Jon Stewart says Trump is ‘becoming Biden in this race’

‘He has always been a bit rambly, but holy f***,’ the comedy host said

Myriam Page
Friday 16 August 2024 14:04 BST
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Jon Stewart said Trump is turning into Biden ‘before our eyes’

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Jon Stewart has said that Donald Trump is now “becoming Biden in this race” from his “rambly” speeches to his “real decline”.

On the latest episode of his podcast The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart on Thursday, the late night host spoke about the rambling interview between Trump and Elon Musk on X Spaces on Monday and how Trump’s position in the 2024 election has changed since President Joe Biden quit his reelection campaign and Kamala Harris became the Democratic party’s nominee.

“Was that just like two old dudes in a basement talking about how hot each other is? Like, wow. I was f***ing bored,” he said of the interview with Musk.

Stewart said that the interview made him realize one thing: that Trump is turning into Biden “before our eyes.”

“I think he is, before our eyes, becoming Biden in this race,” he said.

Pointing to the disastrous Biden-Trump debate in June – which marked the beginning of the end of Biden’s 2024 race – Stewart described the president’s struggles to answer questions as an “oh s***” moment.

“That performance by Biden in the debate was so shocking to the system of functionality,” he said.

Jon Stewart said Trump is turning into Biden, ‘before our eyes’
Jon Stewart said Trump is turning into Biden, ‘before our eyes’ (The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart)

Now that Biden has pulled out of the race, Trump’s own “real decline” is no longer “obscured” but is rather on show for all to see and hear, he said.

Pointing to Trump’s posts on social media, he said that while the Republican presidential candidate “has always been a bit rambly”, his recent posts have taken on a new level.

“Holy f***,” he exclaimed wide-eyed to his colleagues.

In the episode, producer Lauren Walker joked she was barely paying attention to the contents of Trump’s interview with Musk because she was so focused on listening to Trump’s apparent lisp and slurred speech.

The unusual sound of Trump’s voice sparked much speculation online and led to a fiery response to the Huffington Post when asked for an explanation.

“Must be your s****y hearing. Get your ears checked,” a spokesperson said.

Bursting out laughing, Stewart joked: “It’s their campaign of kindness.”

One day on from the interview, Trump blamed the “complexities” of modern technology and put out what he said was a cleaned-up version.

Donald Trump speaks at his press conference at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey
Donald Trump speaks at his press conference at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (REUTERS)

Trump appears to be struggling to grasp the limelight back from Harris, who is on avereage 2.7 points ahead of him in the national polls.

On Thursday afternoon, he hosted a press conference at his Bedminster golf club – his second news briefing in seven days, the first being at his Mar-a-Lago club – where he rehashed the same complaints about Harris.

Reports that Trump regrets picking JD Vance as his running mate are also swirling, as the pair have struggled to shake the “weird” label coined by Harris’s own VP pick Tim Walz.

The duo have also faced a wave of backlash over the past few weeks.

Most recently, an unearthed 2020 podcast clip shows Vance agreeing that raising children is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.” This comes after he has faced intense criticism for calling Harris and other Democrats “childless cat ladies“ in a resurfaced 2021 Fox News interview.

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