Jon Stewart books Bill O’Reilly for the “Daily Show” after the RNC

Is this really the “unity” that America now longs for?

Comedy Central has announced that Bill O’Reilly will be Jon Stewart’s guest on Tuesday’s episode of The daily show The broadcast took place after the Republican National Convention and offered the disgraced former Fox News host by far the biggest platform since he was fired from the network following revelations about several settlements in sexual harassment cases seven years ago.

The decision to book O’Reilly was made after The daily show The AFP news agency has canceled its on-site coverage of the RNC in Milwaukee – and cancelled Stewart’s regular Monday show – apparently out of respect for Donald Trump after the assassination attempt on him at the weekend.

O’Reilly, who has lived mostly in the wilderness since leaving Fox, hosts a podcast and a somewhat popular YouTube program in the style of his old O’Reilly Factor primetime show, has a long and surprisingly friendly history with Stewart.

The conservative presenter appeared on The daily show a whopping 13 times between 2001 and 2015, when Stewart was the regular moderator. And before the 2012 election, the two men participated in a staged debate in Washington, DC, dubbed “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium,” during which they interacted cordially despite their obvious ideological differences.

All of this, of course, happened before the revelations about O’Reilly’s alleged inappropriate behavior toward female Fox News employees came to light, which ultimately led the network to fire him in 2017.