A decade after the two hosts last had an on-air spat, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly reunited on Tuesday to continue the debate, though compared to today’s extremes they were more friends than enemies.
O’Reilly began by acknowledging that there was “history” between the two men.
“If you Google Stewart and I, you’ll see that we don’t hate each other even though we disagree. I really hate him, but I don’t show it,” O’Reilly joked.
“But you’re holding it very well,” Stewart said.
There was only one topic to talk about on Tuesday. Assassination attempt Former President Donald Trump The motive is still unknown.
O’Reilly called for calm and criticized some TV programs, including talk shows, for emphasizing the fact that the suspect is a Republican, but Stewart pushed back.
“You and I are sort of fossilized practitioners of rhetoric that is sometimes confrontational, sometimes provocative,” Stewart said, “and we’ve made really great lives by pushing the boundaries.”
Stewart and O’Reilly have a history of on-air feuds that reflect diametrically opposed viewpoints, with O’Reilly serving as Stewart’s conservative counterweight and vice versa.
O’Reilly last appeared on “The Daily Show” in 2014, when the two Lively discussion About race and white privilege. 2012 Charity Forum It was titled “Trouble in an Air-conditioned Auditorium.”
Stewart He left “The Daily Show” in 2015.O’Reilly He was fired by Fox in 2017. He was hit with a string of sexual harassment allegations, which he denied.
Stewart Came back To “The Daily Show” This year, it will be held only on Mondays.The night is planned to run until the 2024 election.
“The Daily Show” was scheduled to broadcast live from Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is being held, but increased security following the assassination attempt on the former president made it impossible to accommodate a live audience, Stewart said. It was moved to New York instead and did not air Monday.
Stewart and O’Reilly engaged in a similarly cordial exchange on Tuesday as they did in 2014.
After O’Reilly, who has also written a book about presidential assassinations, said every assassin or attempted assassin in American history was mentally ill, Stewart mentioned John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
“Well, John Wilkes Booth was a rabid conservative and racist who hated Lincoln,” O’Reilly began.
“It’s good to be out of the country,” Stewart joked, eliciting some of the biggest laughs from the crowd during the interview.
Stewart began Tuesday’s show by mocking conspiratorial views of X in the wake of the shooting, but in a serious moment he acknowledged that he searches social media after shocking acts of public violence, in part for reasons both personal and political.
“When we hear about these horrific incidents, it feels like we’re seeing a pattern in this country right now, where we’re juggling demographics to make sure that a psychopath shooter isn’t on our team,” Stewart said.
“And we all do. We all do,” he said. “Because we have to know what our stance is in response to this tragedy: Is it going to be an arrogant, ‘I told you so’ stance, or is it going to be a cautious, ‘Well, let’s not jump to judgment. We shouldn’t generalize.'”
“And then you end up with someone we never really understood in the first place,” he said.
