Comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday urged caution about simply mocking serial liar Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for his many lies, warning people against making the same mistake with Santos that he made with Donald Trump when he announced his presidential ambition.
Santos’ “mediocrity” is allowing him to avoid true consequences for his many scandals, the former host of “The Daily Show,” said on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Problem With Jon Stewart.”
“The thing we have to be careful of, and I always caution myself on this, and I ran into this trouble with Trump, is we cannot mistake absurdity for lack of danger because it takes people with no shame to do shameful things,” Stewart said.
“In absurdity is where the real danger always is,” he added.
Stewart has previously admitted he first thought Trump was a comedic “gift from heaven” when he announced his candidacy in 2015. But he failed to realize that the then-reality TV personality’s “shamelessness is what made him dangerous,” he acknowledged.
“I thought it made him a buffoon, and I thought that’s what would disqualify him,” Stewart admitted in 2021. “What it did is made him the perfect vessel. You have to be shameless to do shameful things.”
“I’m not saying he’s the same as these figures, but the most dangerous figures are the ones that seem comic and absurd,” he told the Hollywood reporter at the time. “Saddam Hussein seems absurd. Muammar Gaddafi would stand in a kaftan and rant like a madman.”
Watch Stewart’s warning below.
