John Oliver wasted no time in going after those who took part in the Unite the Right 2 rally that took place near the White House over the weekend.
The rally found only a couple dozen white-nationalist supporters turn out in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of their first rally in Charlottesville, Va., which left one counterprotester dead.
“A massive dozens of white nationalists apparently gathered in D.C., where they were met by hundreds of counterprotesters calling them all assholes,” Oliver quipped on HBO’s Last Week Tonight on Sunday.
He then showed a CNN clip with chief national correspondent John King revealing a poll taken in late June finding that 49 percent of Americans think President Trump is racist, a stat King said he found surprising. Oliver agreed — sort of. “It is both shocking that it’s 49 percent, and it’s equally shocking that it’s only 49 percent. Because it’s not like he’s been hiding it, It has been [Trump’s] brand for decades now. It’s like only 49 percent of people thinking that Kermit is a frog. It’s in his name. Whether you like or hate that about him, you have to admit he’s a fucking frog.”
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As part of his anti-racism segment, Oliver also brought up America’s “regular dog-whistle racism” and showed a clip from Laura Ingraham’s Fox News Channel show, in which she opined: “In some parts of the country it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted up on the American people. And they’re changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don’t like…. Much of this is related to both illegal and, in some cases, legal, immigration that — of course — progressives love.”
Oliver’s response: “Wow. She just came right out and said it, in a scripted commentary, straight down the camera, knowing her mic was on. No ‘economic anxiety,’ no ‘some of them are good people.’ Just ‘I don’t want people who don’t look like [her].'”
He added: “You almost want to give her credit for honesty there, and then deduct twice as much credit, because she’s only just honest about how racist she is.”
Noting that former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke praised her remarks, Oliver said that should give one pause: “If, immediately after this taping, Dr. Larry Nassar caught me in the hallway and said, ‘Hey man, loved the show!’ I’d think long and hard about what the fuck I just said.”
