Jon Stewart Slams “Dark MAGA” Elon Musk’s Dangerous Trump Rally Comments: “Guns Don’t Protect Our Free Speech”

Jon Stewart returned to internet hosting The Day by day Present on Monday evening, and he instantly dove into the attainable “October surprises” that would nonetheless influence the ultimate weeks of the presidential election marketing campaign.

Stewart started the phase by briefly wanting over previous October surprises, together with the notorious Entry Hollywood tape, in addition to the media operating by way of a choice of latest pure disasters and wars that may grow to be the dreaded black swan occasion within the waning days of the marketing campaign.

“Why are October surprises always so shitty? Why do we never get a good October surprise that brings our country together?” Stewart joked, including that he hoped that web stars Pesto, absolutely the unit of a child penguin, and Moo Deng, the impish child pygmy hippo, could begin relationship.

Stewart that expanded the purpose about October surprises, by suggesting that they invariably favor Republicans, who capitalize on dying and distress to attain election factors. “If monkeypox runs amok, I don’t see how we lose!” Stewart stated mockingly. “What does it actually say about a party that a war, a strike, and a natural disaster work in their favor? Sir, the election’s close, but if we could just get the population shell-shocked and desperate, we can do it.”

Turning his consideration to latest occasions, Stewart stated an October shock for him was seeing Elon Musk, uncovered stomach and all, at Donald Trump‘s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “[Musk’s] October surprise is he’s come out MAGA.”

“Now, you might think one of the world’s richest men controlling one of the world’s most influential platforms could be a recipe for what some may consider election interference,” Stewart stated, earlier than joking to the viewers, “You stupid, stupid people.”

Stewart referred to as again to the 2016 and 2020 election, when Trump vociferously accused Fb founder Mark Zuckerberg of election interference and identified the brazen double commonplace now that Musk, the proprietor of the embattled X platform, has come out in help for the previous president. The phase dived deeper into Trump’s repeated threats to punish and imprison individuals who he felt have been interfering within the election in opposition to him, together with the workforce behind the biopic The Apprentice.

“Trump has threatened almost all of them with either imprisonment, lawsuits, or censoring, which is why this one section of this weekend’s rally in Pennsylvania was so striking, when Elon Musk was discussing why he supports Donald Trump,” Stewart stated, coming to the primary thrust of the phase.

A clip of Musk’s speech from the Trump rally was then performed: “The other side wants to take away your freedom of speech. You must have free speech in order to have democracy. That’s why it’s the First Amendment.”

Stewart shot again: “Elon, were you not watching the rest of the show? A movie Trump doesn’t like is going to get sued. A tech mogul he doesn’t like, he wants to put in prison. It’s not free speech if only Trump’s admirers get to do it without consequence. That’s just not how it works. It doesn’t go that way. I don’t see how his support of free speech is “expose the belly” worthy. I simply don’t.”

One other clip of Musk’s was then performed: “But at least the Constitution remains intact and is there to ensure that we have the First Amendment. The Second Amendment is there to ensure that we have the First Amendment.”

A clearly riled Stewart went for the jugular: Weapons don’t defend our free speech. Our free speech is protected by the consent of the ruled, laid out by way of the Structure. It’s not primarily based on the specter of violence. It’s primarily based on elections, organizing referendums, a judicial system. Our social contract affords many, many avenues to treatment these points and permits sides to be heard and adjudicated. Weapons, from what I can inform, appear to largely defend the speech of the individuals holding the gun. It’s a instrument of intimidation…”

Met with rapturous applause, Stewart hushed the viewers as he wasn’t achieved.

“It is a tool of intimidation and one that I think is actually being irresponsibly and recklessly invoked. Because some people in your crowd thought they might have been shadow-banned by Facebook. I mean, for God’s sakes, you guys are in Butler, Pennsylvania. The whole reason you’re there is because some fucking asshole with an AR-15 tried to permanently litigate his vision of this country’s free speech,” Stewart stated, referring to the July 13 assassination try on Trump. “That’s why you’re there. The whole point of a society is guns don’t decide it. I would prefer at this moment not to trade in a government that offers me many remedies for my concerns, legitimate or illegitimate, for a situation where my rights are determined by how many militia members agree with me.”

Softening his voice, Stewart concluded by addressing Musk instantly. “The country ain’t perfect, and there’s a lot of issues we don’t agree on: choice, immigration, shrinkflation of snack chips, the unholy marriage of penguins and hippos. But, honestly, dude, a country that can adjudicate these complicated issues through a sometimes frustrating, overly bureaucratic constitutional system of checks and balances and peaceful transfer of power is the only kind of country that I want the children of Pesto and Moo Deng to grow up in.”