Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is no stranger to trashing conservatives, while hiding behind the guise of a court jester. This time, he set his set the tone of his Tuesday show with a game he called “Let's get rid of Ted Cruz."
Stewart took issue with Senator Cruz’s contention that Obama worsened racial tensions, "Here's how glaringly challengeable a statement that is: a CNN reporter followed up about it."
Stewart then showcased a clip of CNN’s Dana Bash asking Sen. Cruz to provide examples of Obama’s racial tension. This was apparently so preposterous that the Daily Show host pretended to read the book War and Peace, "And you know, Ted, while you struggle to be specific, I'll read a little something just in case it takes you a while."
Ted Cruz’s answer was displayed, "I think he has not used his role as president to bring us together. He has exacerbated racial misunderstandings, racial tensions from back at the beer summit to a series of efforts to pit Americans against each other."
In response, Stewart bellowed, "Come on, Cruz! All you did was take, like a minute to say the exact same thing, just a rephrasing of what you said before!"
If Stewart stopped following his leftist script and actually paid attention to the clip he just played, he would notice that Cruz actually gave a specific example of Obama intensifying racial animosity, namely the “beer summit” that came after Obama said the cops who took in black professor Henry Louis Gates “acted stupidly.”
In fact, if he watched more of the video he would see that Cruz invoked the example of Joe Biden’s infamous claim that Republicans wanted to put his black audience "back in chains." Mentioning this latter fact, however, might ruin the punch line and, more importantly, the leftist talking point.
Stewart then moved on to Cruz’s accusation that Obama has a pattern of straw manning and vilification, "Strawman and vilifying a caricature huh? What would that look like if say someone was, I don’t’ know, describing Americans who didn't agree with them on, I don’t’ know, marriage equality and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act?"
The Daily Show then cut to a clip of Sen. Cruz describing the bullying of traditional marriage advocates and people of faith as a "jihad."
In reaction to this, Stewart jabbed "So you want a president to bring people together. Who understands that if you're pro-marriage equality you're the same as ISIS. Got it!"
Naturally, Stewart never brought up the occasions in which liberals charged conservatives with waging jihad against food stamps, public education, and Americans.
Stewart finished his segment off by showcasing a montage of out-of-context-clips of Ted Cruz saying partisan things, before quipping "Remind me again how President Obama has failed us as a leader?"
If he were a journalist, Stewart’s gerrymandering of clips, partial quotations, and selective condemnation might sink his career. However, Stewart is not a journalist; he’s just a comedian pretending to be one.
