Jon Stewart Slams Andrew Sullivan: ‘There Was No Escaping The Bigotry of His Opinion’

Jon Stewart took aim at author Andrew Sullivan for sharing his thoughts on race relations in America during an episode of Stewart’s new AppleTV show.

“The episode played out, as ironically, the actual problem. We thought it was going to be relatively productive, but the white people couldn’t handle themselves,” he said during the Thursday episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart.

He was referring to Sullivan’s appearance on an episode titled The Problem with White People, in which Sullivan took part in a panel about race in America.

“The whole idea was, ‘there’s something holding progress back in white people’. And I thought that conversation would be productive and ultimately I thought it was,” Stewart said. “Making Andrew Sullivan play the role of the white person who doesn’t understand that this is being taped – holy shit!”

He continued, “They create these layers of distance from their opinion to justify it and if you just keep peeling one layer after another, one layer after another, they become trapped in that ‘our culture is better than yours.'”

“When you really drill down to it, there was no escaping the bigotry of his opinion,” Stewart said. “This isn’t some, you know the stereotype of like a confederate flag waving David Duke supporter. This is a relatively mainstream person.”

Stewart concluded, “I think it’s important to expose that academic patina that is pasted over bigotry.”

During the panel discussion that aired on AppleTV last week, Stewart and Sullivan got into a heated discussion over which systems in America are racist. When Sullivan pushed Stewart for more examples, Sullivan said “You are not living on the planet most Americans are.”

He continued, “Which is why this kind of extremism, this anti-White extremism is losing popular support, is creating a backlash, is gonna elect Republicans, and undo a lot of the good you think you’re doing.”

Listen above via The Problem with Jon Stewart.