Jon Stewart is defending Michelle Obama for displaying a “consistent ethical stance” by skipping President Trump’s inauguration.
“Former President Obama was there, George Bush seemed kind of there,” Stewart said on Monday’s “The Daily Show,” while name-checking former commanders in chief and critics of Trump who attended the 47th president’s inauguration at the Capitol.
“Even Mike Pence showed up — I guess to let the crowd finish the job,” the Comedy Central host joked of Trump’s former vice president. During the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, some rioters were heard chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” for his role in certifying President Biden’s 2020 election win.
Those attending Monday’s inauguration, Stewart said, were “all those people who warned Americans to shun this wannabe fascist dictator called Trump.”
“Only Michelle Obama seemed to have the consistent ethical stance of saying, ‘When they go low, I stay the f— home,'” Stewart cracked to laughs from the audience.
“I don’t care, I’m staying home,” Stewart continued, mimicking Obama.
Obama did not join her husband at the inaugural ceremony — a move that was announced a week earlier by her representatives.
The former first lady has been a vocal critic of Trump, saying the 47th president “did everything in his power to try to make people fear us.”
Trump’s “limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black,” Obama said last year.
Michelle Obama made headlines in 2016 when she urged attendees at that year’s Democratic National Convention to follow her spouse’s example and take the high road, with her now-famous motto, “When they go low, we go high.”
She later said in 2018 that it wasn’t always easy to follow the mantra, acknowledging there were times she wished President Obama’s response to political rivals would be to “just curse them out.”
