Donald Trump Actually Channeled Jon Stewart During The GOP Debate

Even a fascist pig finds the occasional acorn.

Donald Trump scored his biggest hit of Thursday's GOP debate by borrowing rhetoric from former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.

Observe the odd similarity in the video above.

After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) went after Trump for his "New York values," Trump shut him down by invoking the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, citing the valor of first responders to prove that New Yorkers were as red-blooded as any other Americans.

"Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan," Cruz said. "I'm just saying."

"That was a very insulting statement that Ted made," Trump responded, offering Cruz a lecture on "New York values."

"When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely, than New York. You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. I saw them come down. Thousands of people killed. And the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup probably in the history of doing this and in construction. I was down there. And I'd never seen anything like it. The people in New York fought and fought and fought … And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched. And everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers."

Stewart trod similar oratorical turf in 2008. At the time, then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin stumped around the country championing "Real America" -- a land of rural bootstrappers and hardscrabble factory workers who were somehow more authentically patriotic than the 80 percent of Americans who live in cities.

Stewart pounced.

"So, if small towns are real America, that would make big cities like Washington D.C. and New York City the capitals of Fake America," he said. "Like, the epicenter of Fake America. The -- oh, what's the word I'm looking for? The Ground Zero, if you will, of Anti-America. I bet Bin Laden feels like a real asshole now, huh? What? I bombed the wrong America?"

"I guess if you're from New York City, and you signed up to fight in Iraq and died, I guess it doesn't count," Stewart continued.

The common thread, of course, is that New Yorkers are Americans. Anyone boasting of his patriotism has to acknowledge that fact when wrapping himself in the flag, as Cruz -- and every politician in the 2016 race -- is wont to do.

Yet Trump's actions haven't matched his words. His record of aid for 9/11 first responders is terrible. As The Huffington Post's Michael McAuliff has noted, Trump repeatedly ignored entreaties to help first responders receive necessary health care services for ailments incurred in their work after the tragedy.

Trump's alleged defense of "New York values," moreover, ignores a fact that is uncomfortable for the belligerent billionaire. New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and Trump has built his campaign on demonizing immigrants and Muslims.

More than 100 Latinos were killed when the World Trade Centers collapsed, along with dozens of American Muslims. If the phrase "New York values" means anything, it means a robust and diverse community -- an idea that Trump has shown contempt for throughout his campaign.

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