Tag: daily show

Another day, another interview where Jon Stewart elegantly grills a Republican politician until he doesn’t just feel the heat, he fully chars. This time around, the host of AppleTV+’s The Problem recently sat down with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who, despite being able to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, can’t come out and clearly say that there was zero election fraud. 

In the interview, set to air in this Friday’s episode of The Problem, Stewart is flabbergasted that Brnovich is conducting numerous investigations into reports of voter fraud based on the ex-president’s baseless conspiracy theories. “Donald Trump lost Arizona, period,” Brnovich starts. But, he hedges when Stewart asks if he can just plainly confirm that Trump’s claims of voter fraud were completely unfounded. Brnovich, seemingly trying to play both sides, notes that there are still ongoing investigations and that people can draw their own conclusions from the results.  

“People cannot draw their own conclusions!” Stewart replies. “That’s the point of the law. The law is you have fact and you have fiction. And the fact is the election in Arizona was well-run, not stolen, and not fraudulent.” 

Stewart, the former host of The Daily Show, is in sharp form in the interview, grilling Brnovich for knowing the truth and refusing to state it plainly to the people of Arizona, nipping the voter fraud theories in the bud once and for all. Stewart also brought the facts, reading out Trump’s false claim that hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast in Arizona, resulting in his loss. “The truth is none of that was real,” Stewart told Brnovich, pressing him to agree that Trump was lying all along. Brnovich sidesteps every opportunity Stewart provides him to confirm that the election was not stolen. 

“This is blowing my mind,” Stewart says with a laugh, echoing audience sentiments. 

The interview is reminiscent of another one Stewart recently conducted for The Problem with Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge, who appeared on the show to defend her state’s senseless ban on transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care. Stewart calmly eviscerated all of her transphobic talking points. The interview went viral, with Stewart getting praise for standing up to the attorney general and using his platform to deliver an array of indisputable, science-based facts about the importance of gender-affirming care. 

The Problem with Jon Stewart is the TV host’s grand return to the world of political late-night TV. The show, now in its second season, airs weekly and features Stewart taking an in-depth look at topics ranging from gender to taxes to globalization. The upcoming episode featuring Brnovich revolves around the U.S. midterm elections. 

Previously, Stewart hosted The Daily Show, Comedy Central’s satirical, political late-night series, from 1999 to 2015. During his tenure, he conducted a series of razor-sharp interviews with political and cultural adversaries, including media figures like Jim Cramer and Grover Norquist. He also memorably ridiculed future Fox News blowhard Tucker Carlson when the two appeared together on CNN’s series Crossfire in 2004—a roasting from which Carlson has never recovered.

Since returning to the form in The Problem, Stewart’s interview style has become less comedic and more incisive, holding each interviewee in feather-light crosshairs. It’s a welcome transition, an evolution in style from one of late night’s rising elder statesman.