John Oliver tackles ‘pathetic’ coronavirus response, Bill Barr’s ‘dangerous’ enabling
The HBO host produced an hourlong episode prior to Tuesday's election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuVo4fnpLC8
In the last episode of “Last Week Tonight” before the 2020 general election, John Oliver stretched the show’s running time to a full hour and tackled two primary topics in one: Donald Trump’s “staggering incompetence” around the coronavirus, and how Attorney General Bill Barr has embraced Trump as the ideal vessel for his “unitary executive theory.”
Oliver showed why he felt it was necessary to once again examine Trump’s COVID-19 response by showing news clips of voters who said Trump was “doing the best he can” with the pandemic.
“Is he?” Oliver questioned. “I guess that depends, doesn’t it? Is he doing the best that any president can or the best that he can? Because if it’s the second one, you may actually be right. We should all be grateful that he hasn’t bottled his urine and started selling it as ‘Trump Immunity Juice.’”
After rehashing the mistakes the Trump administration has made during the last eight months, Oliver showed how Trump had failed to follow any of the CDC’s six major methods for handling a crisis: Be First, Be Right, Be Credible, Express Empathy, Promote Action, and Show Respect.
Specifically, Oliver highlighted the empathy portion as a quality Trump had failed to show time and time again. In one clip in the Oval Office, Trump barely listens as the president of the American Nurses Association described the PTSD medical workers were experiencing due to COVID-19’s death toll, insufficient PPE, and refrigerator trucks being used as improvised morgues. In response, Trump interjects and offers everyone commemorative pens.
“This virus has taken so much from us: our peace of mind, our routines, and nearly a quarter of a million Americans,” Oliver said. “And it’s frankly pathetic that in response, the only thing Trump has offered people in this country over the past eight months are damaging lies, staggering incompetence, and occasionally when he’s feeling generous, some s***** f****** pens.”
Oliver then moved onto Attorney General William Barr, who Oliver reminded viewers was hailed as a potential “adult in the room” when he was appointed to the position in 2019. Instead of reigning in Trump’s worst tendencies, Oliver said, Barr has enabled them, by pushing the “unitary executive theory” that the president’s powers cannot be checked by the other branches of government — or anyone else, for that matter.
“He is a driven, deeply moralistic man with extreme views on executive power, actually making him one of the more dangerous figures in the Trump administration — which I know is saying something,” Oliver said, of Barr. “But if Trump gets a second term, Barr is only going to be more dangerous going forward.”
Barr, who Oliver showed using archival clips has been fervently in support of strong authority forces since early childhood, would likely use a second term to argue that “a moral order must be imposed, and by force,” according to the host.
As Barr has made clear in decades of service and actions, Barr’s idea of moral order may be a bit more extreme than an average American. In seeking that moral order, Barr has found his “dream president” in Trump, Oliver argued.
“Barr isn’t just fighting to give the president power on principle, he wants to give this president power so he will use it against the people that Barr thinks are ruining society,” Oliver concluded.
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