Jon Stewart on Trump’s “eating pets” answer at the presidential debate

The presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday ended The daily show Moderator Jon Stewart with a question: “What the hell just happened?”

In a live episode that aired after the event, Stewart expressed bafflement at the moment when Trump claimed immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets. (Watch it in the video below at 13:20.)

“In Springfield, they eat the dogs. The people who came here. They eat the cats. They eat – they eat the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said.

During the debate, moderator David Muir, host of the ABC show World news tonightinterrupted him and said that the city manager said there was no evidence of that. Trump countered: “But the people on TV are saying their dog was eaten by the people who were there.” David Muir: “Again, the city manager of Springfield says there is no evidence of that.”

In response, Stewart released a PSA about The daily show: “A quick reminder to all the pet owners out there: Always remember to keep your dogs on a leash. This will prevent your dog from fighting with other dogs, getting hit by a car, or being eaten by your immigrant neighbors.”

As they entered the hall to face each other for the debate, Harris walked up to Trump and shook his hand, unlike the former president and his last opponent, President Joe Biden.

Stewart noted that the interaction was “an incredible example of the awkward tension that arises when your son is dating a mixed-race girl and you meet her parents for the first time.”

He also joked that America is returning to traditional presidential debates without the drama of the June 27 event between Trump and Biden, who was then running for a second term. After that debate, Biden was pressured to resign and not run again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to say how incredibly refreshing it is, after getting over the PTSD of the last presidential debate,” Stewart said, “to go back to the old motto: 'Nobody is going to answer any damn questions!'”

Stewart later said he heard the breaking news that Taylor Swift was endorsing Harris.

“So, you know what this means: Taylor Swift and I were watching the same show at the same time,” Stewart said excitedly, fanning himself.

Finally, Stewart turned to the moment in the debate when Muir asked Trump if he regretted Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, injuring about 140 police officers. “No debate with the former president would be complete without addressing the former president's closing number from the first term of the Trump show,” Stewart said.

“I had nothing to do with it other than they asked me to give a speech,” Trump said in response to Muir's question. “I showed up to give a speech… This would never have happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington had done their jobs. I was not in charge of security. Nancy Pelosi was in charge. She didn't do her job.”

Stewart's reaction was furious.

“You f***ing tweeted, 'Come to my place on January 6th. It's going to be wild,'” Stewart said. “But now all of a sudden, 'I was just a hired magician at a bar mitzvah. I didn't do anything. I showed up with a hat and a rabbit and suddenly the whole party got out of control.'”

“In a way, it doesn't matter what they say,” he continued. “But one thing will always be true, and that is the quality of the former president that I respect the least: Whenever he is cornered and forced to face even the smallest consequences for his own mendacity and scheming, he resorts to the greatest refuge of villains — as Shaggy would say, 'It wasn't me.' … This man who claims to be your champion will always, when the boat goes down, be the first to get into the lifeboats because he will always say the same thing at that moment: 'I didn't know anything about it. I was just told to show up for a cruise,' even though everyone knows he was the damn captain of the ship.”

The former full-time presenter of The daily show That term ended in 2015, but he has now returned to the anchor chair as a part-time anchor until the presidential election on November 5.

The daily show airs weekdays at 11pm ET/PT on Comedy Central and the next day on Paramount+.

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