Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Howard Stern Feels Trumped Up By First Debate

Howard Stern never expected he’d figure into an American presidential race. The talk-show host told BuzzFeed News that it felt surreal when he got name-checked at Monday night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as the candidates disputed Trump’s opposition to the Iraq War.

“Now I can check that off on my bucket list,” Stern bragged. “I’ve officially been mentioned in a presidential debate. It was weird… Yeah, it was cool. Good promotion.”

He added that he had hoped it might give him an extra boost of admiration from his wife—but to no avail.

“I was laying there in bed watching it with Beth, and she was half-asleep already. She did wake up when she heard “Howard Stern,” and I was giggling. I thought maybe sex would go down because I was mentioned, but she was too tired,” he said.

Trump claimed on Monday night that he’d always been against the war, inviting a fact-check from moderator Lester Holt, who pointed out the serial prevaricator had endorsed the take-over of Iraq on Stern’s radio show, where he used to be a frequent guest.

When Stern asked Trump in 2002 if he supported military action, he answered: “Yeah, I guess so. You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly,” in an allusion to the earlier Gulf War.

Stern, a scare to parents and delight to teenage boys, has made several cameos in this year’s presidential race, due to his links with Trump. Back in his celebrity days, Trump made himself a regular on Stern’s program, and that material has made election news every now and then. Earlier in the campaign, BuzzFeed unearthed a series of recordings from the show that cast the Republican nominee in a harsh light due to sexist and off-color remarks.

With Stern’s goading, he rated women on their looks and boasted about how they wanted to sleep with him. “They’ll walk up, and they’ll flip their top, and they’ll flip their panties,” Trump, the seventy-year-old heart-throb, said.

He also displayed excellent parental instincts when talking about having another child with current wife Melania. “I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them,” he said. “I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.