On the latest episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart reflected on the “awful news out of Minnesota” and attacked Republicans for deflecting blame from federal agents for the shooting and killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti on Saturday.
Stewart opened the show by comparing the United States to Iran, “an authoritarian state currently being rocked by protests that threaten to tear the whole nation apart.” He explained how “for the second time in two weeks, another American has been tragically killed on the streets of Minneapolis.”
“Now, obviously, all the facts are not in yet,” Stewart noted before playing clips of Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino claiming that Pretti was armed and violent. Bovino said a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots at Pretti. Noem added that he “committed an act of domestic terrorism,” noting, “That’s the facts.”
“Those are the facts,” Stewart responded. “That’s the facts. There’s really no reason to doubt them, no evidence exists to contradict their–hold on. I’m getting a…. oh really? I’m hearing there may be some grainy Zapruder-like footage from, I don’t know, every angle imaginable that contradicts the government’s version of events.”
Stewart played some of those videos, which do completely contradict the government spin on the incident. “Well, looks like we’ve got a real case of: ‘He-said, video-totally-disproves-what-he- said,’” Stewart said.
He continued, “I think the lowest bar a government ever has to clear in terms of earned credibility to its population is obvious reality. You just gotta clear obvious reality. I believe it’s what the philosopher Seneca called the ‘Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining’ doctrine.”
Stewart recounted how the Department of Homeland Security has continued to misrepresent Pretti’s death and questioned why they would be allowed to investigate the murder themselves. “Oh, good luck finding the real killer O.J.,” Stewart replied.
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Stewart then played a clip from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which Blanche said that Pretti “was not protesting peacefully.” He added, “You shouldn’t gaslight the administration about what happened.”
“We’re gaslighting you?” Stewart said. “Speaking of gaslighting, here is Todd Blanche, a day after accusing all of us of gaslighting the administration about what happened.”
The host then cut to Fox News, on which Blanche claimed, “I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.”
“Oh you don’t think anybody was doing that?” Stewart said. “Well, they were certainly fucking insinuating it. I mean, it might be hard to find someone explicitly using those exact words, but — we found it.”
Stewart cut back to Noem’s press conference, where she said, “Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
“I mean, we’re gaslighting?” Stewart responded. “I think that actually might be the definition of gaslighting. Look, the administration realized pretty quickly that the public is not buying their description. So they had to make a choice: come clean and commit yourself to finding the truth, no matter where it may lead, or just redefine who the victims of this tragedy really were.”
The government took the latter route, suggesting that the Border Patrol and ICE agents were the real victims. After taking aim at Bovino’s specifically, Stewart acknowledged that no one in the U.S. is buying the government’s spin. He noted that while the Republican narrative about the killing “fell apart,” they did seem to agree that it’s problematic to bring a loaded firearm into a situation with law enforcement.
Stewart played a series of clips of Republicans claiming that no one would bring a loaded gun to a protest. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” the host said. “Is that what you’re saying on the right? Are you saying that the problem was the guy had a gun? Are you saying that the guns are the problem? Is everyone on the right coming together to say carrying a legal firearm was the problem?”
Stewart ended his monologue by explaining how the Right has “jettisoned the entire integrity and belief of their political worldview” for Donald Trump, “a guy who really doesn’t give a fuck.”
“Blood runs through the streets of Minnesota,” Stewart said. “A political party has jettisoned their entire knowledge of the founding documents. And Trump’s out there like, ‘Hey everybody, we’re all going to get laid!’ This is what makes this entire Minnesota adventure so maddening. Because ultimately, we as a country are not asking for too much from our government. We’re just not. We have the soft bigotry of low expectations. All we want is sane policies, actually competently executed, without you all being huge dicks.”
He concluded, “They’re lying. We saw it. And that’s how brazen they lie when they know we’ve seen the truth. That’s how they lie when they know we know. Imagine how they lie when there’s no evidence to contradict them.”
From Rolling Stone US
