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Video: Obama Issues "Executive Order" Stopping Jon Stewart From Quitting Daily Show
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 22, 2015
Modified Jul 22, 2015
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 22, 2015
Modified Jul 22, 2015
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Last night, President Barack Obama made his seventh and final appearance on The Daily Show. Obama exclaimed to Jon Stewart, "I can’t believe you’re leaving before me," and then told the audience, "In fact, I'm issuing a new executive order that Jon Stewart cannot leave the show... But it's being challenged in the courts." Stewart countered, "For me, this is a states' rights issue."
Stewart noted the "ebb and flow" of politics and how, seven years in, it seems like Obama may be "figuring this thing"—the presidency—"out." The President said, "There's no doubt that you get better as you go along. It's like any other job... What I do think has happened is a lot of the work we did early starts bearing fruit later. And it just so happened over the past couple of months people are seeing some of the work we did early on." Like Iran.
Stewart also brought up the Veterans Affairs problems, and the President said, "The situation with VA has always been we make a promise, but too often it's under-resourced... Number one, government works better now than it probably ever has given what we ask it to do. People work hard in the VA. But if you have a government that was built on 1930 models and it's not updated for decades, there will be a gap in terms of what it is doing now relative to what other folks do. It is the biggest example of that — we are redesigning from soup to nuts."
Obama also discussed media coverage, "The media are a bunch of different medias... Some get on my nerves more than others... What I’m most concerned about is not that it’s unfair or too tough on government … but that it gets distracted by shiny objects and doesn’t always focus on the big choices and tough decisions." He wondered, "How do we join together in common conversation around something other than the Super Bowl?"
As for not making good on all his promises, Obama said, "You’re always going to fall short, because if you’re hitting your marks, that means you didn’t set them high enough. We don’t score a touchdown every time, but we move the ball forward."
Of course, they touched upon Donald Trump. The President said, "I’m sure the Republicans are enjoying Mr Trump’s current dominance as the front-runner," to which Stewart said, "Anything that makes them look less crazy."
Here's the extended interview:
Tagged
daily show
Jon Stewart
president obama
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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