Jon Stewart was shocked to find himself commending Texas’ Ted Cruz in his Monday night monologue.
The GOP senator spoke out on Thursday against the Trump administration’s role in pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air, condemning Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr for pressuring ABC to punish Kimmel.
“It gives me no pleasure to have to play this,” Stewart said, before showing a clip of Cruz calling Carr’s threat to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license “dangerous as hell.”
“Fantastic!” said an incredulous Stewart. “Senator Ted Cruz boldly stating that the FCC chairman threatening the licenses of networks is dangerous.”
Stewart added, “And Senator Cruz, I would just say, uh, maybe you should stop there… Perfect. No notes.”
Unfortunately for Stewart, Cruz’s criticism of Carr evolved into an impression of one of the mobsters from Goodfellas.
“I gotta say, that’s right out of Goodfellas‚” Cruz said in reference to Carr’s threats. “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar, going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
Stewart couldn’t help but make fun of him.
“To do that with Goodfellas, with that accent… Is there anything in pop culture that I love that you can’t ruin?” Stewart asked Cruz.
Stewart showed interview clips of Cruz attempting impersonations of characters from The Simpsons, Star Wars, and The Princess Bride, none of which Stewart found impressive.
Cruz is a MAGA favorite. He clashed with CNN host Kaitlan Collins last week over the motives of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin. Though a Trump supporter, he has broken with the president in the past.
Despite Stewart’s critiques of Cruz’s impression skills, the Daily Show host still maintained that the senator was providing a good example for his Republican colleagues.
Stewart argued, “I just want to say this to Trump’s defenders: You don’t have to bend over backwards trying to make Trump’s authoritarian power grabs seem like the rule of law. He does not give a f— anymore. He’s saying it straight up.”
“Trump is saying, ‘the people like dictators,’” Stewart pointed out. “Trump is saying, ‘I hate my opponents and I want them punished.’”
Stewart concluded to Republicans, “So you can get on board with that … or you can join the rest of us and fight like hell for this Constitution.”
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