Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Sunday’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver saw its host faced with the unenviable task of having to sum up a week that included four days of the Democratic National Convention, the scandal that saw Debbie Wasserman-Schultz removed as head of the Democratic committee, and the late-breaking series of statements that Donald Trump has made about Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American soldier who died in Iraq. Khan’s speech at the convention eviscerated Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and challenged him by saying “You sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Trump’s response, given to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, was fairly mind-boggling, including a none-too-subtle dig at Muslin culture by intimating that Ghazala Khan didn’t speak at the convention because she wasn’t allowed to, and that he feels that he has made sacrifices, including that he “created thousands and thousands of jobs” and “built great structures.”
After summing up the events of the DNC, Oliver arrived at Trumps comments about the Khans, at which point he made his disgust known in no uncertain terms. “[Ghazala] has explained that she chose not to speak because she gets too upset when she sees images of her dead son’s face, you fucking asshole.” About the “sacrifices” comment, Oliver called it “self-serving half-truths from a self-serving half-man.” And to sum up, he said, “The main takeaway from these last two weeks is that, incredibly, we may be on the brink of electing such a damaged, sociopathic narcissist that the simple presidential duty of comforting the families of fallen soldiers may indeed be beyond his capabilities. And I genuinely did not think that was a part of the job that someone could be bad at.”
Thus far, various eviscerations from the late-night hosts — Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee — haven’t seemed to have much effect on Trump’s popularity. If indeed Oliver was only preaching to the choir on Sunday, it was a hell of a sermon. Short, acidic, and genuinely angry.
