Jon Stewart lectures Sen. Thom Tillis on restaurant hygiene, free markets, and Typhoid Mary

Jon Stewart has some advice for Sen. Thom Tillis

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

last updated 5 February 2015

Freshman Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) raised some eyebrows this week by suggesting that if it were up to him, restaurants and other food and drink establishments wouldn't be required to make their employees wash their hands after going to the bathroom. On Wednesday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart commended him on sticking to his free-market, anti-regulation guns. "Boom! This guy really walks the walk," Stewart said. "I'd high-five him, but I don't want to die like a character in the game Oregon Trail"

Then Stewart played the rest of the clip, where Tillis says he'd still make eateries post that their employees don't wash their hands. "That's not getting rid of regulation," he said, "that just makes you an inconsistent ideologue with a light fecal dusting in your latte." Sit through the brief lecture on regulations and free markets for Stewart's recounting of the Typhoid Mary story. And please, wash your hands after using the bathroom. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.