Jon Stewart called out Donald Trump’s “quick onset dementia” whenever it’s time for some “accountability,” which was on display when he reacted as if hearing about the massive security gaffe for the first time at a press conference.
“He gets that quick onset dementia anytime he gets caught in a situation,” Stewart said on Thursday’s episode of his Weekly Show podcast.
“He immediately goes into the, ‘I don’t even have a text. I’ve never heard about it. This is the first I’ve heard about it,‘” he continued, mimicking the president. “They confronted him about how there’s classified information going on a text chain and it’s not secure, they’re on f---ing Snapchat or wherever they’re on and they’ve got a journalist on there,” And he’s like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Hey, man, that’s not me.”
The war plan discussion between top officials and aides that was leaked when an editor for The Atlantic was mistakenly included in the private Signal conversation has been called one of the biggest screw ups in national security history.
Stewart joked that’s why he “hates group chats,” calling them “annoying” and not “not even when you’re obviously planning on bombing another country.” What’s more annoying, however, Stewart said, is Trump’s sudden aloofness whenever something goes wrong in his administration.
And it’s far from the first time, the late-night host pointed out. “He did the same with, I think, the deportation orders,” he added. “‘Oh, well, whoever did them is in a lot of trouble, and I’ll make sure to talk to them about it, if I ever figure it out. I didn’t sign it. I don’t even know what a pen is. I don’t have a pen! I don’t use writing. I don’t have hands.‘” Stewart added, “It really is just a remarkable game of, ‘Hey man, it wasn’t me.‘”
Equally distressing for Stewart is the “crazy arrogance” of the officials in that war plans chain.
“This whole like, ‘F--- Europe, f--- these freeloaders, all these countries, what did they ever do for us other than sign up to go fight in a war that we started over an event that didn’t happen?‘” Stewart said. “It’s just the most myopic selfish, arrogance.”
