Jon Stewart Nails the Hypocrisy of Both Parties on the GOP's Letter to Iran

Impact

Jon Stewart loves a good juxtapositional sound bite. Naturally, the comments made by both Republicans and Democrats regarding the GOP's semi-treasonous letter to Iran were a perfect opportunity to mine for hypocrisy. And the Daily Show host struck gold.

Democrats may be angry about the letter, initiated by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and signed by 46 other members of the Senate, but they've changed their tune in the past few years. Many of the same figures were supportive of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) going to Syria to speak one on one with President Bashar al-Assad in 2007 — against then-President George W. Bush's wishes. Senate Democrats are as outraged now as they were supportive then. As one could imagine, the clips sound ridiculous against one another.

First, from an email-embattled Hillary Clinton:

And, from a please-elect-me-in-a-year Clinton:

How about MSNBC host Chris Matthews? In 2015, he's speaking of our "noble president":

And in 2007:

Republicans, of course, have sound bites that are just as hypocritical. Take former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, for instance. In 2015, he trashes Democrats:

In 2007, the skepticism:

Other folks on both sides of the aisle who have changed their tune: Fox News host Sean Hannity and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Bipartisan failure: In pari delicto is a Latin bit of legalese meaning, roughly, "both parties are at fault." On issues like these, where there are clear agendas for both parties to support their own, it's important to remember that in pari delicto is practically the law of the land. These are people who, as Stewart pointed out at the end of the clip, would rather deal with the Ayatollah than each other. Hypocrisy is the name of the game — everything must be taken with a grain of salt.