Jon Stewart Takes Aim at Haley Stevens’ Mike Rogers Endorsement

On Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart took aim at Michigan congresswoman Haley Stevens and her 11th-hour switch to endorse Republican Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

Stewart spent much of the segment trying to trace how Stevens’ change of heart could have happened, given that she’d been “very clear” about her and El-Sayed’s “shared goal” of defeating Rogers. The host then cut to news clips of Stevens opposing Rogers and his political stances; “Mike Rogers has shown that he’s just going to go along with whatever Donald Trump does. He’s not going to speak out when erratic tariffs are impacting our auto industry,” she said. “Rogers is a nightmare.”

Despite those assertions, Stevens endorsed Rogers in a video posted on Sunday, seemingly filmed from her car. “Is her car in a ditch? Is she endorsing Mike Rogers after getting in a car accident?” asked Stewart. “Real quick, before I lose consciousness, I am endorsing the nightmare… This is like the most diabolical episode of ‘Fargo’ I’ve ever seen.”

Perhaps her endorsement had to do with the fact that El-Sayed did not “welcome” her to his campaign, wondered Stewart. (Stevens recently said that she’s “never been invited” to one of his campaign events.)

“That says why you’re mad at Abdul, but not why you’re for Rogers. Rogers is — hold on, let me find a word. A nightmare,” continued Stewart, “who is against every principle that 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.”

Stewart continued to poke fun at Stevens’ chaotic CNN appearance on Sunday night, during which she spoke with Anderson Cooper about her endorsement. Stewart cut to a moment in the segment when Anderson “sassed” Stevens following a moment of awkward silence. “You see what you just did there, Haley Stevens? Are you happy with yourself? You just turned Anderson Cooper into Andy Cohen. He didn’t want to sass. He’s a newsman… You gave him no choice but to sass.”

Before focusing on Stevens, Stewart focused on Trump’s closing message before the midterms, during which he focused primarily on the Reflecting Pool he delivered the speech in front of, rather than important political topics voters should know about, said the host. (Trump described the Reflecting Pool as almost as tall as “two Empire State Buildings” before describing the bottom’s color as “a beautiful dark blue, very dark blue. They call it American black blue.”)

“That was the president of the United States on the day before the midterms, choosing to make a speech at the reflecting pool to talk about the reflecting pool. No symbolism. No metaphors. Just straight-up pool,” said Stewart. “That was Donald Trump’s ‘I had it cleaned speech,’ if you will.”

Check out the entire monologue below.