The Daily Show Takedown of Civil War History Revisionists Is Fantastic

Courageous outlier/former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano isn’t afraid to voice unpopular opinions no matter how factually inaccurate they are. The Fox News senior judicial analyst recently expressed some pretty out there (and entirely ignorant) thoughts on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War, saying “I am a contrarian on Abraham Lincoln and I bemoan the fact that he’s been mythologized.” Aw, and perfectly timed for Black History Month, too.

“I prefer to look at Lincoln this way,” Napolitano continued. “At the time that he was the president of the United States, slavery was dying a natural death all over the western world. Instead of allowing it to die or helping it to die, or even purchasing the slaves and then freeing them, which would have cost a lot less many than the Civil War cost, Lincoln set about on the most murderous war in American history.”

Nearly every single thing about Napolitano statement is warped and unsupportable. Thankfully, The Daily Show’s Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore was able to step in and set Napolitano straight.

“The south was so committed to slavery that Lincoln didn’t die of natural causes,” Wilmore begins. And it all takes off from there.

Larry Wilmore is a goddamn national treasure.