"Donald Trump is a reaction not just to Democrats but to Republicans," former Daily Show host Jon Stewart mused in an interview on CBS on Thursday morning. "He's not a Republican," Stewart continued. "He's a repudiation of Republicans, but they will reap the benefit of his victory in all of their cynicism and all of their — I will guarantee you Republicans are going to come to Jesus now about the power of government."
Stewart went on to wonder about the president-elect's metric for American greatness and to offer some historical context for Trump's election. "The same country, with all its grace and flaws and volatility and insecurity and strength and resilience, exists today as existed two weeks ago," he said. "The same country that elected Donald Trump elected Barack Obama."
The United States today is not fundamentally different than it was before Trump's win, Stewart said, pointing to recent history ("Have you listened to the Nixon tapes? ... Have you read LBJ?") for evidence that unsavory views have never been as far from the White House as we might like to think. Watch an excerpt of the conversation below. Bonnie Kristian
The Week
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