Jon Stewart’s nostalgic return to The Daily Show continued Tuesday with a reunion between the comedian and one of his most famous guests and antagonists.
Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox news star, who now hosts a show on his own platform, returned to The Daily Show for the first time since Stewart left in 2015 and since Fox fired O’Reilly in 2017 amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment.
Stewart not only outraged his liberal audience, but once criticized the Comedy Central program’s use of O’Reilly as “the worst legacy” because audiences expected the comedian to “destroy” him.
That legacy clearly weighed on Stewart during the interview, as he attempted to reframe his conversations with O’Reilly as conversations of people simply wanting to disagree in reasonable ways.
O’Reilly did, however, offer his thoughts on the upcoming election. The self-described “independent” said there’s only one thing stopping Donald Trump from beating Joe Biden by 25 points.
Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News star who now hosts a show on his own platform, returned to The Daily Show for the first time since Stewart left in 2015 and since Fox fired O’Reilly in 2017 amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment.
The commentator, who has been friends with Trump for years, says Trump’s comment on January 6 “has haunted him every day since.”
Stewart disagreed and continued to ask his question, questioning whether opposing political parties could ever truly moderate their positions, given the extreme beliefs that led to January 6.
O’Reilly responded, “If Trump hadn’t done that on January 6, he would have been ahead in the polls by 25 points. That’s what Biden has been to the country.”
Stewart and O’Reilly then discussed Biden’s policies, with O’Reilly pointing to inflation as a major negative of Biden’s tenure.
Earlier in the conversation, O’Reilly attempted to draw a distinction between his years-long battle with Stewart and the modern extremes of both parties today.
“We have built a beautiful existence by confronting people. We don’t want them to be destroyed, that’s the difference,” he said.
‘The fanatics on the left and right want their opponents to be destroyed, they want to hurt them.’
When asked about O’Reilly by the New York Times in 2020, Stewart appeared to regret the pressure put on him to cause so much destruction.
In addition to causing outrage among his liberal audience, Stewart himself had once criticized the show’s use of O’Reilly as “the worst legacy” of the Comedy Central program, because it meant that audiences expected the comedian to “destroy” him.
O’Reilly revealed his thoughts on the upcoming election, with the self-proclaimed ‘independent’ saying there is only one thing stopping Donald Trump from beating Joe Biden by 25 points
“The question was always, Why talk to him? Why have him on the show if you can’t destroy him? If you want to talk about the worst legacy of ‘The Daily Show,’ it was probably that.”
O’Reilly appeared on Stewart’s show no fewer than 15 times during its original run. The show’s spin-off, “The Colbert Report,” was a blatant parody of the commentator.
In 2012, the duo even reunited for a pay-per-view debate called The Rumble at the Air-Conditioned Auditorium, with proceeds going to charity.
Stewart had previously slammed Republicans on the show, which was originally scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, near the convention before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
He mocked Republicans for defying their calls for unity after the shooting.
About Marjorie Taylor Greene’s speech: ‘Her body rejected the theme of unity, as if it had been transplanted like a monkey’s heart.’
He then ridiculed model Amber Rose, who said Republicans don’t care “if you’re straight or gay, it’s all love.”
Stewart snapped, “It’s love! It’s all love! You better hope that love doesn’t lead to an ectopic pregnancy!”
The duo reunited in 2012 for a pay-per-view debate called The Rumble at the Air-Conditioned Auditorium, with proceeds going to charity
O’Reilly appeared on Stewart’s show 15 times during its original run, with the show’s spinoff, “The Colbert Report,” being a direct parody of the commentator
The comedian then took on the vice presidential candidate, who he said looked eerily like Trump’s eldest son.
“It’s like VP, Donald selected the actor who was going to be hired to play Don Jr. in the Lifetime movie. That’s not good! It’s like Don Jr. was the beta version that had to iron out the kinks,” he joked.
When it came to the shooting, Stewart complained about the misinformation and the speed of social media, which caused everyone to follow along “ensuring that the psychopathic shooter was not part of the group.” [our] ‘ploughing.’
Ultimately, he described 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as “someone we can’t even fathom in the first place,” while praising heroic firefighter Corey Comperatore.
“I don’t know what’s going on with this guy,” he said. “It’s a jump ball, we don’t know yet. None of us know what’s going to happen next … except that another tragedy is going to happen, because of us.”