Jon Stewart Asks Whether Trump Will ‘Burn Our F**king Country Down for the Insurance Money’ as He Collects ‘Tributes’
Jon Stewart described President Donald Trump as a “king” receiving “tributes” from media companies and billionaires as he expressed fear Trump might decide to “burn our fucking country down for the insurance money.”
Stewart joined The Bill Simmons Podcast this week where the conversation mostly kept to sports and comedy, but inevitably found its way to politics. Stewart expressed concern over the results thus far of Trump’s lawsuit against CBS alleging election interference because of the way an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was edited. CBS released the full video and transcript and denied any “deceitful” editing. They are now in mediation with Trump’s camp.
Stewart noted that the lawsuit thus far had led to people leaving the network, including 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens, and it comes amidst CBS parent company Paramount Global — which owns Comedy Central, which airs Stewart on The Daily Show — currently seeking approval for a merger with Skydance.
Stewart chalked up CBS’ editing of the Harris interview to a “purely subjective editorial decision” that any media company could have made. The Weekly Show host likened the potential $50 million settlement out of the CBS lawsuit to other massive sums Trump has received, citing a $40 million deal between Amazon and First Lady Melania Trump for a documentary and the $15 million ABC News paid to Trump in a defamation suit.
“What you’re seeing now is, ‘All must pay tribute to the king.’ And the price of peace is different,” he said. “You know, ABC had to pay $15 million. Bezos had to pay $40 million for a documentary on Melania. Zuckerberg had to pay – they just put money into the pot.”
Simmons said the payments reminded of Michael Corleone, the mafia boss at the center of The Godfather trilogy. Stewart compared the money exchanging hands to “bribery” and “protection money.”
“So ultimately, at the end of this, does Trump burn our fucking country down for insurance money? Like, where are we headed?” Stewart asked.
The comedian accused media companies settling with the president of setting an “awful precedent.”
“Now [Trump will] go after Harvard or Comcast or whatever the hell else he does because a policy of appeasement always leads to more conquest,” he said.
Watch above via The Bill Simmons Podcast.
