President Obama will appear on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart for the final time Tuesday, but will the guest spot be a friendly farewell or a testy one-on-one?
Obama has appeared with Stewart six times since 2005, two of which came when Obama was in the White House. Some of those appearances could be seen as light banter. But as Obama’s former press secretary Jay Carney told CNN some were battles.
“During the 2012 re-election cycle the president gave a lot of interviews… the single most difficult, most challenging interview he had to endure was from Jon Stewart,” Carney told CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday. “We went to a place that I think a lot of people would have perceived to be a friendly environment, and he got chewed up pretty good.”
In the 2012 interview, Stewart went in-depth with the president over subjects like his poor first debate performance against Mitt Romney, the economic recovery, and his failure to close Guantanamo Bay.
At the same time Stewart mixed in funny inquiries.
“How many times a week does Biden show up in a wet bathing suit to a meeting?” Stewart asked during the interview.
The president smirked, “I had to put out a presidential directive on that.”
As for Tuesday night’s appearance, it’s unclear what the tone of the interview will be.
But both are nearing the ends of their tenures. Stewart is signing off on August 6 and the president is approaching his final year in office, so it could be a subdued farewell. So it could be another opportunity for Stewart to speak truth to power on a national stage.
