Adam Serwer
has a post up complaining about Jon Stewart's interview last night with John Yoo. Now on the substance of all the things Stewart could have called Yoo on, I totally agree with Serwer's assessment. But I think he missed some of the points that Stewart DID make. Points for which Yoo had no answer. I am posting the second part of the unedited version from The Daily Show's website. In this clip, although there aren't many laughs, I think Stewart put in some good work. The most telling moment to me is when Yoo tries to claim that having terrorist attacks against our country was unprecedented and that is why the Bush administration was justified in looking for ways to torture that would have been otherwise illegal. Stewart pushes back with specific terrorist attacks that had happened in this country and all Yoo can muster in response basically was that 9/11 was bigger. And when Stewart presses him on how many people have to be murdered in order for it to rise to the level where the President overlooks our treaties and goes his own way, Yoo totally tries to change the subject because he knows he has been nailed.
Now maybe the audience missed that point, but I surely didn't. And I guarantee you that Yoo will never get asked questions that hard on the rest of his book tour.
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I think Stewart had the same reaction during the interview that I did. How do you get a Zombie Creep like Yoo to answer any question in a straightforeward way. That was the weirdest interview I've seen in quite a while, Yoo wouldn't deny or defend anything specific.
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