Jon Stewart Confronts Republican Ohio Senator With 9/11 Responders, Changes His Mind [Watch]

In the few short months since former "The Daily Show" host and political satirist Jon Stewart retired, he has been very vocal about his support for a 9/11 First Responders bill that would cover their healthcare and rehabilitation costs, which includes cancer patients linked to the terrorist event.

According to The Huffington Post, Stewart made a rare appearance in Washington, D.C. accompanied by 9/11 First Responders to persuade Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to sign on as a sponsor for the bill.

The timeline of this event came about in typical fashion, which involved the First Responders group making appearances at his office on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. That did not go well at all and they never got to meet with the Senator -- at least, not in the beginning. They simply did not get treated right and were shown to the door.

That is when Stewart came on the scene and they instead met with his chief of staff and the dialogue did not make for a reasonable outcome. But it took Stewart showing up before the chief of staff would even meet with them, which is distressing enough alone.

The simple fact was Stewart did not come all the way to Washington to walk away empty-handed. So he and the group decided to get proactive with the situation and track down the Senator, no matter where he was.

They finally caught up with him in the hallways underneath Capitol Hill and the Senator had no other choice but to take the impromptu meeting with Stewart and the group. That group also included a wheelchair-bound firefighter, Ray Pfeifer, who has stage four cancer that was linked to 9/11.

The awkward exchange started then, after he repeatedly refused to meet with them and started reciting what has generally been considered "canned verbiage" from the Republican Party about why they will not pass the bill.

"You know, I'm a budget guy, a member of the budget committee, and a former budget director, so we, our general approach is we have to find pay-fors, which is hard to find," Portman told Pfeifer.

Pfeifer immediately responded saying there was a "pay-for" before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) nixed it. Portman seemed to not realize that.

"I think everybody's at the end of their rope, and justifiably so," Stewart said. "It's sort of shameful for them to be let down by their own government when they went down there [ground zero] without any question whatsoever."

After the confrontation, Portman's chief of staff reportedly called and said that he has signed on as a sponsor for the bill.