John Oliver Discusses Trump’s Defense Strategy On ‘Last Week Tonight’
On Sunday’s latest episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver scrutinized President Trump’s tactics to defend himself in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, according to The Guardian.
Referring to the almost two-year-long scandal as “Stupid Watergate,” Oliver discussed the president’s recent defense of his son Donald Jr. and the ongoing Paul Manafort trial.
“We begin with yet another development in the scandal that we’ve been calling Stupid Watergate,” Oliver began. “Like Watergate, except instead of the inspiring Oscar-winning movies, it’ll eventually be the basis of direct-to-cable comedies featuring fart jokes and Larry the Cable Guy.”
“With investigators seemingly closing in on multiple fronts, the president this week was apparently worried,” he continued, going on to play a brief clip of news coverage revealing that Trump has raised concerns about his eldest son’s possible legal jeopardy due to the now notorious Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya that occurred prior to Trump’s election in June 2016.
Oliver weighed in on the matter, commenting, “That seems pretty possible, to be honest. On the long list of things Don Jr is likely to wander into, legal jeopardy is right up there with the women’s dressing room and a screen door.”
President Trump, however, publicly denied the recent rumors that he is concerned about his son’s legal bearing in a tweet on Sunday, in which he ended up admitting, “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!”
Stunned by Trump’s blatant admission that the Trump Tower meeting was not, in fact, about Russian adoption but was rather about getting leverage on a political opponent from a foreign entity, Oliver responded, “There’s so much wrong there.”
“From the fact that it undermines the excuse he supposedly dictated that this meeting was about Russian adoptions, to claiming he didn’t know about it and, if he did nothing, happened,” he continued.
“But perhaps the most galling line in there,” Oliver joked, “is describing Don Jr as a wonderful son. He’s barely the most wonderful Donald Trump!”
Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
Going on to discuss Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s trial, Oliver referred to Manafort, who has been charged with 32 crimes, including money laundering, tax evasion, bank fraud, and obstruction, as “a man who could be convicted of every single crime on earth and still not be as guilty as he looks.”
“Broadly,” Oliver continued, “I think the argument there is Paul Manafort’s less of a criminal than America’s most famous criminal.”
