On Monday night’s “The Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart offered analysis of what went wrong for Democrats during Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
“Remember, the last time we spoke, it was midnight on election night, and it seemed very clear even at that moment that Donald Trump had won the election by a landslide,” Stewart said, referring to the live broadcast “Daily Show” election special on November 5. “Now part of the disorientation is the Democrats losing the electoral vote, and the popular vote, and losing ground in the cities, and the areas around the cities, and the areas around those areas – I guess you remember the ‘America ‘ mentions – was that many of our forecasters had all told us it would be close.
Stewart added, “But in this coin-op country, I felt confident because the Democrats had a secret weapon in a close election. Perhaps the most important weapon.” The host pointed to the $1 billion the Harris campaign raised during the presidential race, saying the money was “a war chest to be spent on data analysis, and polling, and consultants, and very clearly, texting .”
Stewart also noted that Vice President Harris’ campaign had a huge number of volunteers, many of whom went out to search voters’ homes multiple times.
“You know, if there’s one thing people love more than someone randomly showing up at their door one time, it’s that same damn person coming back two or three times to talk politics,” Stewart noted sarcastically. “Even though everyone from vacuum cleaner salesmen to Jehovah’s Witnesses knows this is a losing strategy.”
Stewart admitted that he gave the Democratic Party “some crap for their strategies,” but said there was a “method to the Democrats’ madness.” The show then cut to clips of people saying the political party wanted to “protect” and “defend” democracy.
“And I’m happy to say that Democrats have protected democracy — just for the other side,” Stewart said. “Because in the end, we had a free and fair election in which Democrats were prepared for almost every scenario except one.”
“The Daily Show” played clips from various news outlets from people claiming that the Harris campaign had many lawyers, district clerks and secretaries of state on hand.
‘So it’s all lined up! What are we forgetting, people?” Stewart asked rhetorically. He later added, “No one took the voters? Where are the damn voters?”
Stewart noted that Harris and her running mate Tim Walz “didn’t do the woke thing” during their campaign. “They’ve been acting like Republicans for the last four months,” the host said. “They wore camouflage hats and went to Cheney family reunions. Do you know how dangerous it is to wear a hunting hat around Cheneys?
He added: “Democrats were mostly against an identity defined for them based on a few months of post-George Floyd, ‘defund the police,’ MeToo Instagram posts from four years ago. What happened was that the country felt like the government wasn’t working for them, and Democrats in particular were giving their hard-earned money to people who didn’t deserve it as much as they did. And so the Democrats took a hit.”
At the end of his monologue, Stewart assured viewers that Donald Trump’s second term as president “is not forever.”
“I want to reassure people that this isn’t forever,” Stewart said, before pointing out that Minnesota was the only state Democrats won in 1984, when Ronald Regan won. “Everyone thought: this is the end of the Democrats. But eight years later, a Democrat was back in power. We don’t know at all what will happen in four years.”