy out of there.
And Jon Stewart seems to be on that page.
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