Heading into Jon Stewart’s Each day Present election particular, Indecision 2024: Nothing We Can Do About It Now, nobody exactly knew that Republican candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump would decisively win the presidential election by daybreak. Nonetheless, nervousness loomed within the air. Round 10 p.m., friends filed into the Each day Present’s studio on eleventh Avenue for the dwell occasion. Even then, projections indicated that there could be no miraculous blue wave, that the tide was turning in opposition to Kamala Harris, and that historical past was perilously near repeating itself.
As soon as contained in the studio, the viewers sat largely in silence, doomscrolling on their telephones, ready for Stewart and his Each day Present correspondents to inject some levity, laughs, and most significantly, hope, into the room. Because the margins grew wider and the pink mirage started to crystalize right into a pink wave, some viewers members have been in a position to retain their sense of nauseous optimism. “[I’m] nervous as might be,” mentioned Brandy, an assistant public defender born in West Virginia who now lives and votes in Houston, Texas. She was on the taping along with her husband, Ryan, a patent lawyer. Each of them voted for Harris; they’d simply came upon Texas was projected to go to Donald Trump. “We knew Texas would go proper, however we dwell in Houston, and Harris County goes blue,” she mentioned, proudly.
And similar to that, the gang was instructed by a stage supervisor to show our telephones off at some stage in this system, untethering the anxious viewers from Steve Kornacki’s gray khakis and his excruciating election updates for the following 90 minutes. Forcibly offline, we sat and politely chuckled on the warm-up comedian who did his finest to elevate the temper of an more and more tense studio viewers. After what felt like a small eternity, Stewart lastly emerged, smiling and enthusiastic. A palpable sense of aid washed over the viewers.
“I simply need to come out and say hi there, and thank y’all a lot,” mentioned Stewart to the studio viewers. “I haven’t been up this late in fairly a while.” Whereas he appeared to be in good spirits, even Stewart couldn’t escape the sense of foreboding within the air.
“We’re going to get pleasure from ourselves, possibly for the final time,” he quipped. “I don’t know. We’re going to have some enjoyable.”
Within the minutes earlier than the present started, Stewart shared his personal voting expertise with the gang. “I voted on Sunday in my city”—Colts Neck, New Jersey. “I dwell in a reasonably pink city. So I went to vote, and was…I’m not going to say [I was] glared at,’ however there was lots of, like, I’m going to cancel you out, motherfucker.” Whereas that would have been perceived as one more harbinger of doom, the viewers, completely satisfied to be in Stewart’s presence, laughed alongside. “I introduced lots of Dunkin Munchkins, so the election officers have been delighted,” he added. “When you’ve ever seen outdated folks on a sugar excessive, it’s…” Earlier than he might end his thought, producers instructed Stewart that it was go time.
