“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart appeared exhausted on Thursday night as he reported yet more news of major corruption in America’s capital.
The latest case featured Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who faces federal corruption charges after investigators discovered that he accepted lavish gifts from opthamologist Dr. Salomon E. Melgen. Menendez later helped the eye doctor secure a contract in the Dominican Republic.
“Campaign cash and gifts for you, port deal for you?” he said. “You don’t need to go to a corrupt Florida opthamologist to see this is classic corruption.”
But Stewart was gobsmacked at interviews from analysts insisting that Menendez’s exchanges with the doctor weren’t definite evidence of corruption.
“Our politics are so sick, symptoms we used to readily identify as symptoms of cut-and-dry corruption are now shrugged off as, ‘eh, it’s a fuzzy line, what are you gonna do?'” he said.
Stewart assured viewers this is not just a problem in Jersey, “although we have perfected it there.”
The Comedy Central host pointed out that lobbyists working for big banks wrote legislation rolling back regulations in the finance industry, and politicians’ personal expense accounts are financed by lobbyists in DC.
Despite this latest news, Stewart dismissed an old debunked story about Menendez rendevousing with escorts from the Dominican Republic.
“Oh, there’s prostitution in this story, but I don’t think the prostitutes are from the Dominican Republic,” he concluded.
Watch the clip: