John Oliver: Trump, Media, No ‘Consensus About What A Fact Is,’ ‘Actively Stand Up For One Another’ [Video]

John Oliver, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, spoke about President-elect Donald J. Trump’s election win and the ramifications for Americans on yesterday’s show.

The John Oliver Trump win analysis, which contains coarse language, began with Last Week Tonight showing a clip of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer calling the presidential race early Wednesday morning, with Donald Trump taking the stage in New York City to trumpets and fanfare.

“It turns out that instead of showing our daughters that they can someday be president, America proved that no grandpa is too racist to become leader of the free world,” went the Oliver Trump election win look.

Oliver described the realization that the president-elect of the United States is supported by a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, as well as the implications for the U.S. Supreme Court, as hitting him in “waves.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNQR6_qn13g

“Donald Trump is going to shape the Supreme Court for decades to come,” a clip featuring coverage of the election decision is played.

The Last Week Tonight host described the impact of the statement as being similar to learning that Henry Kissinger was endorsing “skinny jeans” or that Vanilla Ice had been awarded a Nobel Prize.

“He cannot believe what he’s looking at,” John Oliver said with regard to the expression on President Barack Obama’s face in photos taken with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday. The show added circus music to footage of Trump and Obama to laughs from the audience.

“You see? We’re laughing. We’re having fun. And then you remember, Trump’s going to be in charge of the military,” the Oliver Trump presidency hitting Americans in waves metaphor continued.

A clip of CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr speaking was played. She spoke about military officials hearing the president-elect speak about torture techniques and bombing campaigns, outside of current practice.

Starr also spoke about uncertainty surrounding statements Trump has made with regard to claiming the natural resources of countries like Iraq, which the United States has waged war upon.

“All of these things [are], potentially, very serious violations of international law, violations of the Geneva Convention,” Starr stated.

After playing a series of clips of journalists and others encouraging Americans to give Donald Trump “a chance,” John Oliver stated that “not speaking out immediately against policies that he has proposed is dangerous.”

A portion of a clip with Jake Tapper from CNN listing some of the president-elect’s promises was shown, including repealing Obamacare, building a Mexican border wall, deporting 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants, having a special prosecutor investigate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and a ban on Muslims entering the United States, before John Oliver pretended to beg the show’s producers to stop.

The president-elect appears to now be softening his stance on a border wall and set on deporting up to three million “criminal” undocumented immigrants, as previously reported by the Inquisitr.

“It sounds like you’re reading the to-do list on Satan’s refrigerator,” John Oliver said of Tapper’s pre-election Trump agenda.

The Last Week Tonight host addressed the view held by some that the president-elect cannot possibly be serious about all of the things he has proposed. Oliver concluded that this leaves two possibilities: the first being that Trump is insincere and lied his way through the election or a second that the American people have elected someone who sincerely intends to go through with everything he has suggested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32sMKLsR3zE

Oliver expressed that what Donald Trump is suggesting replacing Obamacare with might as well be named Trumpcare, for what the host perceives as their similarities. He went on the encourage the Last Week Tonight audience not to become complacent.

The host compared the president-elect to a “magic eight ball,” in that each time he is shaken he gives a different reply.

John Oliver suggested that Americans need to take “all of Trump’s promises seriously,” but that not every single policy he has proposed seems bad. Oliver applauded the Republican’s plan to “drain the swamp,” an attempt to rid Washington of influence-pedaling and corruption.

Oliver played a clip listing potential Trump cabinet members, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, anything but outsider political names, perhaps in conflict with the “drain the swamp” philosophy being sold.

The Last Week Tonight host noted “horrible” members of the Trump transition team: former Mayor Ken Blackwell and global warming skeptic Myron Ebell.

The show then turned to what John Oliver identified as a problem with the current state of the media.

Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the "Trump phenomena"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016

The @nytimes states today that DJT believes "more countries should acquire nuclear weapons." How dishonest are they. I never said this!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016

“There is no longer a consensus of what a fact is,” the host said with regard to some news outlets.

A clip reporting that 62 percent of Americans consume news through social media, resulting in an “echo chamber” atmosphere that allows fake stories to go viral, was played. Oliver showed internet memes containing completely incorrect quotes attributed to the president-elect and the pope.

The host took particular exception with the suggestion that Pope Francis would endorse Donald Trump, seeing independent candidate Joe Exotic as being more in line with what he sees as the pontiff’s preferences.

Oliver described an entire “cottage industry” in “hyper-partisan” click-bait and gave an example of Donald Trump taking part in it when the Republican stated that a protester who rushed the stage at a rally was a member of ISIS.

A clip of MSNBC’s Chuck Todd informing Trump that the man had no connection to the terrorist group and that a video the president-elect had linked to was a “hoax” was shown.

“What do I know about it?” Donald Trump stated. “All I know is what’s on the internet.”

The show turned back to a shot of John Oliver, seemingly cringing. He stated that information existing on the internet is not a “high bar for accuracy,” as members of the audience groaned.

Another clip featuring Fox News‘ Bill O’Reilly scolding Donald Trump over highly inaccurate statistics with regard to the number of deaths of blacks and whites at each other’s hands that he had tweeted.

“Hey Bill,” Donald Trump said to the senior broadcaster. “Am I going to check every statistic?”

“You’ve got to,” O’Reilly implored the then-presidential candidate.

Oliver called Trump’s maneuvering “evil genius.”

The host stated that even though Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks as though he may come from the 1950s, he thinks as though he’s from the 1650s.

John Oliver proceeded to compare Pence’s views on abortion with witchcraft and urged Americans to vote for members of Congress in two years as well as to follow legislation as it makes its way through the House.

Oliver explained that with Barack Obama, U.S. citizens have had a president who would “generally stand up” to protect their civil liberties.

“We’re going to have to actively stand up for one another,” the comedian stated.

Last Week Tonight then listed a number of organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the National Resources Defense Council, the International Refugee Assistance Project, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the TREVOR Project, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and encouraged Americans who are able, to contribute and get involved in any way they can.

As the audience howled in approval, John Oliver suggested making donations to the above organizations in the name of family members who are Donald Trump supporters.

“If I become president, oh they’re going to have such problems,” a clip of Trump speaking with regard to the media was played.

The Republican promised to “open up libel laws,” making it easier to sue journalists.

John Oliver explained that there is no “federal libel law” for Donald Trump to “open up.”

The host went on to admit that Trump’s seeming desire to punish members of the media is “genuinely worrisome” and encouraged Americans to support news outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and ProPublica.org, as well as local newspapers.

“Keep reminding yourself, this is not normal.”

[Featured Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]