‘Oh Really?’ Biden Spox Surprised To Learn Jon Stewart Slammed Biden From Reporter At Briefing

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was surprised to learn from a reporter that Daily Show host Jon Stewart slammed President Joe Biden in his first show since returning from retirement.

Stewart returned on Monday night’s edition of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which he will be hosting on a part-time basis after having retired from the show for several years.

In one extended bit, Stewart slammed Biden and former President Donald Trump over their respective ages, and discussed special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of sensitive documents, which was chock full of damaging asides about Biden’s age and his memory, and which Biden and his allies hotly dispute.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason teed up a question about the Biden response to the Hur report with what he described as a “jokey” question about Stewart’s re-debut.

Jean-Pierre was surprised to be asked about Jon Stewart, and also surprised to learn about the on-air criticism:

JEFF MASON: Is the president, a fan of the Daily Show.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Oh! (taken aback) I was not expecting that. I. I would have to ask him.

JEFF MASON: Did he watch Jon Stewart last night?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: (laughs) Sounds like you did, Jeff. Was it good?

JEFF MASON: He was pretty critical of the president. Oh, really? The former president. And I guess my question was.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: He said this about President Biden?

JEFF MASON: He was critical of both.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. Oh, you said as long as well as the former, I. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

JEFF MASON: Just. And so my kind of follow up to that more jokey question is just does the White House feel like it made the right decision, putting President Biden out on Thursday night and to have the press conference that he did?

Watch above via C-SPAN.