Jon Stewart praises Pete Buttigieg after his ‘perfect’ take on JD Vance

Jon Stewart said he understood why people wanted Pete Buttigieg to do interviews after they spoke on “The Daily Show” Monday night.

Jon Stewart loved Pete Buttigieg’s stance on Sen. JD Vance so much he praised it as “perfect.”

Stewart interviewed the transportation secretary — whose name has been floated as one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ prospective running mates — on Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” and naturally, the topic of former President Donald Trump’s running mate came up.

Buttigieg criticized Vance’s now infamous “childless cat ladies” comment, saying that Vance believes not just that being a parent makes you more important to the country but also that “not being a parent makes you less.”

He brought up a past statement from Vance in which the Republican said that people without children have no “physical commitment to the future of this country.”

What Buttigieg said next took Stewart aback for a moment.

“When I was deployed to Afghanistan,” Buttigieg told Stewart, “I didn’t have kids back then, but I will tell you, especially when there was a rocket attack going on, my commitment to this country felt pretty physical.”

After a moment of pause, Stewart responded, “This is why people love seeing you go on those shows, because that framing is perfect.”

Stewart added: “It points to that idea that, who are you to tell what’s in someone else’s heart about what they feel about the future, or what they feel about this country? And the sacrifices that you made, as you said, without having had children were tremendous.”

Buttigieg also slammed the “policy ideas behind” Vance’s comments on childless Americans, calling out the Ohio senator’s argument that people with kids should get more votes in elections than those without kids.

“It’s shocking,” Stewart said.

Stewart also tried to pin down Buttigieg on whether the Harris campaign was vetting him as a running mate for the presumptive Democratic nominee. Though Buttigieg would not give a straight answer, his reaction to the line of questioning appeared to lead Stewart to believe he’s being considered for the position.

It was another high-profile media appearance for Buttigieg, who has emerged as one of the Democrats’ most effective surrogates on TV. On Sunday, Buttigieg appeared on FOX News Channel’s “FOX News Sunday” and tussled with the anchor Shannon Bream, saying Trump had broken his promises and pushing back when Bream tried to note Trump’s economic accomplishments and bring up GOP concerns about crime.

“Crime is down under Joe Biden, and crime was up under Donald Trump,” Buttigieg said. “Now, I don’t know how often that gets reported on this network. So if you’re watching this at home, do yourself a favor and look up the data.”

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Harris to replace him, a number of Democrats have emerged as top contenders to be her running mate.

Buttigieg is one of them, along with Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky.

Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the options had narrowed to just Shapiro, Walz, and Kelly. Other reports included Beshear in that list. Two top contenders, Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, took themselves out of contention on Monday.

Harris is expected to announce her running mate in the next week.