“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart offered up a bit of a defense for Tony Hinchcliffe, the comic in hot water over racist jokes he told at Donald Trump’s rally in New York on Sunday.
Hinchcliffe made cracks about Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Palestinians, and called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” leading to a wave of outrage and forcing the Trump campaign to issue a rare disavowal.
“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. “But, to be fair, the guy’s really just doing what he does.”
Stewart played clips of Hinchcliffe at the Tom Brady roast telling similarly off-color jokes.
“Yes, yes, of course, terrible, boo, yes,” Stewart said,
But he was snickering as he said it.
“There’s something wrong with me,” he said. “I find that guy very funny. So, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you.”
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Then he got to the real problem with the rally ― and it wasn’t the comic. It was the main event, as Trump vowed mass deportations on his first day in office.
Stewart took a closer look at what that would really mean in his Monday night monologue: