Jon Stewart: 'I am not used to the cruelty', Senate blocking PACT Act - 2022

29 July 2022, Washington DC, USA

So ain't this a bitch? Ain't this a bitch?

America's heroes who fought in our wars outside sweating their asses off, with oxygen, battling all kinds of ailments while these motherfuckers sit in the air conditioning walled off from any of it.

They don't have to hear it. They don't have to see it. They don't have to understand that these are human beings.

Do you get it yet? Do we see that these are … these aren't heroes. These are men and women, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers that we just let stand outside in the heat when they can't breathe.

I'm going to read you something. This is beautiful. I'm going to read you something beautiful. You know what... I said a curse word and I'm sorry about that. That was my fault. Let me say something beautiful.

There's a tweet from Senator Rick Scott of Florida from yesterday. It's beautiful. And I'm sorry about the cursing and let me say something beautiful to make it up to you.

"I was honoured to join the USO today and make care packages for our brave military members in gratitude ... In gratitude! ... of their sacrifice and service to our nation." And there's a beautiful picture. I wish you could see it. He's standing with a little package. Did you get the package? It's like, I think it has M&Ms in it and some cookies. And some moist towelettes.

Honestly. I don't even know what to say, I've been coming down here. 10, 15 years. I'm used to the hypocrisy. Christina Keen will tell you from DFW, she sat in an office with Mitch McConnell and a war veteran from Kentucky and he looked that man in the eyes and he said, 'We'll get it done'. And he lied to him cuz Mitch McConnell yesterday flipped.

I'm used to the lies. I'm used to the hypocrisy. Senator Pat Twomey won't take a meeting with the veterans groups, sends out his Chief of Staff. I'm used to the cowardice. I've been here a long time.

The Senate is where accountability goes to die. These people don't care. They're never losing their jobs. They're never losing their healthcare. Pat Twomey didn't lose his job. He's walking away. God knows what kind of pot of gold he's stepping into, to lobby this government to shit on more people.

I'm used to all of it, but I am not used to the cruelty.

They passed it June 16th. They passed the PACT Act 84 to 14. You don't even see those scores in the Senate anymore. They passed it. Every one of these individuals that has been fighting for years, standing on the shoulders of Vietnam veterans who have been fighting for years, standing on the shoulders of Persian Gulf War veterans fighting for years, Desert Storm veterans to just get the healthcare and benefits that they earned from their service. And I don't care if they were fighting for our freedom. I don't care if they were fighting for the flag. I don't care if they were fighting cuz they wanted to get out of a drug treatment centre or it was jail or the army. I don't give a shit. They lived up to their oath and yesterday they spit on it in abject cruelty.

These people thought they could finally breathe. You think their struggles end because the Pact Act passes. All it means is they don't have to decide between their cancer drugs and their house. Their struggle continues.

Crowd member: This bill does a lot more than just give us healthcare

Gives them healthcare, gives them benefits. Lets them live.

Crowd member: Keeps veterans from going homeless. Keeps veterans from becoming addicts. Keeps veterans from committing suicide.

Senator Twomey's not going to hear that cuz he won't sit down with this man cuz he is a fucking coward. You hear me? A coward. And like I say, I'm used to it. But this type of cruelty on those that we say we hold up as our most valued Americans. Then what are we? Pat Twomey stood up there ... 'Patriot Pat Twomey', Excuse me, I'm sorry. I want to give him his propers. I wanna make sure that I give him his propers ... 'Patriot Pat Twomey' stood on the floor and said, 'this is a slush fund. They're going to use 400 billion to spend on whatever they want.'

That's nonsense. I call bullshit. This isn't a slush fund. You know what's a slush fund. The OCO, the Overseas Contingency Operations fund. 60 billion. 70 billion dollars every year on top of 500 billion, 600 billion, 700 billion of a defence budget. That's a slush fund. Unaccountable, no guardrails. Did Pat Twomey stand up and say 'This is irresponsible. The guardrails?' No, not one of them did. They vote for it year after year after year. You don't support the troops. You support the war machine. That's all you care about.

Crowd member: He personally signed the doc proclamation to

Boy, they haven't, haven't met a war they won't sign up for and they haven't met a veteran they won't screw over. What the fuck are we?

Veteran: Barbaric! Barbaric.

And now they're going to go away. Pat Twomey says, 'I've got veterans groups behind me'. I call bullshit. These are the veterans groups. VFW, American Legion, IADA, Wounded Warriors, DAV, Amvets. They're all here.

This is the veterans community, Senator. They don't stand behind you. In fact, you won't let them stand in front of you.

Crowd member: Cowards.

Cowards all of them. Cowards all of them. And now they say, well, this'll get done, maybe after we get back from our summer recess, maybe during the lame duck because they're on Senate time. Do you understand? You live around here. Senate time is ridiculous ...

These motherfuckers live to 200. They're tortoises. They live forever and they never lose their jobs and they never lose their benefits and they never lose all those things. Well, they're not on senate time. They're on human time, cancer time.

Don't you have families? Don't you have people who are deciding how to live their last moments? I know some of them, they've been down here advocating with us. They spent their remaining time advocating so that other soldiers didn't have to face the indignities and the depravity and the desperation that they faced. And none of them will hear it. And none of them care except to tweet. Boy, they'll tweet it. Can't wait to see what they come up with on Veterans Day, on Memorial Day! Well, this is the reality of it.

I honestly don't even know what to say anymore. But we need your help because we're not leaving. These people cannot go away. I don't know if you know this. Obviously I'm not a military expert. I didn't serve in the military. But from what I understand, you're not allowed to just leave your post when the mission isn't completed. Apparently you take an oath, you swear an oath and you can't leave.

But these folks can leave cuz they're on Senate time.

Go ahead, go home, spend time with your families cuz these people can't do it anymore. So they can't leave until this gets done. Cuz these people will not give up, they will not give in and they will not relent.

This is an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country, to the founders and all that they profess to hold dear.

And if this is America first, then America is fucked.

Mitch McConnell: -'President Trump is practically and morally responsible', Acquittal of Trump, Second Impeachment - 2021

14 February 2021, Washington DC, USA

January 6th was a disgrace.

American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.

Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President.

They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he'd lost an election.

Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty.

The House accused the former President of, quote, 'incitement.' That is a specific term from the criminal law.

Let me put that to the side for one moment and reiterate something I said weeks ago: There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.

The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President.

And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.

The issue is not only the President's intemperate language on January 6th.

It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged 'trial by combat.'

It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-President.

I defended the President's right to bring any complaints to our legal system. The legal system spoke. The Electoral College spoke. As I stood up and said clearly at the time, the election was settled.

But that reality just opened a new chapter of even wilder and more unfounded claims.

The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.

Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally.

This was different.

This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.

The unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence began.

Whatever our ex-President claims he thought might happen that day... whatever reaction he says he meant to produce... by that afternoon, he was watching the same live television as the rest of the world.

A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags, and screaming their loyalty to him.

It was obvious that only President Trump could end this.

Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies frantically called the Administration.

But the President did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn't take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed, and order restored.

Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily as the chaos unfolded. He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election!

Even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in danger... even as the mob carrying Trump banners was beating cops and breaching perimeters... the President sent a further tweet attacking his Vice President.

Predictably and foreseeably under the circumstances, members of the mob seemed to interpret this as further inspiration to lawlessness and violence.

Later, even when the President did halfheartedly begin calling for peace, he did not call right away for the riot to end. He did not tell the mob to depart until even later.

And even then, with police officers bleeding and broken glass covering Capitol floors, he kept repeating election lies and praising the criminals.

In recent weeks, our ex-President's associates have tried to use the 74 million Americans who voted to re-elect him as a kind of human shield against criticism.

Anyone who decries his awful behavior is accused of insulting millions of voters.

That is an absurd deflection.

74 million Americans did not invade the Capitol. Several hundred rioters did.

And 74 million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it.

One person did.

I have made my view of this episode very plain.

But our system of government gave the Senate a specific task. The Constitution gives us a particular role.

This body is not invited to act as the nation's overarching moral tribunal.

We are not free to work backward from whether the accused party might personally deserve some kind of punishment.

Justice Joseph Story was our nation's first great constitutional scholar. As he explained nearly 200 years ago, the process of impeachment and conviction is a narrow tool for a narrow purpose.

Story explained this limited tool exists to "secure the state against gross official misdemeanors." That is, to protect the country from government officers.

If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge.

By the strict criminal standard, the President's speech probably was not incitement.

However, in the context of impeachment, the Senate might have decided this was acceptable shorthand for the reckless actions that preceded the riot.

But in this case, that question is moot. Because former President Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction.

There is no doubt this is a very close question. Donald Trump was the President when the House voted, though not when the House chose to deliver the papers.

Brilliant scholars argue both sides of the jurisdictional question. The text is legitimately ambiguous. I respect my colleagues who have reached either conclusion.

But after intense reflection, I believe the best constitutional reading shows that Article II, Section 4 exhausts the set of persons who can legitimately be impeached, tried, or convicted. The President, Vice President, and civil officers.

We have no power to convict and disqualify a former officeholder who is now a private citizen.

Here is Article II, Section 4:
"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Now, everyone basically agrees that the second half of that sentence exhausts the legitimate grounds for conviction.

The debates around the Constitution's framing make that clear. Congress cannot convict for reasons besides those.

It therefore follows that the list of persons in that same sentence is also exhaustive. There is no reason why one list would be exhaustive but the other would not.

Article II, Section 4 must limit both why impeachment and conviction can occur... and to whom.

If this provision does not limit the impeachment and conviction powers, then it has no limits at all.

The House's 'sole power of Impeachment' and the Senate's 'sole Power to try all Impeachments' would create an unlimited circular logic, empowering Congress to ban any private citizen from federal office.

This is an incredible claim. But it is the argument the House Managers seemed to make. One Manager said the House and Senate have 'absolute, unqualified... jurisdictional power.'

That was very honest. Because there is no limiting principle in the constitutional text that would empower the Senate to convict former officers that would not also let them convict and disqualify any private citizen.

An absurd end result to which no one subscribes.

Article II, Section 4 must have force. It tells us the President, Vice President, and civil officers may be impeached and convicted. Donald Trump is no longer the president.

Likewise, the provision states that officers subject to impeachment and conviction 'shall be removed from Office' if convicted.

Shall.

As Justice Story explained, 'the Senate, [upon] conviction, [is] bound, in all cases, to enter a judgment of removal from office.' Removal is mandatory upon conviction.

Clearly, he explained, that mandatory sentence cannot be applied to somebody who has left office.

The entire process revolves around removal. If removal becomes impossible, conviction becomes insensible.

In one light, it certainly does seem counterintuitive that an officeholder can elude Senate conviction by resignation or expiration of term.

But this just underscores that impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice.

Impeachment, conviction, and removal are a specific intra-governmental safety valve. It is not the criminal justice system, where individual accountability is the paramount goal.

Indeed, Justice Story specifically reminded that while former officials were not eligible for impeachment or conviction, they were "still liable to be tried and punished in the ordinary tribunals of justice."

We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.

I believe the Senate was right not to grab power the Constitution does not give us.

And the Senate was right not to entertain some light-speed sham process to try to outrun the loss of jurisdiction.

It took both sides more than a week just to produce their pre-trial briefs. Speaker Pelosi's own scheduling decisions conceded what President Biden publicly confirmed: A Senate verdict before Inauguration Day was never possible.

This has been a dispiriting time. But the Senate has done our duty. The framers' firewall held up again.

On January 6th, we returned to our posts and certified the election, uncowed.

And since then, we resisted the clamor to defy our own constitutional guardrails in hot pursuit of a particular outcome.

We refused to continue a cycle of recklessness by straining our own constitutional boundaries in response.

The Senate's decision does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day.

It simply shows that Senators did what the former President failed to do:

We put our constitutional duty first.