Comedy Central's The Daily Show has sounded extremely deferential to Democrats since Jon Stewart slobbered all over Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004. But it reaches a new level of Democrat insider-dom tonight since the guest host is actor Kal Penn, who spent a couple years in the Obama White House in their "public engagement" office.
Monday's CBS Mornings promoted Penn's week as a guest host, with co-host Michele Miller noting that Comedy Central and CBS have the same owner, Paramount Global.
Penn oozed that this will give him "the chance to merge my background in public service with my love of comedy. And comedy news is probably the thing I've loved the most over the years, but especially now. Some of my favorites to be able to follow in these footsteps, Jon Stewart, incredible. Trevor Noah, who you mentioned. Tucker Carlson is hilarious in this space, comedy, satire. The idea that we get to roast some of the headlines but still inform people in a way is -- is pretty great."
Morning co-host Nate Burleson then gushed "You have a special guest for your first sit-down. Who is that?" Joe Biden. Penn said "Look, jokes aside, one of the things I love about this format and the opportunity to reach people who maybe aren't watching cable news, aren't reading the paper, is that you can inform and feel -- let them know how to plug into something. I'm very, very proud that my first guest for the week is the President of the United States." Then they showed a clip of Biden, but no clip of Penn's question.
BIDEN: Transgender kids is a harder thing. What's going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. Just terrible what they're doing. It's not like, you know, a kid wakes up and says, you know, I decided I want to become a man or want to become a woman or a want -- I mean, what are they thinking about here?
They're human beings. They love, they have feelings, they have inclinations that are -- I mean, it just to me is -- I don't know, it's cruel. And the way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you're breaking the law, and you're going to be held accountable.
So Biden's for federal legislating forcing states to allow "gender-affirming care" for children? Because PolitiFact threw flags in 2020 on that. You'll notice that nothing in that clip is the least bit comedic. This is about sneaking in Democrat "public engagement" in a so-called comedy setting.
Co-host Tony Dokoupil had no objection to Biden's "sin" and "cruelty" statements. He just remarked Penn had a "good listening face," then asked "How did you get him to sit down?"
PENN: I reached out and said -- what I really mean is that one of the things about this format that I think is an incredible opportunity is to kind of flip the script a little bit. I think satire by its nature can be cynical, but it doesn't have to be. So when I was a White House aide, one of my frustrations was talking to people who didn't necessarily understand how they could plug into the civics process. And I felt frustrated as a government official not being able to properly explain that.
I thought, look, we have this platform with the show, would you be willing to come on the show and have a conversation about certainly solutions, things you've worked on behalf of young people, but also things that they may be pushing you on that you haven't done yet. People need to know your thought process and how their activism or advocacy can move the needle.
Then they noted Biden and Penn had the "same boss" in the Obama White House and flashed on screen a 2020 photo of Penn and Biden side by side wearing aviator sunglasses. It's good to be a Democrat with this media elite.
CBS touting Kal Penn on its corporate cousin doing DNC messaging with Biden was brought to you in part by Capital One.
