Jon Stewart has said that senior Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer should step aside after the party regained both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s historic midterm result.
On Thursday’s episode of The Weekly Show podcast, Stewart said that one of the first things the Democrats should do following the blue wave is “remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics.”
He said that starts with Schumer, who, according to Stewart, does not deserve as much credit as he’s been getting after the Democratic sweep.
“Job one of this opportunity is to tear down the obstacles and old way of thinking that got us into this mess,” Stewart said.
“Someone has to meet this moment and they have got to show — and this moment is not, ‘Oh, we get to impeach everybody,’ like f*** that. Like, you have an opportunity to actually govern. Do it. Take it.”
“It is a bull**** system and it needs to go,” Stewart continued. “And they’re, by the way, they’re already like, ‘Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this…’ ‘Chuck Schumer deserves’ — Chuck Schumer fought tooth and nail against half of these f***ing people!
Stewart warned: “And even if he didn’t, he does not understand the urgency of the moment and what the future demands. I truly believe that.”
Schumer, 75, who has been Senate Democratic Leader since 2017, has faced criticism over his leadership during Trump’s two terms, and some elected representatives are calling for new blood.
It comes as Democrats will soon decide who will lead them now that they have power in the upper chamber.
Senator-elects, including Adam Hamilton of Kansas, Troy Jackson of Maine and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, had said on the campaign trail that they would not back Schumer for majority leader.
“I mean no disrespect for Chuck Schumer, but we need new leadership,” Hamilton told CNN in September. “We need new younger leadership, young blood.”
During the podcast, Stewart said watching the results filled him with an “alien” feeling. “I believe it is referred to as hope,” he said. “What an exciting feeling of opportunity.”
“What an exciting feeling of opportunity. What an exciting repudiation of cruelty and s***iness in our politics. The Democrats ran actual good candidates who seem in it for virtuous and non-political reasons. It was an incredible night.
“This was like the Knicks championship; this was Knicks in five. It was like watching result after result.”
Democrats stormed the midterm elections Tuesday night, winning in Republican strongholds such as Texas and Kansas to retake control of the House and the Senate, making President Donald Trump a lame duck for the final two years of his presidency.
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