Comedian Jon Stewart ripped into Congress on Tuesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing for failing to properly fund the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
The VCF announced on February 15 that it was running out of money, which would lead to “significant reductions in awards” to the victims of 9/11, including the first responders who still suffer illnesses from breathing in the fumes of the destroyed World Trade Center in 2001.
Stewart, along with a group of first responders who assisted in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, appeared on Capitol Hill to push the committee to reauthorize the VCF. During his scorching testimony, Stewart blasted the committee and Congress at large for their “callous indifference and rank hypocrisy.”
First he criticized the “nearly empty” side of the room where lawmakers sat.
“Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak to no one,” Stewart said. “Shameful.”
“Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity: time,” he said later on. “It’s the one thing they’re running out of.
“They did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility,” Stewart said at the end of his speech, his voice breaking. “Eighteen years later, do yours!”
Everybody standing behind him stood up and applauded.
Watch Stewart’s testimony below:
Jon Stewart testifies for September 11 Victim Compensation Fund: "Accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber…I'm sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic, but I am angry, and you should be too." pic.twitter.com/njxJzSmzSJ
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 11, 2019
It was a powerful speech that should never have needed to be made.
A fair number of us New Yorkers know of people affected by post 9/11 illnesses. It shouldn’t only take a Jon Stewart doing yeoman work to advocate for 9/11 responders who are faced with chronic health conditions.
Where are those Hollywood conservatives who claim that they are blacklisted and have to remain anonymous, those so called “Friends of Abe”? That other Jon?
The B, C and D lister actors who continue to show up on Fox to claim that their patriotism is under attack by college students, brown people and Hollywood. Or the bevy of country stars who can craft a lyric after a tragedy “Have you forgotten…Bin Laden” or threaten to “put a boot in their rear…” As an old boss of mine called them, “a bunch of John Waynes”
Remember when comedians didn’t deliver journalism, and journalists didn’t deliver comedy?
Those were the days…
Sadly, the House won’t be the problem. If McConnell does his usual, the bill for the first responders will never get a hearing in the Senate.
After all, helping people is just so Democratic - especially when the majority of the victims live in blue states.
I hope Jon is ready to hit back hard so McConnell will be forced to take action.
“They weren’t yelling ‘Death to Tribeca!’”
— Jon Stewart, in today’s hearing