Following the U.S. military’s use of the so-called “Mother of All Bombs” (or MOAB) in Afghanistan last week, Fox & Friends played surveillance video of the strike with a soundtrack by country singer Toby Keith. Needless to say, the patriotic flourish didn’t sit well with many — including Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, who dedicated a moment of Sunday’s episode to the Fox News segment. What Oliver was specially interested in, however, was network personality Geraldo Rivera, who praised the MOAB’s use incessantly throughout the Fox & Friends clip.
“[Trump] is a man who responds to praise, and yet again, he’s being praised for this,” Oliver noted before replaying the segment. Toward the very end of the selection, Rivera delivered this rather unsettling bit of station flag-waving: “One of my favorite things in the sixteen years I’ve been here at Fox News is watching bombs drop on bad guys.” Needless to say, Oliver had a very strong opinion about Rivera’s comment:
“That’s a coincidence because one of my favorite things in four seasons of this show is getting to look directly into the camera and say, ‘F*ck you Geraldo! I hope your mustache gets caught in a box fan.’ Oh, that felt amazing! That felt absolutely amazing.”
The Last Week Tonight host also had plenty to say about Rivera’s followup, which included his suggestion that ISIS now viewed Trump as a bully — much like his high school bully, “a guy named Richie.” Basically, the Fox News pundit claimed “that they think Donald Trump is like Richie from my high school. I want the bad guys to think that he can do anything to them at any moment. I think that that has a positive impact.”
“This is why bullying never works,” Oliver replied. “If you have a bully in school, there’s a good chance he’s turning some kid into the next Geraldo Rivera. And if you have a bully in the White House, he does violent, impulsive things that seem to be inching us closer to, among other things, potential nuclear war with North Korea.” As much as Oliver’s enthusiasm and jokes swayed the Last Week Tonight audience, however, Rivera wasn’t too keen on being the comedian’s target come Monday morning.
To #JohnOliver #moab killed 90+ #ISIS. Remember them? baby killing terrorists, throat cutting savages who rape & burn religious minorities?
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) April 17, 2017
As of this writing, neither Oliver’s nor the Last Week Tonight Twitter accounts have responded to Rivera’s tweet. Then again, since the Fox News personality didn’t @ either in his brief tirade, there’s a good chance his anger on social media won’t see an official response until next Sunday’s episode of Oliver’s HBO program.
(Via Deadline)
