Jon Stewart Is Left Speechless Over Gruber-Gate: ‘Pretty Slimy’ (VIDEO)

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Jon Stewart saved most of his ire on Tuesday night for the furor surrounding MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, whose remarks on Obamacare have provoked yet another skirmish over the federal health care law.

Video of Gruber, who helped craft the law, shows him calling American voters “stupid” and praising the administration’s lack of transparency at an economics conference last year.

“Well let me ask a question—who the fuck is he?” the host of “The Daily Show” asked. “Probably a complete peripheral player.”

But after a flurry of footage confirmed Gruber’s involved role as a consultant while Congress drafted the health care law, Stewart suggested Democrats “come clean about how the bill was sold,” which was “pretty slimy.”

But before he could finish his thought, a clip showed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) telling press on Nov. 13: “I don’t know who [Gruber] is.”

Stewart’s palm met forehead.

“Can you ever not-not disappoint us?” the host said with a sigh. “You don’t, know who, he is?”

A clip flashed back to 2009, when then-Majority Leader Pelosi praised Gruber by name for his analysis of the Affordable Care Act.

“Whoever that guy is,” Stewart said with a shrug.

Watch the clip, courtesy of Comedy Central:

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Notable Replies

  1. Well, I’m just waiting to see Jon’s reaction when the Supreme Court kills the ACA via the Halbig decision…

  2. I thought many of you lefties watched Jon Stewart as your primary news source. Here he has characterized the way that Obamacare was sold to the American people by the Democrats as “Slimy,” and all but sounded the death-horn for Obamacare in the Supreme Court resulting from the upcoming Halbig v Burwell decision.

    Nothing clever to say?

  3. When criticism of Democrats and their actions is due and needs to be exposed, Stewart has always been pretty vocal.

  4. The important thing is that Obamacare exists, it helps people, and it makes sense. Contrast this with government shut downs over raising the debt ceiling and impeachment threats over immigration reform.

  5. FACT. It absolutely was slimy, in the sense (among many others) that it redefined many small businesses as by ACA definition ineligible for previously held and otherwise compliant Group Insurance coverage, making “You can keep your health care coverage!” a PREMEDITATED AND PATHETIC LIE, forcing said small business employees and families onto the state exchanges, thus inflating enrollment numbers.

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