Trevor Noah examined the budding feud between Democratic primary opponents Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden on The Daily Show Monday.
Buttigieg has become the focus of many attacks since his surprisingly strong showing in the Iowa caucus last week, but no other candidate has gone after him quite like Biden, whose campaign has faltered in contrast. Biden has said Buttigieg is nothing like former President Barack Obama, while he also released an attack ad blasting the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s lack of experience.
For Noah, however, that line of attack seemed pretty pointless in a post-Trump world. “If there’s one thing Donald Trump has shown America… it’s that you can run this country without experience,” he cracked. “I know it sounds crazy, but if you think about it, none of the shitty things Trump has done were because he didn’t have experience. They’re because he’s a dick. Which is ironically the one thing where he has decades of experience.”
Noah went on to note that despite setting his sights on Buttigieg, Biden’s biggest problem seemed to be himself. At a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, a college student asked Biden about his poor showing at the Iowa caucus and the tense exchange ended with the former Vice President calling the woman a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.”
After trying to parse just exactly what that combination of words meant, and where they came from (Biden’s campaign said the phrase is from an old John Wayne movie, but no one’s been able to prove it yet), Noah suggested Biden drop the attacks against Mayor Pete and double down on his tendency to fight with, rather than court, voters.
To that end, Noah cooked up a new campaign ad for Biden filled with clips of him calling potential voters liars and telling them to vote for someone else. “You don’t want him in your face?” the grave voice of the narrator said in the fake spot. “Then get the fuck out of his.”
