Let’s go to The Daily Show to ask the big questions after President Joe Biden apparently called Trump supporters “garbage.” That’s exactly what Ronny Cheng did Wednesday night… after a while.
“Wait, wait, is Joe Biden still the president?” The lead reporter asked incredulously during the show’s opening monologue.
After comedian Tony Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as a “floating garbage island” at a Trump rally in New York, Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating there is his supporters.” The comment immediately sparked a backlash among Republicans.
“It’s crazy to say that, even if you believe it. “Wait another six days, man,” Cheng told President Biden. The Comedy Central host then tried to give Biden the benefit of the doubt and listened carefully to the president’s other comments about Puerto Rico. But between Biden’s stumbles and the territory’s connection to Delaware, he gave up.
Cheng said: “Oh, right. This guy is old and his brain is a pile of floating garbage.”
The Comedy Central host also mocked the White House’s response to the error. The organization later released a transcript of Biden’s remarks, which included an apostrophe in the word “supporters (indicating he was referring only to Hinchcliffe).” Biden later posted in X noting that “Hinchcliffe’s demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.” That’s all I wanted to say. “The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”
Cheng said: “That’s right, in the last week of the campaign, Republicans called for a raid on immigration, and Democrats said: ‘You have to put the apostrophe in the right place. “This election is really coming down to Nazis versus grammar Nazis.”
Cheng also said this election is “failing” when it comes to Americans’ understanding of how apostrophes work. “Republicans won’t accept any of these excuses because they don’t know what an apostrophe is,” Cheng joked.
But like Jon Stewart earlier this week, Cheng was frustrated by the latest garbage scandal because it distracts media attention from a really important part of Trump’s campaign. This time, the truth is that Trump “promised” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. control of public health agencies: “HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others,” Kennedy said. He told his followers on the Zoom call.
In an interview with Kaitlan Collins, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said he had a long meeting with prominent vaccine skeptics, where they discussed Kennedy’s plan to collect data that could lead to the elimination of certain vaccines.
To find out why the media talks about bad jokes and potential gaffes more than bigger issues, Cheng turned to fellow reporter Jordan Klepper.
Klepper said: “It’s because focusing on organizations like the CDC is what we in the media call boring.” When Cheng pressed him further about Kennedy’s plan, Klepper replied: “I don’t know. “It’s not my job to ask.”
“It’s everything! You’re the media!” Cheng shouted.
