In the midst of a press cycle for his brand new film Irresistible (2020), American comedian Jon Stewart paid a virtual visit to morning talk show The View on Monday not only to promote the political satire, but to talk about the upcoming 2020 presidential election, too.
Though the former Daily Show host admitted he had previously hoped for senators Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren to stay in the race for the presidency, he expressed positivity that presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden could help the U.S., as opposed to the current president, Donald Trump, who he called “meth-head Nixon.”
When asked by co-host Sunny Hostin why he believes Biden is “exactly the type of person (the U.S.) needs right now,” Stewart, 57, said the nation needs “a leader of humility.”
“The main characteristic that I’ve always really been impressed with is that he’s a guy who has faced great hardship and grief in his life,” Stewart said of the 77-year-old politician. “He’s lost a wife and a young child and his oldest son to brain cancer.
“I think that grief humbles a person,” he added. “There’s no artifice to that and I think we need a leader of humility.”
Compared to the former vice-president, Stewart said Trump, 73, was the “antithesis” of that humility.
“Right now, we have a president who professes that he loves America, but apparently hates about 53 per cent of the people living in it,” Stewart said.
“I think we need a break. This guy is exhausting.”
On the state of the U.S., Stewart said, “I feel like we’re in such pain. There’s so much anguish.”
“I think that’s clear in this election,” he continued. “What’s Donald Trump going to run on? His record? That’s not going to happen.”
Stewart proceeded to compare Trump to the late Canadian-American priest Father Coughlin, who was well-known for being one of the first political leaders to use radio broadcasts to speak to his followers — similar to how the current president is on Twitter.
“He’s gonna go Father Coughlin,” said Stewart. “This is going to be the single most divisive campaign we’ve ever faced.”
Coughlin was also anti-Semitic. In 1938, during a broadcast, he publicized the creation of the Christian Front, which, according to the U.S. Holcoaust Memorial Museum, was a militia-like organization that excluded Jewish people and promised to defend the country from communists and Jewish people.
Stewart then compared Trump to the late 37th U.S. president, Richard Nixon, also a Republican.
“(Trump is) going to be meth-head Nixon. It’s going to be Southern strategy, all fear-mongering, I mean, you see it right now,” he said. “He’s basically just sitting in his basement tweeting out fear-based trolling videos.
“When you talk about the pandemic and all the challenges we face, I think the greatest agent of chaos in this country today is the president, which is bananas.”
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