Stewart defends critique of Biden’s age

Jon Stewart on Monday fired back — and poked fun — at the backlash he received for his critique of President Biden’s age during his return to hosting “The Daily Show.”

“Quite frankly, the response to the first show last Monday was universally galling,” Stewart said Monday toward the start of the episode.

Stewart showed several posts on X, formerly called Twitter, most of which were critical of what some referred to as his “bothesidesism” takedown of Biden and former President Trump.

One post read, “Well after nine years away, there’s nothing to say to the bothesidesist fraud Jon Stewart bashing Biden, except: Please make it another nine years.”

“Ok, maybe not universal,” Stewart said, responding to that post. “But that was on Twitter. Everything on Twitter gets a backlash. I’ve seen Twitter tell Labradoodles to go f— themselves. Labradoodles.”

“I just think it’s better to deal head-on with what’s an apparent issue to people. I mean, we’re just talking here,” he said.

The comedian returned for the first time to host “The Daily Show” last week. His debut episode was broadly praised as entertaining, but some took issue with his criticism of both Biden and Trump.

“Biden’s lost a step, but Trump regularly says things at rallies that would warrant a wellness check,” Stewart said to laughs last week. “The question then becomes, what the f‑‑‑ are we doing here, people?”

“We have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history of this country,” Stewart said of the 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump. “They are the oldest people ever to run for president — breaking by only four years the record that they set the last time they ran!”

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In defending himself this week, Stewart also showed a post from Mary Trump, the former president’s niece who has risen to prominence criticizing her uncle. She wrote, “Not only is Stewart’s ‘both sides are the same’ rhetoric not funny, it’s a potential disaster for democracy.”

“It was one f—ing show!” Stewart said, elevating his volume. “It was just one f—ing show! It was 20 minutes! I did 20 minutes of one f—ing show!”

“But I guess as the famous saying goes: ‘Democracy dies in discussion,’” Stewart said, referencing The Washington Post slogan, “Democracy dies in darkness,” which advocates for free speech and freedom of the press.

Stewart then feigned an apology to his critics, at first in a southern dialect.

“But, look, I have sinned against you. I’m sorry,” Stewart said, before transitioning back to his regular speaking voice. “It was never my intention to say out loud, what I saw with my eyes, and then brain. I can do better. I can has learning. I can has it!”