Jon Stewart has identified former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as his least favorite guest during his tenure hosting "The Daily Show." Stewart, 63, revealed this during an unaired audience Q&A session, a clip of which was shared by showrunners. The interview in question took place in February 2011, shortly after Rumsfeld had published his memoir "Known and Unknown."
Stewart, who was a vocal critic of the Iraq War, recalled preparing extensively for the interview. "I dog-leafed it, used my highlighter, all the things," he said. "I worked out a logic trap that was a labyrinth, and I was going to draw him into my trap, and then I was going to spring it."
However, Stewart felt the interview did not go as planned. He noted that about a minute into the conversation, Rumsfeld corrected Stewart's phrasing, distinguishing between making the case for the war and "selling" it. This moment, according to Stewart, derailed his intended line of questioning. "I let that opening slip," Stewart recalled. "And I did not, to my feeling, have a satisfying encounter with him."
The comedian stated that the encounter "tortured" him to the point of losing sleep, a sentiment he contrasted with Rumsfeld's apparent lack of distress. "I lost more sleep over that interview than he lost over the entire war," Stewart remarked.
Rumsfeld, who died in 2021 at the age of 88, served as Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush. He was a key figure in the Bush administration's foreign policy decisions, including the invasion of Iraq in 2003. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, contrary to the justifications presented at the time of the invasion.
In contrast, Stewart recently commented on his interview with Senator John Fetterman, suggesting he may have gone easier on the senator due to his recent stroke. Stewart noted that he felt sympathy for Fetterman's situation, balancing his diminished physical capacity with his retained political power.