Midterm elections in the United States are just weeks away, and despite being nearly two years in the past, there are many politicians still dwelling on the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. It’s kind of remarkable to consider, but some of Trump’s most die-hard supporters still think he didn’t actually lose by millions of votes to Biden. They have spent the last two years searching for evidence of a massive conspiracy that stole a second term of office from him.
That kind of rhetoric led to the January 6 insurrection in Washington and a second impeachment of Trump before he left office. And yet, in states like Arizona, there are other elected officials still rallying support and investigating election conspiracies. And fresh off challenging an Arkansas politician about the state’s anti-trans laws, Jon Stewart‘s latest interview for The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ goes right to the heart of election nonsense.
In a new episode, Stewart sat down with Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich and grilled him about continuing to prop up Trump’s baseless claims that millions of votes were stolen from him. When Brnovich pointed out that millions of people think the election was stolen regardless of the evidence, Stewart fired back.
“There are people that believe in angels, but that doesn’t mean you launch an investigation that angels changed ballots,” Stewart said, calling the logic a “bit of a tautology.”
“When you have a president spreading rumors to his supporters. For instance, Trump can say,” Stewart continued, looking down to recite exactly what Trump has misleadingly told people about the election since 2020 while Brnovich actually laughed. “Now, the truth is none of that is real.”
Brnovich argued that people expect him to look into things and they’re getting investigations “to ground,” but Stewart pressed him on whether, after all of the investigations and lack of evidence, any statement claiming Trump was lying will ever come out of it.
“And when you get it to ground will you come out and say Donald J. Trump is wrong?” Stewart asked. “The election in Arizona was fair, not stolen, and not fradulent.” Brnovich said that he’s “always been a straight shooter” but said that while he’s declared, “Donald Trump lost Arizona,” he held back on saying Trump is wrong about his election lies.
“The fact is, the election in Arizona was well-run, not fraudulent, and not stolen from Donald Trump, according to even your investigation,” Stewart says, interrupting Brnovich at one point to ask, “Why is it so hard to just say yes to that?”
The full episode will hit Apple TV+ on Friday, if you feel like watching Stewart grill an elected official a bit more to no real avail.
