While being interviewed backstage at the 2024 Emmys in Los Angeles, Jon Stewart commented on the assassination attempt reportedly made on former President Donald Trump on Sunday, suggesting a “no shooting” policy be agreed upon by all.
In Florida on Sunday, a man with a rifle was spotted by Secret Service agents as Trump played a round of golf. After they fired on him, he fled in a black Nissan SUV but was soon apprehended and detained. The FBI said it was investigating the incident as an apparent attempted assassination. This would mark the second attempt on Trump’s life after he was grazed by a bullet fired at him at a Pennsylvania rally over the summer.
“I think you have to apply your same methodology that you would use almost on anything; you try not to get caught up. Look… I think the one rule maybe we could all benefit from in terms of engagement is ‘no shooting.’ No matter how mad you are, no matter who you don’t like, who you hate… I believe instituting a ‘no shooting’ policy would be the way to take things down a notch,” he said, matter-of-fact.
Stewart added that people should not have to “feel as though we are under the spotlight of making some profound statement about the moment” as we process what happens around us. He then segued his answer into a compliment on his Daily Show colleagues and praised the news media for covering events at a breakneck pace.
“These are incredibly talented producers, writers, comics — as long as we try and stay to, I think, what we do well, we’ll try and take any situation as it comes. As long as we don’t fall prey to what we think might be this larger moment. We’ll leave that to the actual news. Who will do it great, as we’ve seen,” he added.
Stewart took to the Emmy Awards stage on Sunday to accept the award for best variety series for The Daily Show for the second year in a row. The comic has returned to the Comedy Central show’s host desk on Monday nights only, after anchoring the show from 1999-2015.
