Jon Stewart is blasting the GOP’s response to Southern California’s wildfire disaster, denouncing right-wing leaders’ urge to attach strings to relief funds as “psychotic” and mocking pundits’ baseless accusations that “DEI” or “woke” somehow contributed to Los Angeles’ now-ravaged neighborhoods.
In a new installment of The Daily Show, the political comic pointed out the hypocrisy and double standard of disaster relief approval when comparing red and blue states. He began by taking aim at Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who said in a clip that he doesn’t believe any Californians are owed federal aid.
“What the f— is wrong with you? Really, senator from Alabama? The state with the bottom in math, reading and test scores? Next time you get hit by a f—ing hurricane, why don’t we have a little parent-teacher conference to see if you got your scores up, you would get the money — or actually, let’s not do it ’cause you’ll get the money anyway ’cause we’re not f—ing psychos,” Stewart stated.
He continued, “Red states are always the tragic victims of circumstance outside of their control, and Democrats always vote for their aid, whereas blue-state disasters are a function of their flawed morality and policy, and if we help blue-state survivors, well, what message will that send? What lesson will they learn?”
Next, Stewart tackled misinformation related to the joint Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, which have now collectively burned upward of 37,000 acres across Los Angeles. In particular, he zeroed in on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ claim that the blazes were essentially a psyop to bring about the collapse of the United States. Surely no one would believe that, Stewart posited, before a response on the post revealed that Elon Musk surely did.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the information that’s out there is not correct, and because of poor forest management, that information just jumps, igniting into larger and larger nonsense infernos, that coincidentally seem to reinforce whatever grudge these folks have against California, especially their ideology,” he said.
Another example was a (since-debunked) claim that Oregonian firetrucks were delayed in Sacramento for safety testing: “The whole thing is bullsh–. The fire trucks were not sent to Sacramento to get emissions testing,” Stewart explained. “They were sent there to be transitioned into minivans without their parents’ consent.”
However, the biggest linchpin in the right-wing criticism seemed to be the perpetual talking point of DEI. At this point, Stewart made fun of how the GOP may align itself between L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, whom the former has criticized for failing to provide adequate funding for the fire department.
“Lesbian firefighter has attacked Black lady mayor … who will the right support, in this opposite of a Sophie’s Choice?” Stewart joked. “In the hierarchy of DEI crimes, Black lady mayor [versus] lesbian firefighter, I don’t know which one of those is their — I wanna say white whale, but that’d be wrong.”
While Stewart contended that “improvements can be made” across leadership and construction, he reaffirmed “sometimes fire f—s a tornado and makes a mockery of human infrastructure and our ability to dictate the terms of our existence on this planet, but the one thing it shouldn’t dictate is the cruelty we would show to those in pain because we don’t think they consistently vote right.”
In closing the show’s segment, Stewart saved the best for last: a satirical ad for a GoFundMe-like service called “GoF—You,” a crowdfunding site available in “all blue states and any cities where the mayor is Black or gay” which is the “No. 1 source for politicians to dangle money over your head while delivering a monologue about why they hate your politics.”
Watch the full monologue below:
