"The Daily Show" decided it was time to finally settle the debate on the history of slavery Tuesday night.
Last month, Jon Stewart took issue with Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano's view that President Lincoln hurt the nation by leading the civil war, and should have tried "purchasing the slaves and then freeing them."
Following a rather intense discussion between Stewart and Napolitano Tuesday night, Stewart put his criticisms of President Lincoln to the test.
Stewart turned his program into a new game show known as "The Weakest Lincoln," where Napolitano faced off against "Abraham Lincoln" and three academic scholars. The game proved to be a crucial tool in debunking pretty much all of Judge Napolitano's pre-civil war beliefs, with questions like "Why did Abraham Lincoln start the civil war?" and "If Lincoln wanted to purchase and free every slave in the United States, how much would that have cost?"
One by one, all of the Fox News' analysts answers were taken down by "Lincoln" and the three academics. At one point, Napolitano hit his buzzer and responded that Lincoln began the civil war "because he needed the tariffs from the Southern states."
"Yeah, well, [the South] shot first, and you don't mess with Lincoln," the "President" shot back.
But the real game clincher came when Napolitano argued that Lincoln "used Federal Marshals to chase down slaves that escaped and returned them to the South during the Civil War."
"That's not true!" the three panelists shouted out.
There you have it.
Watch the video to see all of "The Weakest Lincoln."
(h/t: TPM)
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