Comedian Jon Stewart urged Democrats not to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if they regain control of the House and Senate, arguing on his podcast that he doesn’t want to see “performative” hearings.
During a question-and-answer segment at the end of Stewart’s “The Weekly Show” podcast, he was asked whether Democrats should seek to impeach Trump if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections.
He said he wanted to see Democrats make a full-scale effort to rebalance the economy, and said he didn’t want to see performative hearings.
“I don’t want to see a f—ing five-act performative play of House hearings,” Stewart said. “I just don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see everybody having the opportunity to pantomime accountability because you know they’re actually not going to bring it.”
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“You want to do some investigations of some s—, that’s great,” he continued. “But on the triage list of what’s wrong in this country, it is, ‘I’m sorry, sir, you’re going to have to stay in the waiting room because this guy just got shot, and it sounds to me like you just have a sore throat.’ Like do the s— that actually is killing people right now.”
Stewart added that he wanted Democrats to “govern.”
“You want to do some things that are ancillary, a little side project, you want to do the investigations as a hobby, knock yourself out. Fix s—,” he said.
“Jon Stewart is tapping into a real tension within the Democratic electorate,” Lauryn Killian, CEO of Killian Campaigns, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “There will certainly be Democrats who want impeachment, particularly those who believe the Trump administration warrants aggressive congressional scrutiny.”
“But there is a meaningful difference between legitimate accountability and turning impeachment into another chapter of the anti-Trump resistance movement,” she continued. “If Democrats take back Congress, voters will expect them to actually govern, not spend two years trying to undo the last election.”
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Killian said the smarter political strategy would be to look into “wrongdoing and pursue accountability where the facts warrant it, while focusing congressional energy on issues that actually affect Americans’ lives: the economy, affordability, public safety and government competence.”
“Winning Congress would give Democrats an opportunity to demonstrate they can govern beyond simply being the opposition,” she added. “If they turn that opportunity into another impeachment crusade, Republicans will have a very clear argument to make to voters: Democrats were given power to govern, and chose instead to keep fighting the last election.”
“Jon Stewart is saying what Democrats don’t want to hear: voters want results, not revenge,” Y. David Scharf, chair of government strategies and controversies at Morrison Cohen, told Fox News Digital. “If Democrats win Congress and spend the next two years trying to impeach Trump instead of lowering costs and fixing the economy, they’ll be writing the Republican playbook for 2028.”
He described impeachment as “political theater.”
Democratic strategist James Carville and his podcast co-host Al Hunt also warned against impeachment on Tuesday. Carville and Hunt argued that impeachment would be a waste of time and Democrats should devote their energy to investigating the president instead.
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“I’ll tell you one thing that I think Democrats should steer clear of, and that’s impeachment,” Hunt said. “It’s not that Trump has not committed impeachable offenses, far worse than what he was accused of back in 2019 with Ukraine. I mean, he has. I mean, you could come up with a bill of particulars of, you know, a dozen at least. But you know something, James? It’s not going to happen, and it is a distraction.”
“It is a waste of energy,” Hunt added. “Investigate, investigate, investigate. Don’t go on a mission that isn’t going to succeed.”
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also served as White House chief of staff, urged fellow Democrats not to pursue impeachment during an interview on Sunday.
“You’re never going to get an impeachment,” he said. “Then, if you do that, you just basically prove all [of] Washington is what the American people think. It’s Disneyland on the Potomac. Deliver the change. Deliver a comprehensive ethics package that uses the investigations to then deliver change.”
The warnings came as Democrats held a polling advantage over Republicans heading into the final weeks before the midterm elections.
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House race projections show Democrats winning 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning Democrats would need to win at least three of the 19 remaining toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has declined to say whether he would support impeachment proceedings against Trump, though he appeared to suggest over the summer that impeachment would not be a top priority.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
