Jon Stewart Gives Sen. Robert Menendez a Corruption Lesson | The Daily Show

as you know the fascinating penis themed trial of Professor Donald Bartholomew Trump continued today what you might not know is that it is not the only salacious high level government official trial going on today because right across the street in New York's famed public corruption District New Jersey Democratic senator Robert Menendez my God Menendez turned heel they're not booing they're well they were booing yes that's he faced his first day of reckoning Federal prosecutors alleged the former chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee conspired with his wife naen to accept bribes from a trio of wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favors to help the governments of cter and Egypt the powerful Senator allegedly pressured the Department of Agriculture to help an associate maintain a monopoly on the import of halal meat to the United [Applause] States I don't mean to get sentimental here but in what other country in the world can a Cuban American Senator work hand inand with an Egyptian born businessman to Corner the Halal Meat Market Living in America but yes Senator Menendez is accused of using his access an influence as a senator to illegally help a variety of shady governments and clients but what evidence do we really have federal agents searched the Mendez home in June 2022 finding over $480,000 in cash two bags filled with $100,000 each 00,000 worth of gold bars payments toward a mortgage the mercedesbenz convertible Furniture exercise equipment even an air purifier four boots stuffed with cash cash even found in the Senator's embroidered Congressional jacket sacrilege cash in the lining of a congressional jacket which oddly enough is reversible but the money is in his house and his jacket and his boots and his lining and his pockets but none of it ties the money to Menendez or Egypt the indictment says Upon returning from one trip to Egypt Menendez performed a web search for how much is one kilo of gold worth [Applause] damn you metric system I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for your meddling kids in your base 10 system of measurements and weights there could be a lot of reasonable benign explanations for why a senator's house would be stuffed with cash and gold bars home heating insulation perhaps or something stupider according to the New York Times his lawyers now offering a new explanation as to why he had thousands of dollars in gold and in cash in his home they say that the Habit is rooted in traumatic family history these are simply my emotional support gold bars whenever I am whenever I am not with them I I get anxious people respond to trauma in different ways now when it comes to any trial the first step of course and we've seen this play out endless times finding an impartial jury defense attorneys have proposed asking prospective jurors if they have opinions about people from New Jersey and do they think that because they are from New Jersey that they're more likely to break the law [Applause] you [Laughter] mother you bury One union leader at your football stadium whilst running a human organ trafficking ring through some sakaka rabbis and suddenly your whole state is a suspect you believe this Tong huh tone you believe this anti- New Jersey discrimination that's what it is so obviously this is shaping up to be one of the more cartoonishly blatant corruption cases in some time Jersey guy with gold bars stuffed in his jacket and a nice freezer of some Halal meats anything else that might speak to the general character of this United States Senator Menendez has denied any wrongdoing according to court filings his lawyers indicate he may try to blame his wife yes it's those three magic words that every woman is dying to hear it was her she did it you know I feel worse for her if she wasn't also demonstrably a terrible person but read up on on it perhaps I I can't explain everything right now I'll I'll just say this [Applause] awful but perhaps the dumbest thing about this entire not quite believable real housewives episode is how unnecessary it all is you sir are an elected official in America's most respected legislative body it's like a license to print money you don't need to break the law so cartoonishly when the legal corruption in the Senate is so lucrative which brings us to our new segment Senator Robert Menendez how dumb is you as a New Jersey resident as a constituent of yours Senator Mendez I have to ask with all due respect how dumb is you promising favors to foreign entities for a little chump change on the side it's Bush League when as a US senator you can enrich yourself in so many different let's call them legal ways for instance the stock market members of congress's stock portfolios can consistently beat the S&P 500 the average hedge fund was beating the market at 7% the study found that the average US senator was beating the stock market by 12% the average US senator and if you think it's because the average US senator is just so smart this is the average US senator Tommy tuberville an ex football coach who doesn't know the three branches of government oh but when it comes to the stock market he sees the Matrix how do they do it well the secret is a shrewd understanding of the intricate interconnectivity of global markets I'm kidding they have inside information California Congressman Democrat named Alan lenthal his wife sold shares of Bowen March 5th of 2020 the very next day the committee on which he served in the house released a damaging report on the Boeing 737 Max oh my God what timing you see that see the rest of us only find out about Boeing's problems as we're being sucked out of the fuselage midf flight just flying out over the wing you're flying in the air over the wings sell sell I don't think they're good and it happens all the time North Carolina Senator Richard Burr received a private briefing in 2020 about how bad the covid pandemic was going to be for America and he immediately sold off his stocks saving himself a small fortune of course he had a reasonable explanation we wanted to ask you about those stock trades back in February of 2020 um you know the SEC said is that you had material nonpublic information when you made those trades to look at what I put out I did look at what you put out how is that not insider trading I'm so sorry sir I wanted to answer your question if only there was a button that kept these elevator doors open I don't by the way uh for those of you at home who don't have a goldplated elevator you can avoid these types of questions yourself just by pretending to take the stairs oh I'm sorry I can't really talk that Pi an elevator back up I would do that bit more but my knees as as soon as I did the first one because I didn't do it in rehearsal I did it just now and I was like that's not a good idea that's one of those who are like stop the taping and pull me back up now you might be wondering to yourself how does Congress get away with all this is well it may be because Congress is regulated by let me check my notes Congress and it's Congress that has refused to even hold a vote on the bills that have been proposed to ban members of Congress from Trading stocks because not letting members of Congress insider trade would be unamerican just listen to one of the biggest beneficiaries of this stock windfall you should members of Congress and their spouses be banned from Trading individual stocks while serving in Congress no no to this second one this is a free market and people we have a free market economy they should be able to participate in that ah free market excuse me uh Mr Speaker I don't mean to interrupt I'm uh Martha Stewart from the why the did I go to jail times picking you uh why the did I go to jail but here's the thing in a free market everyone has access to the same information so unless you're going to put all of us on the Committees I don't get it now to be fair Congress does have rules against corruption members of Congress are not allowed to receive what might be viewed as enticements or bribes from lobbyists no free concert tickets they cannot accept uh food baked goods sandwiches Etc it just would not be proper but in congress's Infinite Wisdom they do allow organizations to set up what are called leadership packs where a congress person can turn political donations from lobbyists into slush funds A Pharma lobbyist cannot buy a senator of Nini and some nightquil but through the pack they can pay for five-star hotels for kirst and gilbran luxury resorts for Ted Cru and even golf lessons for Rand Paul it's all in Ein ry's famous book Atlas putted it's corruption really that's that's M literate [Applause] crowd I read that in college Excell this is corruption in plain sight we won't accept gifts but if I want to have a luxury experience and you would like to pay for it and then join me on set experience where we can discuss issues important to you and your industry who's the wiser right Senator Mike Lee of Utah shortly after this slopeside lunch for 22 friends we decided to ask Senator Mike Lee just why he's doing this politicians raise funds and this is what we do if you like this I enjoy skiing thank you very much thanks a lot from now on I am ending every uncomfortable conversation I ever have about anything with I enjoy skiing good day but but our luxury lobbying vacation still too much work Senator Menendez because you could always write laws that directly benefit your side business like the way Senator Chuck Grassley netted $370,000 in farm subsidies or the $5.3 million the California rep Doug lamalfa got for his gentleman farm and by the way for that much money you better be growing actual gentlemen it's all legal and not a gold bar in sight or you can leverage your stature in government to get lucrative lobbying positions for your wife and your three kids like Missouri Senator Roy blunt I I I don't even understand why that would be a question everybody's family does something my father was a corporate lobbyist like his father and his father before him yes everybody's family does something for instance your daughter might receive unusually greenlighted Chinese patents or your son-in-law might receive billions in no questions asked Saudi Investment or your son might get a lucrative seat on a corporate board let's hear Hunter explain that one away if your last name wasn't Biden do you think you would have been asked to be on the board of barisma I don't know I don't know probably not holy out of all the senators and representatives who dodged and prevaricated and wouldn't answer any questions you know you're in trouble when the most honest and transparent person in a story of government corruption is the EXP [Applause] crackhead yeah now you might I don't know if I like John Stewart [Applause] anymore now you now you might think someone should step in and stop Congress from being able to enrich themselves perhaps the Supreme Court well it will come as no surprise that the same guys who think it's fine to accept a luxury Winnebago from a wealthy businessman have made it much harder to police corruption in a decision called McDonald versus the United States they said that the appearance of corruption is not nearly enough for it to be considered against the law it must be this very narrow quidd proquo idea you know I'm going to give you kind of like a cartoonish sack of money in exchange for an actual vote whilst twirling my handlebar mustache at every turn our Congress and our courts have been given a choice be less corrupt or redefine what constitutes corruption and get on with your bad selves it's a game of reverse limbo having trouble getting under the bar of corruption we've set [Music] well how about now Robert menendez's gold bars in exchange for favorable legisl is obviously cartoonishly corrupt but for anyone out there who thinks the status quo of government patronage and influence is of an entirely different species than Menendez how dumb is you [Music]

Channel: The Daily Show

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Keywords: the daily show, the daily show episodes, comedy central, comedians, comedian, funny video, comedy videos, funny clips, daily show, news, politics, congress, jon stewart, headlines, nepo baby, nepotism, corruption, nancy pelosi, new jersey senator, robert menendez, hunter biden, trump, clarence thomas, gold, halal, new jersey, insider trading, boeing

Id: 5udtSQ-LtM0

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024