Jon Stewart returned to the desk of “The Daily Show” on Tuesday evening and spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“We avoided a catastrophe, but it was still a tragedy,” Stewart said. He then paid tribute to firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died in the shooting.
“He had given his life in service to his community and literally died protecting his family,” Stewart said of Comperatore. “He reminds us that in those moments of crisis, there are helpers, and we can all make the choice to try to be one of those people.”
Earlier in his opening, Stewart joked about how “the internet is a great source of information” when “shit hits the fan” in the US.
“Like, within minutes I found out this was staged, and then I found out it was actually an inside job, and then I found out it was Joe Biden who ordered it,” Stewart joked about the conspiracy theories of Trump. .
The “Daily Show” host then discussed why people feel the need to immediately know the identity of the suspect and his background after a tragic event.
“When we hear about a horrific event, you’re in a kind of reverse demographic lottery to make sure the psychopathic shooter isn’t on one of your teams,” Stewart noted. “Just sit there, please, no Democrats, no liberals, no progressives – it’s like that Press Your Luck game… And we’re all doing it. We need to know what our attitude will be towards the tragedy.”
He added: “And none of us know what’s going to happen, except that there’s going to be another tragedy in this country that we brought upon ourselves, and then we’re going to have this feeling again.”
When television returned late Monday evening, several anchors spoke about the shooting that injured Trump and roiled the country.
“My immediate reaction when I saw this on Saturday was horror at what was unfolding, relief that Donald Trump had lived, and, frankly, sadness for my beautiful country,” Stephen Colbert said on “The Late Show,” adding added: “Although I might as well start the show groaning on the floor, because how many times do we have to learn the lesson that violence has no role in our politics? The whole purpose of a democracy is to hash out our differences, with, as the saying goes, a vote, not a bullet.”
On NBC’s “Late Night,” Seth Meyers condemned the “heinous” attack on Trump and called for “an inclusive politics of compassion, empathy and community.”
Meyers added, “What we don’t need are the opportunistic spreaders of paranoia, suspicion and fear who have already rushed to fill the void with inflammatory conspiracy theories and lies,” before moving on to coverage of the murder on several news programs.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” guest host Anthony Anderson opened Monday’s show by joking: “Everyone is still in shock from the tragic events at the Trump rally last Saturday. All weekend I kept thinking, “I wonder what Jimmy Kimmel is going to say about this on Monday?” And then I thought, oh, I’m Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.
The “Black-ish” star added that “hopefully this will be a moment where we can all take a step back from the hate and vitriol in our politics and maybe relax.”