Actress Jane Fonda joined Jon Stewart on Monday’s edition of The Daily Show on Comedy Central to announce, "Our democracy is being destroyed.” Fonda’s actual evidence for such a grand claim was quite unimpressive as she continued to cite ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel getting suspended as a result of his own actions and made the confusing and evidence-free claim about cancelation of TV shows with black wives.
Stewart gushed over his guest when he wondered, “You know, what else has always been a part of some great movements, Jane Fonda. You’ve doing this a long time. Vietnam, No Nukes, LGBTQ rights. I mean, issue after issue, you have stepped up. Why?”
Hanoi Jane then tried to wrap herself in the flag as she recalled, “I think I was about 33 when I became an activist in 1970, and before then, it was—I wasn't involved in anything. I was kind of hedonistic. You know, I kind of knew, if I really get involved, my life is going to change, and I kind of stayed away. And then it was American soldiers that got me to understand the Vietnam War, and my whole life changed. And then, so, because I lived in France, I moved back here, and because it was soldiers that had opened my eyes, I became a part of the G.I. Movement.”
Eventually getting to present day, Fonda claimed, “This is not inevitable, what we're going through right now. Entertainers will—you know, you have been attacked, comics first, because tyranny and comics don't go together. You know, you are the ones that point out there’s no clothes and all that kind of—yeah, so comics go first, you know.”
She also asserted, “What was so great was that when Kimmel, when they said that Kimmel was going to be taken off the air and millions of Americans canceled their Disney subscriptions or threatened to cancel. So, this is—it's called noncooperation, and that is what we have to do.”
Promoting her own movement, Fonda continued, “The Committee for the First Amendment, it existed before, we want to organize the entertainment industry to not cooperate with what is happening because our democracy is being destroyed. Our rights are being taken away.”
Fonda also says, with no evidence, "Television shows where there is a black wife—no, no, you can't do that. Cancel it. No, you can't have an LGBTQ—they are just being canceled." pic.twitter.com/z1ymdfDIAZ
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) June 9, 2026
Fonda’s argument about Kimmel may be wrong, but at least it can be understood. The same cannot be said of what she later claimed, “I don’t know if people are aware enough about what is happening. You know, books are being banned. The funding of arts councils are being taken away. Television shows where there's a black wife—no, no, you can't do that. Cancel it. No, you can't have an LGBTQ, you know—they are just being canceled.”
No books are being banned. No shows are being canceled because there’s a black wife or an LGBTQ character in them, but the people who cry loudest about disinformation don’t care.
Here is a transcript for the June 8 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
6/8/2026
11:25 PM ET
JON STEWART: You know, what else has always been a part of some great movements, Jane Fonda. You’ve doing this a long time. Vietnam, No Nukes, LGBTQ rights. I mean, issue after issue, you have stepped up. Why?
JANE FONDA: You know, I was—I think I was about 33 when I became an activist in 1970, and before then, it was—I wasn't involved in anything.
STEWART: Really?
FONDA: I was kind of hedonistic. You know, I kind of knew, if I really get involved, my life is going to change, and I kind of stayed away. And then it was American soldiers that got me to understand the Vietnam War, and my whole life changed.
And then, so, because I lived in France, I moved back here, and because it was soldiers that had opened my eyes, I became a part of the G.I. Movement.
But it was the people that I met that were different from people I had ever met before. I had always been—I had grown up in a world where everyone was judged by how you looked. Are you thin enough? Are you this enough? Are you—oh, god, there was so much pressure. And suddenly, it was like, what kind of a person are you? It wasn't like what you looked like.
STEWART: Right.
FONDA: It was, like, looking through a keyhole at the world we were fighting for. And so, we're the creators—the entertainment industry, writ large, we create the dreams, we write the stories. We can show people, we can make them feel across differences, and we can show them how it could be.
There’s an alternative. This is not inevitable, what we're going through right now. Entertainers will—you know, you have been attacked, comics first, because tyranny and comics don't go together. You know, you are the ones that point out there’s no clothes and all that kind of—yeah, so comics go first, you know.
STEWART: Wait, what? I thought — Wait, how did I get involved in this? I am out first? Son of a bitch.
FONDAL: But what was so great was that when Kimmel, when they said that Kimmel was going to be taken off the air and millions of Americans canceled their Disney subscriptions or threatened to cancel. So, this is—it's called noncooperation, and that is what we have to do.
STEWART: Noncooperation.
FONDA: The Committee for the First Amendment, it existed before, we want to organize the entertainment industry to not cooperate with what is happening—
STEWART: Right.
FONDA: — because our democracy is being destroyed. Our rights are being taken away.
…
FONDA: But I don’t know if people are aware enough about what is happening. You know, books are being banned. The funding of arts councils are being taken away.
STEWART: Sure
FONDA: Television shows where there's a black wife—no, no, you can't do that. Cancel it. No, you can't have an LGBTQ, you know—they are just being canceled.
STEWART: Yeah, it is almost like people are acquiescing to it because they fear—I think what the government understands is, corporations don't want friction. They basically, they don't have any moral stand to take on it. They just don't want the friction. And so if people can create friction to the corporation, then they will listen to them. But for now, they are just fearful of the government.
