Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show for a night to blast Congress

Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to talk about healthcare for 9/11 first responders.

(Image credit: The Daily Show/Comedy Central)

Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show last night with one mission in mind: To bash Congress for not following through with granting healthcare to 9/11 first responders. Stewart slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for not keeping his promise to first responders five and a half years ago and blocking the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act — which would permanently reauthorize an expiring healthcare program for 9/11 responders — from being included in the highway bill up for passage.

"Here's what I believe it is: Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky doesn't give a shit about anything but politics," Stewart said Monday night in his first appearance on the show since he stepped down in August. "The first responders were told the Zadroga Act would be included — they were told this last week — in the transportation bill passed last week. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky pulled it out of the transportation bill when he didn't get concessions about loosening oil export regulations."

Stewart has been working on the issue since 2010, when he held a panel of four 9/11 first responders ahead of the bill's initial passage that year. "As this bill comes up this week, we're going to keep [McConnell] to his word," first responder Kenny Specht, a member of Stewart's first panel, said Monday night. Of the three other members of the original panel, one had died and two were too ill to make it.