Jon Stewart: "The city began covering their ass three weeks in"

Comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime advocate for 9/11 first responders and survivors, chastised former New York City officials for withholding information about poor air quality in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

"Everyone knew, and now it's very clear that the city knew as well," he said Tuesday. "And rather than take the steps to ameliorate the damage that it would cause to its citizens and to the people that were down there, they instead covered it up to get back to business as usual. But unfortunately, after 9/11, business will never be usual again."

Mr. Stewart's remarks came at a news conference where Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) announced the release of more than 170,000 pages of documents suggesting city officials knew air conditions following the attacks were unsafe despite assurances otherwise.

"These people had to fight, sick and dying, for years," Mr. Stewart said. "And I'm not saying that the information may have changed the outcomes, unfortunately for their families, but I guarantee you it would not have been the struggle that it was to get people to recognize that what they all knew, and what we all knew who live in downtown Manhattan, is that there was poison in the air."

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