Desi Lydic is sounding the alarm over what she sees as a dangerous attack on free speech following the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. On Tuesday’s Daily Show, the host didn’t hold back while reacting to comments from top Trump administration officials.
She played a clip of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” Lydic was floored. “First of all, you would think that the attorney general would know that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment,” she shot back.
“Even if you’re not a big reader, it is the first one,” she quipped. “You have to read it to get to the one you like,” joking about the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.
(Photo by Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images)
Her riff didn’t stop there. “If I went back in time and told the Founding Fathers that this is what would become of the First Amendment, they would say, ‘That’s insane! And why are you wearing pants, woman?’” Lydic said. Then she got serious. “The point is, we need to understand that no matter how mad someone makes you online, that’s not enough to make it illegal.”
She also took aim at Vice President JD Vance, who has been echoing the same tough talk as Bondi. A clip showed Vance urging people, “When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer.”
Lydic wasn’t impressed. “Is this what we want? The vice president’s job isn’t to lead an online mob. The vice president’s job is to… Okay, he doesn’t really have a job, but you get my point.”
Her monologue highlighted how far some Republicans are willing to go. She pointed to Congressman Clay Higgins, who announced plans to permanently ban social media users who post what he calls “violent political hate content.” Higgins went even further, saying those same people should lose their business licenses and even their driver’s licenses.
That one gave Lydic another punchline. “First of all, revoking someone’s driver’s license is not a punishment for them; it’s a punishment for their friends,” she cracked.
Then she brought it back to the bigger picture. “But do you see how far this has gotten out of control? We’re going to revoke a person’s driver’s license just for having s–tty tweets?”
The assassination of Kirk has sparked a wave of political reaction, but Lydic’s monologue captured the unease many feel about government leaders pushing to blur the line between distasteful speech and criminal acts. For her, it’s not just about defending edgy jokes or rude posts online. It’s about protecting one of the most basic rights in the Constitution.