Jon Stewart found comedy in what was supposed to be a solemn television tribute after Fox News hosts repeatedly failed to keep President Donald Trump focused on the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
On Monday’s edition of The Daily Show, Stewart aired a supercut of Trump’s appearances following Graham’s death from an aortic dissection at age 71, arguing the president spent as much time roasting and digressing about his longtime ally as he did honoring him.
Trump recalled Graham’s rocky relationship with him during the 2016 Republican primary.
“He was totally against me,” Trump said on Fox & Friends. “That didn’t work out too well.”
He later added, “He was a total workaholic politician. You know, some people don’t call that work. Some people call that a lot of talking.”
“It takes a lot of balls for Donald Trump to gently roast someone for yapping too much,” Stewart joked. “He’s the one who toasted his friend on Meet the Press, CNN’s State of the Union, Fox & Friends. Trump was everywhere, remembering Lindsey Graham, even when the host appeared to not want him to.”
Stewart then rolled footage from Trump’s Fox & Friends interview, where co-host Lawrence Jones repeatedly tried to redirect the president after he wandered from his tribute to Graham into election fraud claims, the filibuster, California politics, and voter ID.
“Mr. President, did you notice any–” Jones asked before Trump interrupted to discuss ending the filibuster.
Later, Jones tried again.
“So, Mr. President, real quickly, did you notice anything different from Lindsey–”
“These elections are very dishonest,” Trump replied, returning to mail-in ballots instead.
The interview had begun with Trump praising Graham as a “nice guy,” complimenting his political instincts and reminiscing about his golf game before abruptly veering into a stream of unrelated political grievances.
Trump also claimed Graham had called him about 40 minutes after criticizing him following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“I had nothing to do with that, by the way, just so you understand,” Trump said.
Eventually, co-host Griff Jenkins succeeded in steering the conversation back to Graham, but only after Trump remembered the senator’s love of golf.
“He wasn’t Jack Nicklaus. He was not Tiger [Woods]. But he was... he loved it. And he had fun, you know? He was a man who had a lot of fun.”
Stewart closed by imagining Jones desperately trying to escape the conversation.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry, Mr. President,” he quipped. “The TV station’s going through a tunnel! Boop.”
