
John Oliver Washington DC H 2015
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John Oliver leaped to the defense of Washington, D.C. on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, as the District itself isn’t sufficiently represented on The Hill.
Because the U.S. Constitution gives Congress a majority of power over how the District is run, “as far as documents demanding control go, it’s right up there with the one Christian Grey made Anastasia Steele sign in 50 Shades of Grey.”
And though the District’s Congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has repeatedly tried to fight for the region’s statehood, she ultimately has what Oliver summed up as “pretend power, like a child watching Dora the Explorer.”
Oliver outlined the rider-filled process that the District must follow to pass new laws on everything from needle-exchange programs during the AIDS crisis to marijuana use just last November — one that often leads the “fairly liberal and diverse” region to effectively clash with Congress, “which is frequently neither of those things.”
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“It seems that Congress just forces riders on D.C. whenever they disapprove of how they’re spending their own money. They are treating more than 600,000 people right now like children,” he explained before debuting a new version of common 50 states songs with a crowd of kids. “And if you’re totally convinced that there should be just fifty states, well then let’s all kick out Florida ’cause no one thinks they’re great.”
Watch the video below.
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