Jon Stewart & Dave Chappelle Talk Trump's War On Media, Sexism, Louis C.K.'s Comeback & More

Kids these days may only know Jon Stewart as that kindly New Jersey man who rescues viral video animals, but the elderly among us remember the days when we used to huddle around the TV set every night at 11 p.m. to watch him mercilessly roast the likes of George W. Bush and Tucker Carlson on The Daily Show. That Stewart, the politically-insightful comedian with an enjoyably terrible Mitch McConnell impression, is currently touring with Dave Chappelle, and the two men sat down with CNN's Christiane Amanpour to talk about all the hot button comedy issues of the day, including Trump's war with the media (LOL), Louis C.K.'s comeback (ROTFL), sexism in the industry (LMHO), and the politically divided state of the nation (LMAO).

Among the highlights was Stewart and Chappelle comparing stand-up shows to Trump's crowd work at rallies, and how Trump tries to use live audiences to his advantage: "Donald Trump is a salesman who changes his pitch depending on who he's in front of. What he doesn't realize is that it's all being recorded," Stewart said. "If you ask him about it, and you say, 'is it OK to body slam a reporter?' 'No no, that was just a little joke in front of friends.'"

Stewart also noted he thinks the media is still covering Trump wrong, falling into his traps: "I think that journalists have taken it personally," he said. "They are personally wounded and offended by this man. He baits them. And they dive in. And what he’s done well, I thought, is appeal to their own narcissism, to their own ego... the journalists stand up and say, 'We are noble! 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 — it’s all about the fight. He’s able to tune out everything else and get people just focused on the fight. He’s gonna win that fight."

Chappelle added that he still stands by his 2016 SNL monologue saying he’d give Trump a chance: "I think I said the right thing at the right time, you know what I mean?" he said. "I think that we had to kind of recalibrate and kind of put things in perspective. I’m a black American, so these feelings that people felt right after the election — we felt that many elections consecutively." He also said he doesn't understand how families have become so binary over politics: "I hear people say, 'Families are not speaking to one another because of politics.' That sounds insane to me. There are tons of people I love and respect that I completely disagree with."

And as for the C.K. elephant in the room, Stewart added: "I think the question itself is somewhat unanswerable — when you talk about the 'right way' in society to rehabilitate," he said. "It’s something we’ve struggled with in the criminal justice system forever... There is no recipe; there is no model that can be put together and say, “If he did one, two, and three, everybody would be cool.” I don’t think it works that way. This is something that we find together as a society, but I don’t know that you can say there’s a formula here that makes sense. I’m a believer in restorative justice and the idea that when transgressions occur, the parties must participate together to bring themselves to some conclusion. But the truth is, you won’t find 100 percent. You can’t say, “What’s the right way to do this so that everybody will be okay?” because they won’t."