Based on everything you just said I’d think you’d be glad to have him back then. Because it’s obvious he takes Trump seriously now. But back in the primaries nobody took any republican candidate seriously, especially the DNC. And to be fair, neither did I. It was a clown show. If Hillary’s campaign hadn’t been so overconfident and tried harder to win over Sanders supporters things would likely be a lot different.
Maybe Stewart would have made a difference if he stayed, because the Daily Show lost a lot of relevance without him, but at the time he had covered a lot of elections and didn’t have it in him to do it again. I just don’t think it’s fair to put any of the blame on Stewart. He fought his entire career for the media to be better than this. Did he fail? Arguably, yes. But he did fight and he should be commended for that, not blamed for the circus that is American politics today.