Former Daily Show comedian Jon Stewart weighed in on Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's decision to fly migrants from Texas and Florida to Martha's Vineyard.
During his YouTube show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, he discussed the political stunt with writers Jay Jurden and Tocarra Mallard.
“I don’t wanna make this racial again, but the — but the country has a history of putting nonwhite people on vessels and going, ‘Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be fun when you get wherever you’re headed,'” Mr Jurden said.
Ms Mallard agreed, saying "this all started with slave labour."
“That was not allowed to be taught at my school. So I don’t even know what you’re talking about. If that’s that CRT, I don’t want any part of it,” Stewart joked, before turning his attention to Mr DeSantis. “Well, it’s very obvious at this point that the path to Republican power lies in d***ishness.”
Stewart said "this stunt did exactly what he wanted it to do, which is jumped his profile, made him a hero amongst those, for whom d***ishness is one of those sole characteristics that they're looking for in their leaders."
“It probably angered Trump because ‘Nobody’s gonna be a bigger d*** than me.’ Like this is going to be — imagine the season that we’re in where they are trying to one-up each other in utter cruelty," Stewart said. "And that’s going to be the thing. And this country does a s***** job of taking care of the people that are already here,”
After tearing into Mr DeSantis, Stewart turned his to the actual issue of immigration and called for a "sane immigration policy" that doesn't involve the "demonisation" of migrants.
Stewart concluded that Republicans don't actually care about the immigration issue as much as they do selling their "brand" to their constituents.
“The brand is this — what’s the brand now about? Their brand is to — they found groups of people that they can demonise and that their base gets excited about," he said. "And so it’s all about finding a way to amplify their brand at the expense of real people and real problems that are solvable.”
Despite his roasting at the hands of Stewart, Mr DeSantis is likely much more concerned with the criminal investigation that has been opened into his actions by Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar. The Texas sheriff announced earlier this week that he intended to investigate whether or not Mr DeSantis coerced or misled migrants when they were invited to board planes bound for Martha's Vineyard.
Numerous outlets have reported the story of "Perla," a woman who allegedly spoke Spanish and offered payment to at least one migrant to help recruit other migrants for the political stunt.
Further, many of the migrants were given brochures promising them cash assistance, housing assistance, job training, and other resources if they travelled to Massachusetts. Under US immigration law, those offerings are only available to refugees, however, meaning most, if not all, of the migrants agreed to take the trip under false pretences.
Mr DeSantis has defended the flights and the brochures, insisting that all of the participants were volunteers.
