Colbert and Stewart Launch Tirades Against SCOTUS Campaign Finance Decision

April 4th, 2014 12:56 PM

Comedy Central launched a crusade against the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision on Thursday night, as both the Daily Show and Colbert Report spent a combined three segments and 20 minutes on a liberal diatribe against the decision.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart aired a lengthy 10-minute rant against the Court striking down the limit on the amount of overall political donations. That was followed by correspondent Aasif Mandvi poking fun at the outcome. Stephen Colbert opened the Colbert Report lampooning the decision for over seven minutes. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Both shows argued that the decision will expand free speech only for a privileged few. As Colbert sarcastically put it:

"Now, the case in question is McCutcheon v. F.E.C, and in a 5-4 decision, the Court eliminated the $123,200 cap on the total amount you can donate, which is great for all of us – if by 'us' you mean the 591 people who gave the maximum allowable donation in 2012. And if you're not one of us, you really should be."

Meanwhile, Stewart and Mandvi offered their simplistic liberal takes:

MANDVI: Face facts. Money equals speech. So in this country, the rich people are Verizon. Can you hear me now? How about now? Right?

STEWART: What are the poor people?

MANDVI: The poor people are the guy in the subway who tells you your stop. [Muddled speech]

And both hosts insisted that the decision will expand the "corrupt" influence of money in politics. Colbert stated, "So if you think legislators lining up to listen to megadonors like the Koch brothers or George Soros appears corrupt, good news – John 

Roberts has ruled that you don't think that."

Stewart slammed the Court's logic:

"Now, you may think even though there are billions of dollars in politics, surely millions can still have some corrupting effect, no? And aren't we, by attempting to limit contributions, just trying to limit the corrupting influence of money, or at least the appearance of the corrupting influence of money? You shouldn't have said that because it turns out you are (bleep) wrong. Because according to this Supreme Court, the only kind of corruption that matters is the narrowest possible Thomas Nast-like monocle top-hatted man hands a bag of money labeled "money for bribe" to a literal fat cat while the American public stands behind them wearing a barrel known as quid pro quo corruption."