Jon Stewart on President-elect Trump, hypocrisy in America

stewart left the daily show last summer much of the presidential campaign went on without his unique and satirical point of view we met with stewart yesterday to discuss a new book about the more than 16 years he spent at the communist central program he was quick to give his post-election analysis we just went through an election what yes your reaction to this election uh it all ties together well fear you know here's what i would honestly say uh i don't believe we are a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago the same country with all its grace and flaws and volatility and insecurity and strength and resilience exists today as existed two weeks ago the same country that elected donald trump elected barack obama i feel badly for the people for whom this election will mean more uncertainty and insecurity but i also feel like this fight has never been easy and the ultimate irony of this election is the cynical strategy of the republicans which is our position as government doesn't work we're going to make sure that it doesn't but they're not draining the swamp mcconnell and ryan those guys are the swamp and what they decided to do was i'm going to make sure government doesn't work and then i'm going to use its lack of working as evidence of it donald trump is a reaction not just the democrats to republicans he he's not a republican he's a repudiation of republicans but they will reap the benefit of his victory in all of their cynicism and all of their i will guarantee you republicans are going to come to jesus now about the power of government one of the things that i think struck me about odd about this election and maybe i just missed it was nobody asked donald trump what makes america great and that was the part that i what are what are you going to make america great again yes nobody said to him well what is it that makes america great correct what is it you want to do what is that we're not doing now what are the metrics because it seems like from listening to him the metrics are that it's a competition and i think what many would say is what makes us great is america is an anomaly in the world nobody there are a lot of people and i think his candidacy has animated that thought that a multi-ethnic democracy a multicultural democracy is impossible and that is what america by its founding and constitutionally is like everything and it's becoming more and more year by year correct but do you think it's healthy that we have this now that in fact this battle this real sense of finding out who we are yes but i also whether we have gone off track in some way absolutely you know i think you i would rather have this conversation openly and honestly than in dog whistles you know somebody was saying uh uh there might be an anti-semite that's working in the white house and it's like have you listened to the nixon tapes like forget about advising the president the president like have you read lbj do you know our history you know this is and and we also have to caution ourselves to the complexity of that history i thought donald trump disqualified himself at numerous points but there is now this idea that anyone who voted for him is has to be defined by the worst of his rhetoric like there are guys in my neighborhood like that i love that i respect that i think have incredible qualities who are not afraid of mexicans and not afraid of muslims and not afraid of blacks they're afraid of their insurance premiums in the liberal community you hate this idea of creating people as a monolith don't look at muslims as a monolith they are the individuals and it would be ignorance but everybody who voted for trump is a monolith is a racist that hypocrisy is also real in our country and so this is the fight that we wage against ourselves and each other because america is not natural natural is tribal we're fighting against thousands of years of human behavior in history to create something that no one's ever that's what's exceptional about america and that's what's like this ain't easy it it's it's an incredible thing that's an awesome thing it's so nice to hear from him charlie about this he's very reflective about the country and the election does not miss being at comedy central but it has a lot to say and you know how much his voice was missed when you heard him yeah i like it very interesting points i like how he um rather than dismissing trump or those who voted for him tried to explain and understand why they voted for him and not say and say don't paint them as a monolith they're not worried about all these things that people are talking about in terms of muslims than that they're worried about insurance premiums it shows how people jump to conclusions and john cena is basically saying calm down everybody think everybody that america is going to be okay he's fascinating but he also talks about the daily show and all that went on in 16 years so uh it's an interesting man with lots to say did you believe he doesn't miss it i do believe yeah i mean i believe he's moved to another stadium i do too we will bring you more of our conversation with john stewart and author chris smith next week their new book reveals the behind the scenes history of the daily show with jon stewart at the helm

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 9,609,809

Keywords: video, cbs, news, Charlie Rose, Jon Stewart, election, analysis

Id: mUkv_jPgTeg

Length: 5min 56sec (356 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 17 2016