John Oliver’s latest episode of Last Week Tonight took on the Democratic convention’s most memorable happenings. These were few, but the most singularly outrageous moment carried over to Sunday night when Mike Pence tried to gloss over Donald Trump’s antics to no avail. The controversy began during a DNC speech when Khizr Khan — the father of a fallen Muslim U.S. soldier who received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart — whipped out the constitution and questioned whether Trump had even read the document or visited Arlington National Cemetery. Khan concluded, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” To this, Trump claimed to have made “a lot of sacrifices” and mused over whether Khan lets his wife speak out loud.
Oliver called Khan’s speech a “devastating” one, and he was inspired by “an American founding document being inspirationally used as a middle finger.” Overall, the host was admittedly thrilled, for the speech “engendered in me a level of emotion that I did not think was possible” after watching Trump’s campaign progress for the past year or so. Here’s what Oliver thought of Trump’s deflecting maneuvers that took on an insulting nature:
“Okay. For a start, his wife has explained that she chose not to speak because she gets too upset when she sees images of her dead son’s face, you f*cking asshole … 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 actually be beyond his capabilities, and I genuinely did not think that was a part of the job someone could be bad at.”
For what it’s worth, Oliver wasn’t pleased with the Democrats either. He especially wasn’t a fan of Tim Kaine’s DNC speech, which swiftly turned into an impression of Trump. Oliver hints at this being waste of time, which delivered “no chance” for Democratic victory. But Oliver feels inspired — a grand compliment coming from such a cynic — by Khan’s grand moment against Trump, and he hopes that the Republican nominee’s response will forecast a harsh reality to the voting public.