Late Night: Jon Stewart ties Michele Bachmann to Islamic terrorism

By Meredith Blake

July 20, 2012 12 AM PT

On Thursday night, Jon Stewart added his voice to the growing chorus of criticism directed at Rep. Michele Bachmann and her campaign against Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton (as well as the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat).

Late last week, the former presidential candidate and four other Republican representatives sent a letter to top intellgence officials urging them to investigate Abedin’s alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. The letter has been met with fierce criticism, even earning her a harsh rebuke on the Senate floor from fellow conservative John McCain.

Stewart started out by ridiculing the dubious logic behind Bachmann’s conspiracy theory. “Oh, my God, it’s the perfect cover: An America-hating Muslim extremist gets a high-profile stringent background check job with the former first lady, marries a pro-Israel Jewish guy and begins producing Muslim Zionist terror baby armies,” he joked. “Has9/11taught us nothing, people?”

He then suggested that, using Bachmann’s criteria, almost anyone could be connected to Islamic extremists — including the congresswoman herself.

In fact, Stewart found a much more direct link between terrorism and Bachmann than the one she’d asserted between Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2008, her campaign received a donation from HSBC, a bank currently under fire for its ties to Al Qaeda financiers.

“Hmmm … maybe there should be an investigation,” Stewart said.

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Follow Meredith Blake on Twitter @MeredithBlake