Mitch McConnell responded Monday to comedian Jon Stewart’s ongoing public campaign to get Congress to reauthorize the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, saying the former Daily Show host is getting “all bent out of shape” for no reason.
“It sounds to me like he’s looking for some way to take offense. There is no way we won’t address this problem appropriately. We have in the past we will in the future,” McConnell said on Fox & Friends.
The Senate majority leader was responding to comments Stewart made yesterday on Fox News Sunday. Stewart, whose appearance in Congress on behalf of sick first responders last week went viral, was asked about a certain road block the 9/11 victim’s funding could face once it passes the House.
“In terms of getting the 9/11 bills passed, Mitch McConnell has been the white whale of this since 2010,” he said, bringing up two instances in which McConnell has used reauthorization of the fund as a bargaining chip. “This has never been dealt with compassionately by Senator McConnell. He has always held out until the very last minute and only then, under intense lobbying and public shaming has he even deigned to move on it.”
McConnell responded to that allegation on Fox & Friends, dismissing the idea that approving funding for the issue at the last minute means he’s opposed to it. “Many things in Congress happen at the last minute,” he said. He also defended the poor showing by House Judiciary Committee members during Stewart’s testimony last week, something the comedian called “an embarrassment to the country.”
Actually, McConnell said, condescension dripping from his lips, “Members have a lot of things going on at the same time.”
