Al Madrigal's got a question for Puerto Rican statehood supporters: what do you want with this mess?
"The Daily Show" correspondent visited a protest demanding Congress to make Puerto Rico the 51st state, just as Congressional dysfunction wound up dealing the U.S. public a self-inflicted funding wound known as the sequester.
"These people had just witnessed the American government's inability to function in any way, and yet they want in," Madrigal said in the segment.
Statehood failed to receive the majority of votes in a non-binding referendum on the island's status held during the November elections. The two-part referendum first asked whether Puerto Ricans were happy with the current relationship with the United States. A majority said they were not.
A second question asked if voters wanted to become a U.S. state, an independent country, or a freely associated state -- a type of independence in close alliance with the United States. Some 61 percent of those who answered the question chose statehood, but over 470,000 voters intentionally left the second question blank -- leaving statehood with just 45 percent of the total vote.
Statehood supporters insist the inconclusive vote gives Congress and the White House a mandate to consider admitting Puerto Rico as a state. Neither Obama nor Congress have budged.
Watch Madrigal grill Puerto Rican representative Pedro Pierluisi, filibuster a protester and sacrifice Delaware in the video above. And check out 5 reasons why Puerto Rico won't become a state anytime soon below.
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