CNN Discusses Jon Stewart ‘Both Sidesing’ Biden and Trump on Age, Anchor Asks Can He Keep Audience And Attack the Left?

CNN anchors Jim Sciutto and Brianna Keilar interviewed veteran New York Times media reporter Bill Carter on Tuesday and got his thoughts on Jon Stewart’s return to The Daily Show after nine years away.

“There’s another big TV event to talk about, and that is comedian Jon Stewart returning to host The Daily Show last night after nearly a decade away. And in his signature style, he made fun of the major headlines. That includes President [Joe] Biden’s age and memory,” Keilar began.

“Joining us now is Bill Carter, former New York Times media reporter. He wrote the book The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for Late Night. Bill, good to have you. It was it was fun to watch last night. I mean, it’s good to have him back. I mean, it’s fun. I was looking forward to it, I watched it. You see some criticism of sort of both sidesing this age issue there. I wonder what you thought of his performance on his first night back. And does it match the audience?” Sciutto asked Carter after showing some clips from Stewart.

“You know, I thought he was terrific. I thought he was right back in his element. I was wondering how he would approach it. Would he do something different? No. He came right at it. And, boy, he still has his fastball. That’s what I think. And he managed to mix in, you know. You know, very punchy stuff, about both guys and, and, you know, pointed, political commentary. That’s what he was known for. And he pulled it off again in my opinion,” Carter replied.

After a discussion about Stewart’s jabs at both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Sciutto asked:

Let me ask you this, though, because politics is a whole new world since the last time he was on the show, right? I mean, the partisanship, the information bubbles, they’re further apart, and also the reaction to them, right, where folks look to the other side and say that person is dangerous, right. And I just wonder if that changes the way the audience reacts to his sort of equal opportunity poking of fun at both parties here. I mean, if some of his audience, which I have to imagine is a little left-leaning, are they going to look at that and say, I’m not in for that, you know?

“Well, I think that’s a really interesting question, Jim, because in the past, when he would do that, and I was there one night when he went after Obama a little bit and his audience was very uncomfortable because they were very pro-democratic in those days, and you would assume they would do that again,” Carter replied, adding:

But I noticed last night they had no hesitation laughing at the jokes about Biden because they were basically commenting on the age factor, which, let’s face it, that is not necessarily partisan. There are people who are Democrats who feel uncomfortable with that. So I think that was hitting a sweet spot for the audience. I think you’re right about the whole partisan thing, and people may not be comfortable as they were in the past with comedy like this, but I think it is very effective. I always thought comedy is a very effective way to make political commentary. It’s always been that way. People used to do in cartoons. Well, now they do it on late night shows.

“Would have been weird if he had ignored that topic this week especially, Bill, always great to have you. Thank you so much, Bill Carter,” Keilar concluded.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.