Jon Stewart: Two Veterans We Were Helping Died By Suicide During PACT Act Senate Vote
Comedian Jon Stewart revealed the reason why he was so emotional on Capitol Hill after the passing of the PACT Act on Aug. 2.
On the Thursday edition of his podcast, The Problem with Jon Stewart, he discussed his time in Washington with show writers Kasaun Wilson and Rob Christensen.
Stewart has advocated for the passing of the PACT Act in order to help veterans access necessary medical treatment from exposure to toxic chemicals. The Senate voted to pass the bill, 86-11 on Tuesday with 11 Republicans voting no.
Stewart said, “You know, everybody had gathered there in Washington, all the veteran service organizations, all the veterans — for a celebration because this bill had obviously already passed 84 to 14 and it had a blue slip issue, which is a, there was a small constitutional provision about rural VA providers — had to be taken out. One sentence.”
Stewart said Senator Pat Toomey was the leader of the Republican’s who chose to oppose the bill. “So when Pat Toomey stood around the desk and convinced all of his frat brothers to, uh — and we’ll get into what the Senate is like — But, when he convinced them all to just, you know, ‘Hey man, let’s just take a stand here against veterans with cancer, Let’s finally defeat big veteran with cancer.’ When that happened, people were devastated.”
Toomey, tweeted shortly before the voting process began about proposing three amendments that would help those 11 reluctant Republicans change their vote.
Tagging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the message, Toomey said, “We offered a path to pass the PACT Act today that would allow for the consideration of three amendments, including my amendment at a 60 vote threshold. Let’s see if @SenSchumer can take yes for an answer.”
We offered a path to pass the PACT Act today that would allow for the consideration of three amendments, including my amendment at a 60 vote threshold.
Let’s see if @SenSchumer can take yes for an answer.
— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) August 2, 2022
Stewart explained why this hesitation from Republicans made emotions run high on Tuesday, “I don’t like — not to like overly massaged the point, but like people committed suicide, like that’s real. And within the period. We know of two instances of people that we were actively trying to get help who committed suicide. Like that’s how fucking serious this was!”
“But thanks for playing your games with the bill,” Christensen said.
Toomey had previously opposed the bill, calling it a slush fund and questioning $400 billion in spending unrelated to Veteran care within the act.
Stewart said, “See that’s the point. That’s why I was so mad and because the misinformation — willful from the Right, like, I still can’t understand, like, what’s the point of this whole, like, ‘It’s a Schumer, Green New Deal Slush (Fund),’ It’s right there. Like, you can look it up. It’s not like — we’re not playing semantic games. Nothing changed from June 16th to July.
“So knowing the stakes of what was going on — that’s why I was so raw,” Stewart concluded.
Listen above via The Problem with Jon Stewart.
