Jon Stewart roasted Haley Stevens for bringing the “sass” out of Anderson Cooper during their interview, joking that the Michigan representative had turned the newsman “into Andy Cohen.”
During Monday’s monologue for “The Daily Show,” the comedian touched on Rep. Stevens (D-Mich.)’s tense conversation with Cooper, which occurred after the congresswoman broke from her party to endorse Republican senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
“I mean, of course, we all knew there was drama in Michigan when Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated Haley Stevens in a contentious primary for the Democratic nomination,” Stewart said. “But Stevens has always been very clear as to their shared goal of defeating Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.”
The “Daily Show” editors then cut to all the times Stevens denounced Rogers as a Donald Trump lackey. Nonetheless, on Sunday, Stevens revealed she’d be voting for Rogers – in a video that was awkwardly filmed at an angle.
“Is her car in a ditch?” Stewart quipped after watching the footage. “Is she endorsing Mike Rogers after getting in a car accident? ‘Real quick, before I lose consciousness, I am endorsing the nightmare.’”
As Stewart went on, he wondered aloud “what the f–k happened?,” adding that it was “the most diabolical episode of ‘Fargo’ I’ve ever seen.”
“What could have driven, somewhat erratically…” he joked, before seriously asking, “What could have driven Haley Stevens into the arms of the Rogers campaign?”
The show then cut to press conference footage of Stevens bemoaning the fact that she was left out of El-Sayed’s campaign.
“That says why you’re mad at Abdul. But not why you’re for Rogers,” Stewart countered. “Rogers is, hold on, let me find the word, a nightmare, who is against every principle you’ve worked for your entire career. I mean, at least say you were visited by three ghosts who convinced you that it turns out people don’t need health insurance. This can’t really be about getting your feelings hurt.”
Here’s where the “Daily Show” zeroed in on Stevens’ disastrous CNN interview with Cooper. In the footage, Cooper noted, “You wanted to be at a public event with him up until some point, I guess yesterday. It’s just an interesting change. And I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.”
As an uncomfortable silence filled the airwaves, Stevens commented, “Was that a question, Anderson, or…”
“No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in the silence, but you don’t,” Cooper hit back.
Stewart got a kick out of Cooper’s sassy on-air response, playfully wagging his finger as his studio audience broke out into laughter and applause.
“Do you see what you just did there, Haley Stevens? Are you happy with yourself?” Stewart sounded off. “All that sass you made. You just turned Anderson Cooper into Andy Cohen. Is that what you wanted?”
After the crowd broke out into another round of laughter and applause, Stewart added: “He didn’t want to sass you. He’s a newsman. He doesn’t want to sass you. You gave him no choice but to sass.”
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
