Jon Stewart Was Ready for Warren

Her frequent appearances on The Daily Show introduced her to a wide audience, and to an ideological ally.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a hearing before Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee February 10, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

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By Ben Brody

February 11, 2015 at 2:24 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

When Elizabeth Warren first appeared with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on April 15, 2009, she was a Harvard Law professor who stumbled over figures and forgot acronyms as she tried to make a case for financial regulation without offending anyone too much. By the time the comedian said on Tuesday night that he would be retiring from the show this year, Warren was a senator whose powerful anti-Wall Street vision overturns even the White House's best-laid plans and whose followers desperately want her to run for president herself.

Stewart, whose smart political comedy had already made him the voice of the liberal id and superego during the Bush years, did much to help launch Warren's career in the next era, inviting her on regularly as, together, they helped re-channel the left's anger toward Wall Street.