Jon Stewart returned to his old-school Daily Show format on Monday to call out what he described as blatant hypocrisy among Republicans regarding free speech. He began by mocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who accidentally included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat discussing plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen. 'Back in my day if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you had to work the sources, meet them in a dark garage, earn the trust, pound the pavement,' Stewart said. 'Now? Just wait for the national security adviser to be distracted by The White Lotus while he’s setting up his Bomb Yemen group chat.'
Stewart highlighted the contradiction of conservatives who champion free speech while simultaneously calling for CNN to be banned and supporting other forms of censorship. 'Generally, you’ve gotta search the archives for contradictions on one’s stated principles, dig through policy papers to uncover private actions that are undermined by someone’s public stance, but this is so blatant,' he said. 'I can’t wrap around it. It’s not even the hypocrisy, it’s that they so fetishize free speech, this thing that they do not in any way actually practice.'
He cited examples including Trump banning the Associated Press from the White House for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico to 'the Gulf of America', and the detention of Columbia student protester Mahmoud Khalil. 'These guys don’t give a fuck about free speech,' Stewart said. 'They care about their speech. It’s such blatant hypocrisy.'
Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert on The Late Show discussed attending the Kennedy Center in support of Conan O’Brien, who received the Mark Twain prize for American humor. Colbert noted that Trump held his first official meeting with his appointed board members, during which Trump said he wanted to make programming 'slightly more conservative' and feature more 'non-woke musicals'. 'Non-woke musicals, also known as any musical you take your dad to,' Colbert joked.
In Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel also mocked the administration’s security lapse, saying: 'In other words, our national security is being guarded by a bunch of doofs you wouldn’t trust to throw your cousin a surprise party.' He added: 'If Joe Biden’s top military team accidentally texted these plans to a journalist, Laura Ingraham’s erection would be so rock strong, it would break through the wall like the Kool-Aid man.'
