Jon Stewart says 'all Republicans have to do is finger-bang a donut' to confirm Matt Gaetz as attorney general
"The Daily Show" host urged Democrats to follow suit and start "exploit[ing] loopholes" to get things done.
Jon Stewart has an unorthodox observation about the inner workings of American politics — but what else is new?
Two weeks after former President Donald Trump achieved victory in the 2024 presidential race, Stewart spent the latest episode of The Daily Show urging the Democratic Party to act more like Republicans by "exploit[ing]the loopholes" in the system.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Republicans are playing chess, and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because they glued their balls to their thigh," Stewart complained. "That is what is happening."
Comedy Central
Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show'He continued, "Government is theoretically a constitutional system of checks and balances between equally powerful branches. But what government actually is, is an overly-complicated, Byzantine, bureaucratic maze of rules, loopholes to those rules, and norms."
Stewart then pointed to Trump's "provocative" Cabinet picks, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., SpaceX founder Elon Musk, controversial politician Matt Gaetz, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
"Democrats are positive that the vaunted constitutional rules of the Senate shall be the guardrail to this madness,” Stewart said of the current Cabinet nominees, before pointing to the fact that Trump can bypass the confirmation process by adjourning Congress and installing his picks via recess appointments.
“That is our government in a nutshell: The rules say ‘We can stop it.’ The loophole says, ‘F--- that!’” Stewart said. “So what are you left with? The last refuge of losers: The norms.”
Speaking directly to the Democrats in government, he said, "Let this show be the utterly ineffective hypocrisy finders. I can tell you from experience, it does nothing. You guys be the loophole guys that figure out how to get s--- done because [Republicans] don’t give a f--- about your norms."
Pointing to an image of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, he continued, "They will exploit any loophole, even if they have to go through clearly closed windows to do it. You would think after Trump’s presidency, Democrats would have learned. But they doubled down."
To illustrate his point, Stewart then revealed an unusual metaphor by whipping out a visual aid: a needle and thread.
“To get anything done, the Democrats feel like they must thread the needle to make sure — 'Oh, we have to make sure each norm follows the overly complex, bureaucratic process that we created ourselves,'" Stewart explained, mockingly attempting to thread the needle.
He then pulled out a second visual aid, a donut, continuing, "Meanwhile, the Republicans come in, and all they have to do is finger-bang a donut. That’s all they have to do."
Proving his point, Stewart swiftly obliterated a donut by shoving his entire hand through the hole. "'Oh, how are we gonna get Matt Gaetz in if the advice and consent — oh, there, now he's in."
Watch Stewart unpack the metaphor further in the Daily Show clip above.
