Comedian Jon Stewart briefly grabbed the limelight at a Dave Chappelle show in New York City this week to issue a “defense” of President Trump.
The former host of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” returned to the stage Thursday night to weigh in on Mr. Trump’s handling of violence in Charlottesville. His remarks, which were transcribed by The New York Times’ Sopan Deb and shared on Twitter, honed in on the president’s condemnation of both white nationalists and “alt-left” agitators who were present when 32-year-old Heather Heyer was intentionally struck and killed by a vehicle.
“There are two sides? Motherf—r? Two sides?!” Mr. Stewart said, the entertainment magazine THR reported Friday. “I believe they are called the Allied powers and the Axis powers. In the president’s defense, he is a terrible person.”
The comedian then said that while all of Mr. Trump’s supporters are not Nazis, “everybody who is a Nazi sure does seem to like him.”
Mr. Trump has faced persistent criticism throughout the week for providing an addendum to his condemnation of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, the KKK and other groups, which included Black Lives Matter and self-described anti-fascists who often attend protests with baseball bats.
“What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt right?” Mr. Trump asked reporters on Tuesday. “Do they have any semblance of guilt? You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, OK? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people, but you also had troublemakers and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats — you had a lot of bad people in the other group too.”
The president’s critics contend that he should have stopped talking after criticizing 20-year-old suspect James Alex Fields Jr. and white supremacists who showed up to protest the removal of a Confederate statue depicting General Robert E. Lee.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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