On Sunday, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver spared no ire for Donald Trump’s “many sides” equivocation in response to the murder of Heather Heyer at an anti-Nazi demonstration after someone — suspected to be James Alex Fields, Jr., who was photographed alongside members of hate group Vanguard America earlier that day — drove into a crowd of people who were assembled in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the “Unite The Right” march.
The brief clip above serves as a play-by-play of the shameful press conference and disappointing followup which somehow let down even those with no expectations for respectable leadership from this administration. After making fun of the Tiki torches, Oliver played a clip of Trump’s statement:
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides… on many sides.”
To which Oliver went apoplectic, “On many sides? This was a white nationalist rally! You have to call that out by name!” Oliver went on to point out how much Nazis seem to like Trump, perhaps because “Nazis are a lot like cats. If they like you, it’s probably because you’re feeding them.”
Oliver also ran the clip where Trump returned to the podium after being asked about white supremacists, only to refuse to acknowledge what should be the easiest question ever: Hey, do you like Nazis? Oliver sums it up: “He had one last shot before the buzzer on the racism clock hit zero, and he threw an air ball so far it away it landed in the Third Reich. […] A non-answer in a moment like this is an answer.”
Oliver went on to say, even if Trump condemns white nationalists eventually, “It will be too late, because his first response is who he is.” Disavowing Nazis is “as much of a presidential gimme as pardoning a f*cking turkey. It is almost impossible to screw it up, but that’s exactly what happened.”
He ended on this final harrowing thought: “In a country where previous presidents have actually had to defeat Nazis, we now have one who cannot even be bothered to f*cking condemn them.”
