“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart on Monday railed against Democrats for rolling over against Republicans as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.
“Even those putting up resistance to Trump’s agenda don’t seem to understand who they’re dealing with,” Stewart said as he played a report on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) complaint that Trump was already breaking the law by failing to sign an ethics pledge during the transition.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Stewart said. “Republicans are playing chess, and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because they glued their balls to their thigh.”
He called the government a series of rules, loopholes and norms. Democrats try to play by the rules and hope the norms are respected, while Republicans busily find and exploit the loopholes.
Stewart played clips of Democratic lawmakers insisting that Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general will have to go through the usual advice-and-consent process in the Senate, where he can potentially be blocked.
But there’s also a loophole where Trump can bypass that process by adjourning Congress and installing Gaetz and others via recess appointments.
“That is our government in a nutshell: The rules say ‘We can stop it.’ The loophole says, ‘Fuck that!’” he said. “So what are you left with? The last refuge of losers: the norms.”
He pointed to a prime example: President Barack Obama’s 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court was blocked by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said it was too close to the election, which was then nearly eight months off.
“You can make a case that Obama could violate the norm, say the Senate failed their advice and consent, and appoint him anyway and see whatever the fuck happens. Fight!” Stewart said. “But they just went, ‘Oh we never heard of that rule, but, uh OK.’”
Four years later, Republicans rapidly filled a Supreme Court vacancy even though it was less than two months before the election.
“They didn’t give a fuck!” Stewart said, then offered some blunt advice to Democrats.
“You guys be the loophole guys that figure out how to get shit done,” he urged. “Because [Republicans] don’t give a fuck about your norms. They will exploit any loophole.”
Stewart said he thought Democrats would’ve learned from Trump’s first term in office. Instead, they’ve…
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