Jon Stewart Mocks Liberal Outrage Machine, Defends Tony Hinchcliffe

Not for the first time, liberal comedian Jon Stewart is standing up for comedy and free speech.

At a Trump rally Sunday night in Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe cracked a couple of spicy jokes, including one about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage,” that sent the liberal outrage machine into a tailspin. Danielle Alvarez, a Trump campaign senior advisor, later said the joke “does not reflect the views” of Trump or the campaign. But “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart defended the set and said he thinks Hinchliffe is “very funny.”

Brilliant by Jon Stewart… 👏 pic.twitter.com/XDE1ECvRG6

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 29, 2024

“Now obviously, in retrospect, having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before Election Day and roasting a key voting demographic, probably not the best decision by the campaign politically,” Stewart said, calling a spade a spade. “But, to be fair, the guy’s really just doing what he does.”

The host played a montage of jokes Hinchcliffe made during Tom Brady’s Netflix roast and couldn’t help but laugh.  (Click HERE to sign up for Mr. Right’s weekly newsletter)

Tony Hinchcliffe was a monster at the roast of Tom Brady 😂 pic.twitter.com/b5DOxrT2CK

— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) May 6, 2024

Although Hinchcliffe mostly bombed during his set at MSG — his jokes about Israel and Palestine and carving a watermelon with black friends for Halloween prompted groans from the crowd — Stewart is smart to draw more attention to the media’s complete overreaction.

As far as a political strategy goes, bringing a comedian to a rally is dumb because it won’t move the needle at all and can only do no more harm than good. But cable news pundits on CNN and MSNBC morphing into mindless, apoplectic bots over a few bad jokes reeks of desperation. They’re still trotting out the “Trump is racist” attack line eight years later?

My guess is normal Americans, even Puerto Ricans, won’t care too much. And if they do care, they were probably already voting for Kamala anyway.