Trevor Noah notices something fishy about the one-sided calls for 'civility'

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Daily Show)

published 27 June 2018

Since White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant last weekend, "the big debate in America has been: Do government officials have the right to be left alone when they're off the clock?" Trevor Noah said on Tuesday's Daily Show. On Monday, he noted that Trump officials are getting a helpful taste of what it's like to be a minority, but now he looked at the idea that government officials should be left alone, in the name of "civility" and "tolerance" — a common refrain from cable news pundits. "These people have more amnesia than the characters in a Lifetime movie," he sighed.

Noah pooh-poohed the argument that Trump officials should just be protested during work hours, "as if the administration's policies only work from 9 to 5. It's not like when the White House staff goes home every night, all of a sudden everyone in America is like, 'Woo-hoo! I have health care back until 9 a.m. tomorrow!'" The restaurant wasn't protesting Sanders, a private citizen with opinions, but rather the government she represents. "Basically, people in power would like to be insulated from the effects of their actions," Noah said. "But if you're in a position where you can influence other people's lives, you shouldn't be shocked when you hear from the people whose lives you affect."

Also, calls for "civility" always tend to come from people in a position of privilege, understandably, Noah said. "The person winning in Monopoly is never the person flipping the board." And he pointed out that the nonviolent-protest icons we're supposed to emulate — Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. — their protests weren't exactly welcomed at the time, either. "All I'm saying is, what happened to Sarah Huckabee Sanders isn't nice, but as a government official, people protesting your policies is part of the job," he said. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.