Jon Stewart Shares His Election Night Takeaway: ‘This Is Not the End’ 

Jon Stewart had a clear message on election night following what, at the time, looked like a likely Donald Trump victory, which has now been confirmed by the Associated Press and others.

“This is not the end,” Stewart said toward the end of the live “Daily Show” broadcast. “I promise you this is not the end, and we have to regroup, and we have to continue to fight and continue to work day in and day out to create the better society for our children, for this world, for this country, that we know is possible. It’s possible.”

Hopeful words, but clearly not ones everyone is going to agree with right now.

Also in the below clip, Stewart cautioned against people putting too much stock in what pundits immediately say are the big takeaways from the election, before rolling tape on previous sweeping statements from 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 which all turned out be painfully untrue — like George Stephanopoulos saying in ’08 that President Obama’s election represented “moving towards a post-racial America.”

“Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper talked with IndieWire prior to the November 5 election. 

“Apathy in this moment is disastrous,” Klepper said. “The culture wants you to be apathetic and not to be engaged. So I encourage anybody who feels angry to not let that have you check out, but have you invest and be a part of this conversation. Again, our phones are not a reproduction of real life. They’re manipulating us to believe one thing. What I’ve learned covering gun control for so long and the NRA is that if you show up, shit can happen. If you show up in that courtroom in the middle of the day during boring times, things can change. There’s still so much of this country that is based on the boring parts of governance that the people who show up and speak out can affect.”

Klepper continued, “Outside of that, I think ‘touch grass’ is not terrible advice. If you’ve got a kid, talk to your child. My four-year-old is not at all interested in Donald Trump — and that is really a lifeline for me. … I even feel myself just getting into this loop — this anger loop, this binary loop, this political loop — that really is hard to break your head from. It doesn’t mean you disengage, but it means you understand the wider world outside what Donald Trump and the media tries to tell you. Those have been my recipes for finding a little bit of sanity in this chaotic time.”

Watch Stewart’s election thoughts below.

“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.