John Oliver warns viewers that the election of Donald Trump ‘is not normal’
“A Klan-backed misogynist internet troll is going to be delivering the next State of the Union address, and that is not normal.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSDUsMwakI
In the final episode of Last Week Tonight for the year, John Oliver delved deeply into his concerns about President-elect Donald Trump, warned of the negative effect fake news has had on our democracy, and gathered a group of celebrity guests to send off 2016 with a gigantic “f*** you.”
Oliver spent most of the show wrapping his head around the election of Trump, and warning viewers not to let the prospect of President Trump become normalized.
“Keep reminding yourself this is not normal,” Oliver said. “A Klan-backed misogynist internet troll is going to be delivering the next State of the Union address, and that is not normal.”
Oliver also criticized cable news organizations that have already shifted to a “wait and see” approach, telling viewers to give Trump a chance before judging what his presidency will look like.
“Giving him a chance in the sense of not speaking out immediately against policies he’s proposed is dangerous,” Oliver said. “Because some of them are alarming.”
Oliver then lamented the viral spread of fake news on social media, which has sowed distrust of legitimate news and made it so there is no longer a consensus on what constitutes a fact.
“This cesspool of nonsense would be a problem anyway, were it not that one of the people in thrall to it is our future president,” Oliver said, before playing clips of NBC News’s Chuck Todd and Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly confronting Trump for sharing completely false stories and statistics on his Twitter page.
Trump’s response to Todd? “What do I know about it? I only know what’s on the internet.”
Oliver finished the show with an airing of grievances about the worst year in recent memory, talking to New Yorkers on the street about what went wrong in 2016, and gathering celebrities like Larry David, Amy Schumer, Jeffrey Tambor, and Nick Offerman to say, “F*** you, 2016.”
Following a final profane send-off, Oliver blew 2016 to smithereens.
https://gifs.com/gif/president-elect-trump-last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-hbo-Rg59XR
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com