‘I truly believe they’re a mess’

Comedian Jon Stewart jabbed that “the Democrats are still a mess” and wondered out loud how they will “piss away” their latest Election Day victories.

He discussed this week’s blue wave — including wins by New York City’s socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Dem gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia — on the Thursday edition of his “The Weekly Show” podcast.

“It was amazing, and I guess the question next for both of you is, how will they squander it?” Stewart asked guests Chris Hayes and David Plouffe with a laugh. “How? How will they piss this away?”

“I think the Democrats are still a mess,” the comedian continued. “I truly believe they’re a mess.”

Stewart, who hosts “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, argued that there is an “underlying potential energy” in the US for Democratic politicians and “channeling that energy directionally will be the challenge.”

Hayes, the host of MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” noted that public opinion tends to swing in the opposite direction of the party controlling the White House.

“Then you’ve got, like, Donald Trump is really unpopular!” Hayes added.

“How dare you!” Stewart replied.

“How can I say this? They’re going to cancel me,” Hayes said. “The national mood is dyspeptic and disgruntled.”

He argued that candidate recruitment, messaging and campaigning is “the place you’re talking about how [Democrats are] going to screw it up or how are they going to build on it, that’s the place where they can control stuff, and I think they did a lot that was right.”

Plouffe, who served as former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, argued that next year’s congressional midterms “should be just as good, if not better, for Democrats.”

“It’s not just Trump. It’s that [Republicans are] in complete control and people are dissatisfied, right?” Plouffe said. 

“So, I think where their campaign comes in is, the quality of the candidate is always the most important thing … the piece of messaging, are you maximizing the critique against your Republican opponent as much as you can?”

The day after Republicans suffered defeat in several key races across the nation, President Trump touted his economic agenda and the need to focus on affordability. 

“Day by day, we’re making America affordable again. It’s going to be affordable again at a really record pace,” the president said Wednesday at a business forum in Miami. 

Earlier in the day, during a breakfast with Republican senators, he acknowledged the GOP’s defeats.

“If you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor — negative for the Republicans,” Trump told the crowd. 

“Last night, it was not expected to be a victory, it was very Democrat areas. I don’t think it was good for Republicans. I don’t think it was good for anybody. We had an interesting evening and learned a lot.”