Comedian Jon Stewart believes Donald Trump was able to better fulfill America's desire for "vision and leadership" than his counterpart, which helps explain his victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
"He represents something," Stewart said during the Thursday episode of his Weekly Show podcast. "What I think is the country is thirsty. We're a really thirsty country for vision and leadership."
Stewart was responding to Brookings Institute Fellow Richard Reeves's suggestion that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley could have swept up an even greater portion of the electorate in the 2024 election.
Turning to the Democrats and their failure to display the same qualities as the president-elect, Stewart said that despite its sound policy platform, the party was plagued by "institutional status quo thinking."
"You cannot run on the audacity of hope and govern with the timidity of the possible," he said. "That's just not going to connect with people."
"Vision and leadership are lacking in the Democratic party and have been for a very long time. And even when they have the vision of leadership, they don't govern that way. They govern institutionally and to the status quo and they're not creative in their thinking."
While known for his criticisms of Trump and the GOP throughout the election, Stewart has frequently attacked the Democrats for their strategy and failure to appeal to American voters.
During his opening monologue for The Daily Show on November 11, Stewart said that the party overtly focused on polling, analytics and canvassing while neglecting to acknowledge voters' belief that "government wasn't working for them."
On Monday's episode of The Daily Show, Stewart said again that the Democrats had failed to launch a sufficient strategy to counter the president-elect.
"Even those putting up resistance to Trump's agenda don't seem to understand who they're dealing with," Stewart said before playing a clip of media reports over Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's claim that the Trump transition team had broken the law by missing a deadline to sign an ethics pledge.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Republicans are playing chess, and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because they glued their balls to their thigh. That is what is happening," Stewart said. "The election that we just had was a repudiation of the status quo: An overly-regulated system that is no longer responsive or delivering for the needs of the people."
On Thursday, Stewart also praised Trump for his skill in effectively engaging voters by drawing greater media attention.
His guest suggested that Trump was "a perfect fit for the media landscape" thanks to his "freewheeling, long-form, inconsistent, jokey" campaigning style.
"Oh my God, he's better content," Stewart said. "He's MrBeast."
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