Jon Stewart accused the Trump administration of giving him Iraq War déjà vu over their reasoning for the looming conflict with Venezuela.
The comedian addressed the “eerie” similarities between the two separate conflicts during Monday’s monologue for “The Daily Show,” where he slammed the president and his administration for recycling old Iraq War-era justifications amid the growing conflict in South America.
“So the two dictators [Nicolás Maduro and Saddam Hussein] share a remarkably similar taste in facial hair, body shape, ceremonial sabers and headgear. It doesn’t mean that the pretext for the wars will be the same,” Stewart joked before airing news footage of MAGA supporters accusing narco-terrorists of being in possession of fentanyl, which they called “weapons of mass destruction.”
“Are you f–king kidding me right now?” Stewart sounded off. “You guys have the balls to tell us that the pretext for Iraq was bulls–t, and that war was a mistake, and we’re not like that, and also, Venezuela has weapons of mass destruction, and we have to stop them. Or is WMD just the new slang, like, ‘Yo, bro.Venezuela’s total WMD, 6-7.’”
He also fact checked the fentanyl claim, sharing “almost none of it [in the U.S.]” comes from Venezuela.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you have forced my hand,” Stewart added. “If you’re going to bring back early-2000s geopolitics, I’m going to have to bring back early-2000s ‘Daily Show’ gotcha clips. Because as much as you say war with Venezuela would be so different from Iraq, it seems like you may be using the neocons’ sales manual.”
Stewart further highlighted the similarities in rhetoric between the two political eras by calling out MAGA’s claim that a fight with Venezuela would be an easy fight — which is pretty similar to comments made by late Vice President Dick Cheney regarding the conflict with Iraq.
“I think the saddest part of getting into a war of choice in 2025 is that Dick Cheney won’t be around to see it,” Stewart joked. “The only solace is, I’m sure that he is looking up at us right now, really proud.”
Per Stewart, the only difference between the Bush administration and the Trump administration’s justifications is that the latter isn’t denying that access to oil could be a benefit.
“You know, I didn’t think this war was a wise decision, but if it helps the oil companies smile again,” he said. “So basically, all the bulls–t reasons we used to justify the disastrous war in Iraq, the non-interventionist Trump regime, are trotting out to justify war in Venezuela.”
In response to this, Stewart brought out out early-2000s “Daily Show” correspondent Rob Corddry to weigh in on the situation. “It is 2005 all over again,” he joked.
Watch the full commentary above.
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
