Trump critic Jon Stewart praises the president’s Justice Department for handling of 9/11 victims’ program which compensates first responders who have developed chronic health problems from toxins in WTC rubble
- Jon Stewart told reporters on that ‘Trump’s Justice Department is doing an excellent job’ managing the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund
- The president retweeted a clip of Stewart’s remarks on Sunday
- The Victim Compensation Fund was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks
- The fund compensates first responders and relief workers who have developed health problems after digging through the rubble of the World Trade Center
- Stewart has been campaigning on Capitol Hill the past week calling on Congress to pass a law that would permanently fund the VCF
- The ‘Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act’ would prevent federal lawmakers from debating whether or not to fund 9/11 survivors’ health-related expenses ever again
Former Daily Show host and ardent Trump critic Jon Stewart has shocked his fans by praising the President’s handling of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.
In the past, Stewart has been famously opposed to the Commander In Chief, even branding him a ‘giant turd asteroid’ on Stephen Colbert’s show last year.
But the comedian made a point of praising Trump’s Justice Department last week for its managing of the compensation fund, a cause Stewart has championed for more than a decade.
The fund compensates first responders and relief workers who have developed chronic health problems from injuries and toxins they breathed in while digging through the rubble of the World Trade Center after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.
Trump capitalized on the positive remarks from one of his harshest critics, retweeting a clip of Stewart on Sunday.
Jon Stewart praised Donald Trump’s U.S. Justice Dept. on Sunday for its management of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund for 9/11 first responders
Funding for the 9/11 victims program has faced opposition from fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill in previous years
Stewart said: ‘I’m going to say this now. Are the cameras on? Is everybody on me? The Trump Justice Department is doing an excellent job administrating this program. The claims are going through faster and the awards are coming through.’
He then tapped the microphone as members of the audience laugh, before adding; ‘I don’t know about anything else, I’m not going to comment about anything else’.
VCF leaders on Friday announced the program has ‘insufficient money,’ CBS News reported.
Only $2 billion of the $7.3 billion Congress allocated for the program remains. And future payments to the estimated 40,000 program applicants will be cut by 50-70 percent unless new funds are allocated by lawmakers.
Previously, the VCF program has faced resistance from fiscally conservative lawmakers in Washington who have been hesitant to permanently fund it.
Stewart has called on Congress to pass a proposed bill that would permanently fund the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, preventing Congress from ever debating whether or not to fund the program ever again
In 2010, House Republicans voted against a bill proposed by Democrats to fund the program, according to the New York Times.
That resistance has angered Stewart, who has spent the last week in Washington D.C. encouraging lawmakers to pass a new VCF funding bill dubbed the ‘Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act’.
The measure would prevent lawmakers from halting related aid for the 9/11 families ever again.
‘Let’s stop the nonsense,’ Stewart said on Sunday, standing in front of a group of 9/11 first responders. ‘Ultimately we’re going to get to a point where the light shines and shame is brought.’
He went on to praise the Trump administration for its management of the VCF program.
Stewart spent Monday morning continuing to campaign for the funding bill, saying it was an opportunity to write a final chapter on the 9/11 saga.
‘We cannot force the men and women that so heroically went down to Ground Zero and stayed there for nine, ten months disrupting their lives as well, we can’t force them to have to fight for this anymore,’ he told Fox News Monday morning.
‘I know Congress is a bastion of fiscal responsibility as you can tell from the marble and gold rotunda that we’re standing in. They’ve got to understand in the larger scheme of things, this is not a lot of money. But what it will do for these families is enormous. This is a national embarrassment and crisis. And they’ve got to step up.’
Stewart spent Monday morning continuing to campaign for the funding bill, saying it was an opportunity to write a final chapter on the 9/11 saga