‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ Addresses How Donald Trump Almost Brought Us To The “Brink Of War With Iran”
Donald Trump had quite a week and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver examined his rough journey that included a horrifying assault accusation, ICE raids and how he brought us “right to the brink of war” with Iran, which is just the latest in escalating tensions with the country.
This week, Iran shot down a U.S. drone and Trump was about to strike back. Oliver pointed out how it was not just an ordinary drone before throwing it to a clip of Fox News anchors saying “this is not a drone you get from Amazon.”
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“Yes, we all knew this wasn’t some drone you get from Amazon,” quipped Oliver before saying that the U.S. would normally coordinate an international response to something like this, but countries are slow to come to our side. This could because Trump pulled out of the Iran deal and how he imposed sanctions on them and countries buying Iranian oil, leaving him isolated. Oliver said he is stuck between “warring factions” in both his administration and on the Fox News Channel.
Sean Hannity is pro-war while Oliver said Greg Gutfeld had “an interesting theory why war with Iran would be virtually painless.” He played a clip of Gutfeld saying that “drones are replacing bones” and how this war would be a war of “stuff vs. stuff” before adding that the U.S. “has the best stuff.”
“That is breathtakingly stupid,” said Oliver bluntly.
He then went on to say that Tucker Carlson was surprisingly the voice of reason in all this as he privately told Trump responding with force would be crazy. “The voice of reason here is a man who wore a bowtie well into his 40s despite being not in the nation of Islam as a person could possibly be,” he joked.
Since Trump is receiving conflicting advice, it has caused him to think out loud which Oliver said is “terrifying.” He played a clip of Trump explaining why the Iran strike wasn’t that bad. Basically, Trump said there was “no man in the drone.” Oliver responded by saying if there was a man in the drone, it would have been a plane.
Oliver then explained, “The manner in which we got so close should be a genuine concern with everyone.” He continued that after Trump called off the strike at the last minute, it was chilling to watch his mind at work in how he got to that decision. “It’s chilling to watch 40 seconds of his mind at work,” said Oliver. He then threw it to a clip of Trump on Meet the Press talking about the casualties that would have happened if the strike happened. Again, he confused a drone with a plane before he said he “didn’t like” the fact that there would be 150 people dead.
“It’s amazing to watch him do the right thing in the same exact style that he does the wrong thing,” said Oliver of the clip. “Many of the same ingredients were there: joyously quoting ppl calling him sir; expressing childlike disbelief that he gets to hang out with generals; needlessly pointing out that the potential dead were, in this case, Iranians; correctly identifying what was shot down as a drone before correcting it to the wrong answer as plane…and of course telling a lie that makes him look good.”
Oliver wrapped up the segment by saying: “Considering the ingredients this might have been the best possible outcome…It’s like watching someone put chicken guts, Jell-O and human hair into an oven and then take out a cake 20 minutes later. I’m relieved and sort of amazed with where we ended up. The problem is I’m honestly worried that next time if you put the same garbage through this process, this probably isn’t going to be the results we’re all going to get.”
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