Jon Stewart Mocks Censored Donald Trump Video

Jon Stewart has mocked the manner in which some news networks censored coverage of a video that Donald Trump recently shared that included an image of President Joe Biden hog-tied, as if he had been held captive.

Former President Trump, who is now the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee for the White House, kickstarted a storm of controversy on Friday when he shared the footage in question to his social media platform, Truth Social.

The post included a video taken of a pick-up truck driving down a highway covered in various flags and decals espousing conservative political slogans and causes. Among the decals was an image on the tailgate of the vehicle that appeared to depict Trump's presumptive general election opponent, Biden, hog-tied.

After the video was shared by Trump, a host of detractors accused the onetime real estate mogul of attempting to encourage political violence against his opponents, including from Biden's campaign.

"Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it's time people take him seriously—just ask the Capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6," Michael Tyler, the campaign's communications director, said in a statement.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to overturn Biden's 2020 election win. The riot erupted following repeated claims made by Trump that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence to support these claims. The Department of Justice (DOJ), meanwhile, indicted the former president last year for his alleged role in the insurrection, which he maintains his innocence.

Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said in a statement: "That picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway. Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponizing the justice system against him."

Comedian and political commentator Stewart tackled the controversy surrounding Trump's post on the most recent installment of The Daily Show.

"As many of you are aware, the news has been pretty bleak recently, [for] the past 200-300 years," Stewart said to laughs from the audience. "But this weekend, there was one story that was so disturbing, so dark, even the news couldn't handle it."

Without specifying what was being discussed by the news networks, Stewart then showed footage of various broadcasters informing viewers how they were not showing the "disturbing" video in question.

"It's got to be devastating," Stewart said in response. "News channels show images from Ukraine, from Gaza, from natural disasters. They get through them dispassionately. I can't imagine how devastating this footage must be."

The TV personality then played a clip of CNN showing the footage to viewers.

After pausing in feigned disbelief, Stewart asked: "That's what was so disturbing and dehumanizing you wouldn't show it on television? An airbrushed Biden decal on the back of a truck? Aren't you the same networks that show reruns of 9/11 every year?

"I mean, I don' think it's great that Trump is posting things like this, but it's not like people really think Joe Biden was tied up in the back of the truck."

Stewart then showed footage of MSNBC host Ali Velshi saying: "If you're driving behind it, it would appear as if Joe Biden were actually restrained on the vehicle's flat bed." The clip prompted laughter from Stewart's audience.

"If you think that's really Joe Biden tied up on the back of the pickup truck, I don't know that you have the mental acuity to be operating a motor vehicle," Stewart quipped.

Trump himself was also depicted in an unsavory light by detractors. Kathy Griffin famously posed with the severed head of an effigy of the then president in 2017. She said that her decision to pose with the head had damaged her career.

Former The Apprentice star Trump was a prominent voice in the backlash against Griffin, writing on X, formerly Twitter at the time: "Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick."

Griffin's gory image depicting Trump, which was taken by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields, sparked a widespread outcry, leading to the Suddenly Susan star issuing a public apology.

The comedian, who is a frequent critic of Trump, later retracted her apology, saying during an appearance on ABC's The View in 2018: "I take the apology back. F*** him. I'm not holding back on this family. This family is different. I've been through the mill."

"People thought I was ISIS," she continued. "When my mother called—she watches Fox News and thinks it's real and thinks Bill O'Reilly is on vacation—that day, as crazy as it was, I was in a ball, sobbing, everything's over... I had to spend two hours convincing my mom I hadn't been recruited by Al-Qaeda."

"My mom got death threats in her retirement village, and my sister got death threats in her hospital bed, and I lost her to cancer," Griffin added. "That's how vicious it can be."