Jon Stewart Offers Post-Election Pep Talk: 'This Is Not The End, I Promise You' — WATCH
Jon Stewart, as host of The Daily Show's live Election Night coverage, did what he could to convince viewers that former President Donald Trump's projected win does not mark "the finality of our civilization."
As of Wednesday at 10 am ET, Trump, the Republican candidate, is thus far projected to claim 276 electoral votes, to Democratic nominee/Vice President Kamala Harris' 223. Trump also looks to emerge with an edge in the popular vote — though by smaller margins than President Joe Biden in 2020, but still, a feat no Republican presidential candidate has managed in 20 years.
With his victory, Trump becomes the first candidate to win the presidency in two non-consecutive terms in more than 130 years, since Grover Cleveland it in 1892. (Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020.) At age 78, Trump is also now the oldest man ever elected president, breaking the record held by Biden.
Trump is set to be officially sworn into office as the 47th President in January.
Speaking to the Daily Show viewership around 1 am ET Wednesday morning, hours before the AP would call the race for Trump, Stewart said (in the video above), "We're going to come out of this election and we're going to make all kind of pronouncements about what this country is, and what this world is, and the truth is, we're not really going to know s–t. And we're going to make it seem like this is the finality of our civilization."
But rather than accept that doomsday scenario, he posited, "We're all going to have to wake up [Wednesday] morning and work like hell to move the world to the place that we prefer it to be."
Stewart went on to warn against heeding that which cable news pundits will say/forecast as they post mortem Trump's win/Harris' loss, through a series of archival clips that did not age well.
In closing, Stewart tried to assure viewers, "This isn't the end. I promise you. This is not the end. We have to regroup, and we have to continue to fight, and continue to work day in and day out to create a better society for our children, for this world, for this country, that we know is possible. It's possible."
Trump, addressing supporters on Election Night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, promised that "we're going to help our country heal," adding: "This is the greatest political movement of all time, there's never been anything like this.... This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country."