“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart ripped MSNBC on Monday for refusing to show “disturbing” footage of a pickup truck that displayed a decal on its tailgate that depicted President Biden hog-tied.
“This weekend, there was one story that was so disturbing, so dark even the news couldn’t handle it,” Stewart said on his show, before playing a mash up of MSNBC hosts, including Ali Velshi and Katie Phang, who refused to show the “violent and dehumanizing imagery” on-air due to its “disturbing nature.”
After the clips played of the hosts declining to show the decal, Stewart said, “This has gotta be devastating. News channels show images from Ukraine, from Gaza, from natural disasters. They get through them dispassionately. I can’t imagine how devastating this footage must be.”
Stewart then finally played the footage, which showed the cartoonish giant sticker depicting Biden hog-tied in the back of the truck.
Former president Donald Trump had shared the image on social media platform Truth Social last week.
“That’s what was so disturbing and dehumanizing you wouldn’t show it on television?” said an incredulous Stewart. “An airbrushed Biden decal on the back of a truck?”
He added, “Aren’t you the same networks that show re-runs of 9/11 every year? I mean, I don’t think it’s great that Trump was posting things like this, but it’s not like people really think Joe Biden was tied up in the back of the truck.”
Stewart then played a clip of MSNBC anchor Velshi claiming: “If you’re driving behind it, it would appear as if Joe Biden were actually restrained on the vehicle’s flat bed,” which prompted “The Daily Show” audience to erupt in laughter.
“If you think that’s really Joe Biden tied up on the back of the pickup truck, I don’t know that you have the mental acuity to be operating a motor vehicle,” Stewart deadpanned.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
