Last night, John Yoo, the former Bush Administration Department of Justice lawyer who was thrust into international infamy for authoring "torture memos," stopped by The Daily Show for a chat with Jon Stewart. The topic: torture. The interview: tough to watch. Have a look after the jump.
I wanted to see Stewart take Yoo to task, but that didn't really happen. Fortunately,
Annie Lowrey provides a pretty spot-on critique:
Why so awkward? The two never engaged. They questioned and parried. They talked past one another. Stewart couldn't catch Yoo in a lie, couldn't call his arguments what they were, and clearly seemed frustrated. He had brushed up on Yoo's infamous briefs. He wanted to engage Yoo. But the lawyer -- as brilliant a legal mind as there is in the United States, some insist, dressed in a gray wool suit, looking every bit the professor -- simply explained away. ...
Taking things a step further, Ezra Klein wonders if Stewart
does more harm than good by having someone like Yoo on
The Daily Show; he can't really give them the crossfire treatment if they know it's coming. What do you think?
Via Talking Points Memo. Watch the rest of the interview here.
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