Jon Stewart dished out his acting skills — and a Thanksgiving dinner — as he assumed the part of Hunter Biden at a family feast making eyes at his father to not-so-subtly drop the hint that he wanted a pardon for Christmas.
“I made you watch that because people think I can’t act,” he joked.
The political comic began his monologue on tonight’s installment of The Daily Show by skewering the latest alarming Donald Trump pick: staunch loyalist and conspiracy theorist Kash Patel for FBI director. Audiences jeered as Stewart introduced the topic, with the host remarking that the crowd was “a little judgy.”
When tackling Patel’s obsequious children’s book series The Plot Against the King (following a fairytale version of events featuring Hilary Clinton and Trump’s names and likenesses), he parodied Dr. Seuss by joking, “I did not meet with Russia in a box, I did not meet with Russia on Fox, I did not meet them in Trump Tower, I did not have a golden shower.”
Upon playing a clip of MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, who denounced the nomination as a flouting of democratic order, Stewart proclaimed impassionately: “Faith! And the rule of law! Is all that separates us from the otters! The penguins, the apes, really the entire cast of Madagascar. It’s the only thing! Faith and the rule of law. Finally [pantomiming chef’s kiss], Democrats have a moral perch from which they can judge without shame, hypocrisy or nuance.”
At this point, Stewart let a clip announcing President Joe Biden‘s pardon for son Hunter Biden speak for itself.
“Motherf—er, we were so close,” he decried. “But you know what, good, OK, fine, it’s good, it’s right, it’s his right. He’s an 82-year-old man, doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life visiting his son in prison. Republicans get away with this sh– all the time. I’m sure the pardon is a narrowly written, precisely drawn farewell note of compassion for a loved one.”
In fact, the pardon was sweeping, covering offenses that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in” over the course of the past 11 years. Stewart joked that the lack of a round number was oddly specific, acting out a conversation during which Hunter Biden requests that New Years’ Eve activities also be included because “sh–‘s about to go down.”
“I’m surprised Biden didn’t include the phrase ‘on Earth 1 or any of the Earths in the multi-verse,’” he said.
Watch the full monologue below: