On September 20, 2001, The Daily Show returned to the air for the first time since the September 11 attacks. In a searing, almost nine-minute monologue, Jon Stewart spoke with raw emotion of the national grief and loss but also of resilience and hope. In the years after the attacks, he became a relentless advocate for the first responders who worked for months at Ground Zero and suffered health complications as a result of the toxins in the air they breathed. In 2019, when a federal program that compensated first responders and their families was at risk of running out of money, Stewart delivered a scathing rebuke before a House subcommittee saying he was there on behalf of families to ask why βthis is so damn hard and takes so damn long.β Several months later the U.S. Congress passed legislation that funds the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund through 2092.
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