Jon Stewart rants about ‘mundane’ Trump trial

Jon Stewart has said that Donald Trump’s hush money trial is “mundane” – at least for now – and that the media should be wary of focusing too much on the all-encompassing spectacle.

The Daily Show host began by showing various clips of journalists discussing how media coverage has changed over the years to be more responsible when covering stories about Trump.

“I think to the degree that the media had lessons to learn in 2016, they seem to have been learned,” one MSNBC journalist said.

“It’s the media’s responsibility to not get distracted,” another said.

“All of us have learned some valuable lessons from the last couple of years in delineating what’s significant, what’s important,” a CNN journalist said in a separate clip.

But Stewart wasn’t convinced.

“So brave,” he quipped, mocking the journalists. “I think for this trial we will see the seeds of that introspection bear fruit.”

He then cut to clips showing multiple cable news analysts declaring Mr Trump’s hush money trial as the “trial of the century.”

“Perhaps if we limit the coverage to the issues at hand and try not to create an all-encompassing spectacle of the most banal details, perhaps that would help,” Stewart said, before jumping to CNN, ABC, KTLA, Fox News and GoodDay New York footage of Mr Trump’s motorcade on Monday.

“They’re now making their way across town, along 57th street,” a reporter for GoodDay New York could be heard saying.

“They just crossed Park Avenue, making their way up towards Lexington Avenue.”

Meanwhile, a reporter for ABC 13 describes Trump’s arrival as the “intersection of American history with defiance.”

“He arrived at the intersection of American history where he put a quarter in the parking meter of destiny,” Stewart hit back, mocking the journalists’ wording.

The Daily Show host went on to accuse the broadcast media of “trying to make this [like] O.J.”

“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every day?” he said. “Are you trying to make this OJ? It’s not a chase. He’s commuting.”

The former NFL star OJ Simpson was arrested in 1994 after an infamous televised car chase. He was accused of the murder of his wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted following a lengthy trial.

The media devoted significant time to covering the case, with around 150 million Americans tuning in to hear the verdict in October 1995.

“Look, at some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen,” Stewart said. “But none of us are going to notice because of the hours spent on his speculative facial tics. If the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bulls**t is earth-shattering, we won’t believe you when it’s really interesting. It’s your classic boy who cried Wolf... Blitzer.

Stewart ended the segment by declaring the only one with the right response to the trial so far is Mr Trump himself ― because he fell asleep in court.

Trump, 77, is currently on trial in New York accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an alleged bid to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

He allegedly paid Daniels, 45, $130,000 in October 2016 in exchange for her silence over a 2006 affair Daniels says they had.

Trump denies the affair and all of the charges brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.