Jon Stewart thinks Confederate statues should have been removed by 'a normal functioning society years ago'

Jon Stewart returned to his old stomping grounds on The Daily Show Thursday night, where he and host Trevor Noah discussed the removal of Confederate statues across the United States following George Floyd's murder, and those who believe, in doing so, we are erasing our history.

“What you will find is if you don't allow regular order to take down the statues that represent the insurrection that tried to destroy this country and preserve the institution of slavery, if you make that impossible to do through pleading, peaceful entreaty and all that, you are going to end up with a spasm,” Stewart explained to Noah.

Stewart also clarified that most of the statues are not from the Confederate era. A large number of them are from the Jim Crow era, and they were built to bring fear into the lives of the Black community.

“They built them to say, ‘Just so you know, I know they let you go, but I want to make sure everybody understands we will still subjugate you and bring fear into your life,’” explained Stewart.

As for those who think removing the statues erases our history, Stewart pointed out: “By the way, I don't remember the Conservatives, during the Iraq War, when the Saddam Hussein statue fell in Baghdad, I don't recall Republicans at the time going, ‘Big mistake! You don't want to erase your history. That is your history, leave it be!’”

Finally, Stewart concluded saying the removal of these monuments should have happened a long time ago, as he stated, “This should have been done in short order by a normal functioning society years ago.”

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central.

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