Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart blasted Congress Tuesday as an “embarrassment to the country” after many House Judiciary members skipped a committee hearing to extend the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund, set to expire in 2020.

“What an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to. Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders. And in front of me, a nearly empty Congress,” Mr. Stewart said.

“Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak to no one. Shameful! It’s an embarrassment to the country, and it’s a stain on this institution. And you should be ashamed of yourselves for those that aren’t here, but you won’t be, because accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber,” he said.

Mr. Stewart said the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have “every justification” to be angry at Congress for not showing up to the hearing while tweeting out to “Never Forget” the disaster, calling it “callous indifference and rank hypocrisy.”

“Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity: time. It’s the one thing they’re running out of. This hearing should be flipped. These men and women should be up on that stage, and Congress should be down here answering their questions,” Mr. Stewart said.

“They responded in five seconds, they did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity and humility. Eighteen years later, do yours,” he said.

Jon Stewart slams Congress over health care for 9/11 first responders: “I’m awfully tired of hearing that it’s a 9/11 New York issue. Al-Qaeda didn’t shout death to Tribeca. They attacked America and these men and women … brought our country back” https://t.co/CFdzczE0fE pic.twitter.com/CDbolZs1wB — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 11, 2019

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