Jon Stewart rips Obama administration over reported VA wait time cover-ups

Mike Krumboltz

Warning: The embedded videos feature adult language and a lot of poorly-timed bleeps.

Politicians and government leaders insist they're upset about the various allegations being lobbed at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but they pale in comparison to the wrath spewed by "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.

In his show Monday, Stewart addressed claims that VA administrators manipulated wait times at hospitals to make it seem like patients were seeing doctors quicker than they really were with seething anger and his unusual swear jar.

Normally, a swear jar is used to collect money when little Billy and Susie say words they shouldn't. Stewart's swear jar, on the other hand, is something he screams into whenever he gets upset about the VA wait time scandal. And based on the number of bleeped-out swear words that exploded out of the jar during Monday night's show, it appears that Stewart is outraged quite often.

The clearly angry talk show host went off on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and President Barack Obama over their perceived lack of real swear jar-worthy anger.

After showing footage of a relatively calm Shinseki testifying to Congress that he was "mad as hell" about the "adverse incident," Stewart remarked that seeing as Shinseki has been heading up the agency since 2009, "now might be a good time to ratchet up the vocabulary" or use "nonverbal signs" to express his anger, like a cat that pins its ears back. Shinkseki's angry face, Stewart contended, looks more like a guy who just found out somebody drank all the orange juice.

Stewart then showed footage of White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, who said that the president is "madder than hell" and that he has "the scars to prove it."

"I'm sure the story of how you got those scars will really impress the guys waiting at the VA for treatment," Stewart scoffed.

"Here's what disgusts me," Stewart said, summing up his anger. "Somehow, we as a country were able to ship 300,000 troops halfway across the world in just a few months to fight a war that cost us $2 trillion." But it takes veterans hurt in that war longer than that to receive "needed medical care or reimbursement, all while we profess undying love for their service."

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