Jon Stewart Calls Los Angeles ‘Our Most Flammable City' Amid ICE Protests: ‘Trump Happily Lights the Fuse'
On this week's episode of 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart covered the ongoing protests in Los Angeles, which are fighting back against aggressive raids from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Stewart opened the show by joking he was in L.A. over the weekend 'getting a BBL from a celebrity doctor.' While there, he had one question for Angelenos: 'Is your city ever not on fire?'
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'Whether you win a basketball championship, a world series championship, whether you have an exploding piñata gender reveal gone wrong, congratulations, it's a boy and an evacuation,' Stewart joked. 'Or you're just protesting the Trump administration's expanded deportation raids. L.A. continues to be our most flammable city.'
Stewart then played a clip of Donald Trump on the campaign trail saying, 'We're going to get the criminals, the murderers, the drug dealers.' He then contrasted Trump's statement with a news snippet, reporting that 'protests started following ICE raids at a Home Depot parking lot in Paramount, south of the city.'
'A Home Depot? From 'the worst of the worst' to a fucking Home Depot? Jeez, ICE, if you need assistance in arresting people, those guys are looking for work,' Stewart said. 'It's an explosive situation, on the cusp of federalism vs. states' rights. Border control vs. due process. Terrifyingly militarized sweeps vs. hard-working people in local communities.'
The late-night pundit, clearly setting up a joke on Trump, added that the situation requires 'a deft touch' to calm the conflict.
Stewart then hard cut to a clip of Trump at a press conference, saying that he has 'a little statement: They say, 'They spit, we hit.''
'Predictably, these non-targeted, much broader deportation efforts in cities that feel very connected to the immigrant population [are] a tinderbox, and Trump happily lights the fuse,' Stewart said later in the show. 'Luckily, in the midst of all this chaos, there have been no fatalities. Well, human fatalities.'
Another news clip then played, reporting that the self-driving car service Waymo was 'suspending service after at least five of its cars were vandalized and set on fire' during the protests.
'It took five of them before you were like, 'Should we stop sending the Waymos? Four could be a coincidence,'' Stewart joked.
Watch the entire segment below.
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