Jon Stewart to Dems: Quit calling everything Trump does ‘fascist’

Jon Stewart is urging President Trump’s critics not to reflexively call every move he makes “fascist,” saying it clouds the ability to warn about actual authoritarian actions.

“This is the cycle we find ourselves in. First law of Trumpodynamics: Every action is met with a very not equal overreaction,” Stewart said Monday on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” after playing clips of top Democrats criticizing Trump’s decision last week to fire independent inspectors general. 

The “overreaction,” Stewart said, is “throwing off our ability to know when s‑‑‑ is actually getting real.”

After playing a clip of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) decrying Trump’s mass pardons for rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as “sick” and “un-American” and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow calling it a move from a “textbook authoritarian takeover 101” playbook, Stewart said, “Should you have let some of those terrible people out? No! Is it an abuse of pardon power? I don’t f‑‑‑ing know. But that is his constitutional power.”

“We are facing a deluge of these executive actions. And certainly we must be prepared for those most vulnerable to the consequences of these actions,” the 62-year-old comedian said.

“But the ‘this is all fascist’ argument has become almost a reflex for the left,” he continued. 

“I have a lot of fear that as this term goes on, things are going to get a little fascisty. And we must be vigilant. But part of vigilance is discernment,” Stewart told the audience.

As a counterexample, he pointed to Trump’s executive action attempting to curtail birthright citizenship, a move that goes against the 14th Amendment. But he pointed out that a federal judge promptly froze that order, indicating the government’s checks and balances are still in place.

“Republicans control the House, the Senate, the executive and the judiciary. And just about every move that has been made until this point we have granted them electorally. It’s our f‑‑‑ing fault,” Stewart exclaimed.

“The constant drumbeat of encroaching fascism will erode the credibility we will need if — hopefully if, and not when — it hits,” he said.

“The truth is, for now,” Stewart said, “[Trump’s] most objectionable actions have taken place almost entirely within our designed democratic system.”