House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi admitted to
"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart Thursday she doesn't know why HealthCare.gov couldn't work properly.
Stewart burst out laughing, and asked, "What do you mean you don’t know? How do you not know?"
"Well, it's not my responsibility," Pelosi answered, but agreed that it was "appalling" and "shameful" that the website failed to function when it launched Oct. 1.
It may have been the most uncomfortable "Daily Show" interview with a Democrat since Oct. 8, when Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled by Stewart over the Obamacare rollout disaster.
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On Thursday, Stewart repeatedly pushed Pelosi to explain why government couldn't be made to function more efficiently. The California Democrat tried to blame tea party Republicans for being "anti-government, anti-science, anti-Obama,"
as she has said in previous interviews.
But Stewart wasn't happy with that answer, saying that since the Democratic Party believes government involvement is important to people's lives, they should be more forceful in countering Republicans, who believe in limited government.
Pelosi pushed slightly away from the table at one point as Stewart continued hammering his point that Democrats should be making sure government programs operate efficiently if they are going to say they are vital.
"Do we have a foundational problem? Is there a corruption in the system that needs to be addressed?" Stewart asked, pointing out the backlog of wounded veterans' claims and other problems.
Pelosi agreed there is a failure of inter-agency communication, adding, "OK, do something about it."
"I was actually going to say that to you," Stewart replied.
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