Comedian Jon Stewart said President Donald Trump effectively used the "narcissism" of journalists against them in his constant battles with the media, allowing the public debate to be about their fight rather than about real policies.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour sat down with Stewart and comedian Dave Chappelle Tuesday to discuss a well-worn topic in the Trump era: His treatment of the media. Trump's invectives against the press as "fake news" and "the enemy of the people" have been diagnosed repeatedly over the nearly two years he's been in office.
"We, I believe our job is to navigate the truth and do the fact-checking and all the rest of it," Amanpour said.
"I think that journalists have taken it personally. They are personally wounded and offended by this man. He baits them, and they dive in," Stewart said. "What he’s done well, I thought, is appeal to their own narcissism, to their own ego ... They say, 'We are noble, we are honorable, how dare you, sir!' And they take it personally."
"And now, he’s changed the conversation to not that his policies are silly or not working or any of those other things," he added. "It’s all about the fight. He’s able to tune out everything else and get people just focused on the fight, and he’s going to win that fight."
Amanpour replied it was "hard for us to be dispassionate when words from the White House are aggressive against us."
"You’re not used to it," Stewart said. "Think of the communities of color, think of Muslims, think of the black community. When journalists rise to this outrage of 'how dare you say that about us,' think of the lives that they’ve been leading under this and what they’ve been put under."
Stewart mainly skewered Republicans and conservatives while he hosted "The Daily Show," with then-President Barack Obama calling him a "great gift to the country." He left the program in 2015.
"You've been a great gift to the country." —President Obama to Jon Stewart on @TheDailyShow #JonVoyage pic.twitter.com/ku6QZx2nE1
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 6, 2015