As has become tradition for Jon Stewart‘s Monday evening hosting stints for The Daily Show, the political comic had to work hard to detangle all the webs of hypocrisy exemplified by the right wing — this time, in relation to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.
“Iran right now — an authoritarian state currently being rocked by protests that threaten to tear the whole nation apart,” he began the segment as he previewed his guest of the night, former Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post Jason Rezaian. “I mean, can you imagine?” he said sarcastically before his countenance took on a graver aspect.
Stewart slammed narratives from the likes of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that Pretti, an ICU nurse, was conspiring to harm ICE agents. “I’m hearing there may be some grainy Zapruderlike footage from — I don’t know — every angle imaginable that contradicts the government’s version of events,” he quipped.
In a somewhat baffling aside that failed to meet the moment, Jordan Klepper popped in, supposedly live from Minneapolis, to satirize the ever-shifting goalposts of the administration’s justifications for Pretti’s death. In a graphic, ICE agents were depicted as adorable cats and Pretti was shown armed as Spider-Man supervillain Doc Ock. “DHS is not married to this version. Here’s another one they’re pitching: What if I told you the ICE agents just do this on the side, and they’re actually all K-pop stars,” Klepper said, referencing Netflix’s two-time Oscar-nominated KPop Demon Hunters. “You didn’t let me finish: And they’re all gay hockey players,” he added, referring to Crave Canada’s runaway hit Heated Rivalry.
Given that The Daily Show tapes in the afternoon Eastern Time, they just missed the news of Border Patrol “commander at large” Greg Bovino’s axing, though Stewart got in a zinger about the “commander in short … who, by the way, appears to be just a new character the Trump cinematic universe has introduced. Where the fuck did this guy even come from? It’s his first season on the show.”
Deriding reports that ICE agents are feeling demoralized by public disapproval, Stewart said, “People screaming ‘Fuck you’ eight hours a day is basically every customer service job in this country.”
When calling out further inconsistencies between admin narratives — which shifted from calling Pretti a domestic terrorist to finding fault with his legally owned weapon (that video evidence proved he did not attempt to use) — Stewart asked with trepidation, “Are you saying … that the guns are the problem?” Bowing his head in frustration, a flying pig floated across the screen to illustrate Stewart’s point.
Further airing out the hypocrisy — of how MAGA lauded the gun-toting Jan. 6 armed insurrectionists and Kyle Rittenhouse — Stewart stated (links as they flashed in The Daily Show): “I wasn’t shocked when you guys gave up the First Amendment, and I wasn’t shocked when you gave up the Fourth Amendment, and the 10th Amendment, and the 14th Amendment at Trump’s behest, but the Second?”
He continued, “Isn’t that kind of the load-bearing law of the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag? Your snake’s down to a newt … C’mon, guns are your whole personality.”
Taking on a more sober tone, Stewart concluded the show: “To add insult to injury is the denial of the reality that we all witnessed. They’re lying. We saw it. And that’s how brazen they lie when they know we’ve seen the truth. That’s how they lie when they know we know. Imagine how they lie when there’s no evidence to contradict them. And maybe, that more than anything, explains why Alex Pretti really was a threat; because he was brandishing a weapon: a handheld, aluminum 1080p 60fps weapon of mass illumination. Because there is nothing more dangerous to a regime predicated on lies than witnesses who capture the truth.”
English (US) ·