30 most scorching Jon Stewart takedowns of Republicans

24. Stewart refuses to let Sarah Palin play the victim

Following the attempted murder of politician Gabbi Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, many noted the eerie coincidence relating the tragedy to Sarah Palin’s political campaign. A year prior, Palin had released on her website a map which “targeted” certain congressional seats with crosshairs— including that of Giffords. Giffords herself, sadly enough, sort of predicted the shooting when she suggested that there are “consequences” to using such imagery.

While Palin certainly didn’t actually expect a tragedy of this magnitude to unfold with Giffords, whether or not it had anything to do with her website, she was still quick to play the victim card. She seemingly commanded sympathy as if she were the one fighting for life in a hospital bed, lucky to even be breathing.

Palin did an interview on Hannity in which she professes to be unfairly persecuted as an accessory to murder. After first suggesting that the shooter alone is to blame for the crime— which Stewart agreed with— Palin then herself brought politics into it, inferring that the killer was a “left-leaning” criminal. After pointing out the holes in her logic, Stewart summed up Palin with the following statement:

“You have become a lighting rod less for your clarity of vision, but more for your ability to turn any criticism of you of into persecution of you.”

Next: 23. Speaking of Sarah Palin...