Jon Stewart has a prediction for who will emerge as a successful leader of the Democratic Party post-Trump: Anyone who refused to participate in what Jake Tapper has deemed the Joe Biden “cover-up.”
Just as the fallout from the Iraq War disaster “paved the way” for Donald Trump to take over the Republican Party, Stewart said Democratic leaders lining up behind Biden in 2024 ”will have a similar effect” on his party.
“It has sown the seeds for a real—and it’s an opportunity for an interesting reinvention of what this Democratic Party can be,” the Daily Show host argued during a discussion with Pod Save America hosts Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett on his Weekly Show podcast Thursday. “I actually think there should be excitement, not trepidation around what this is, but it’s going to come from someone outside of it. I think anybody that has any of that stink on them is not going to be particularly successful.”
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Biden and his inner circle have faced intense criticism following the release of a new book by Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson that lays out just how bad the president’s mental deterioration got during his four years in office.
Lovett, a former Barack Obama speechwriter and host of the Lovett or Leave It podcast, agreed with Stewart’s assessment, saying the fact that no prominent Democrat was willing to run against Biden in 2024 was an “indictment” of the party. “And it points to a kind of lack of assuredness in their own worldview,” he said. “It points to this kind of consensus establishment mentality.”
“It‘s not just that we need to overcome, I think, the stink,” he continued, as Stewart interrupted him.
“By the way, if that is not a Democrat’s slogan in 2028, something has gone terribly wrong,” Stewart joked. “‘Overcome the Stink.’ If I don’t have that on a bumper sticker...”
“It’s compelling,” Favreau chimed in.
Completing his thought, Lovett said the “right person” for the Democrats in 2028 will be someone willing to say, “You know what? We got a bunch of s--t wrong.”
Of course, the trio of Jons did not only have criticism for Biden during their conversation. And Stewart particularly saw “opportunity” for Democrats in the way Republicans have become even more deluded about the leader of their party.
“If you think the Democrats circled the wagons to create a reality distortion field, what’s happening now is we live in f---ing Oz,” Stewart remarked.
“They have transitioned from trying to tell lies that maybe people believe to now just basking in how bulls--t their lies are,” Favreau added. “They’re not even trying anymore.”
