Jon Stewart names Donald Rumsfeld as least favorite guest

During a recent fan Q&A, Jon Stewart identified former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as his least favorite guest on ‘The Daily Show’. Stewart recalled the intense pressure he felt while preparing for Rumsfeld’s February 2011 appearance, noting that he studied Rumsfeld’s memoir, ‘Known and Unknown’, as if he were cramming for an exam.

Stewart admitted that he had developed a complex ‘logic trap’ to use during the interview to address Rumsfeld’s role as an architect of the Iraq War. However, he felt the strategy failed when Rumsfeld corrected his phrasing, stating he helped ‘make the case’ for the war rather than ‘sold’ it. Stewart remarked that the encounter ‘tortured’ him and caused him to lose sleep, reflecting on the difficulty of interviewing figures involved in such impactful historical moments.