John Oliver held back tears during a breathtaking episode of Last Week Tonight devoted to discussing the scourge of police brutality in the United States, and Donald Trump‘s “f**king disgusting” response to the protests. “All week long, protesters have continued to fill the streets in all 50 states in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd by the police,” Oliver said on the June 7 episode. “And in response to those protests, which have been a stirring pushback against institutional racism and brutality, it’s been frankly sickening to see them met with this.”
https://twitter.com/a_fly_guy/status/1269843589053513728
Peaceful have been met with violence from police shielded by riot gear, who have teargassed and pepper sprayed them, thrown flash bombs, and shot them with rubber bullets. Though rubber bullets are “less than lethal,” they still cause massive injuries. Journalist Linda Tirado was blinded after being shot with one while reporting on live TV.
“If police are trying to convince the public they’re not guilty of displaying excessive force, it’s probably not a good idea to repeatedly display excessive force on national television — including in this city, where Mayor [Bill] de Blasio praised them for their ‘tremendous restraint’ and Governor [Andrew] Cuomo threatened to send in the National Guard,” Oliver explained.
I’d follow john oliver into hell tbh pic.twitter.com/znIvjj5zVz
— ˗ˏˋ jax ˎˊ˗ (@peachpucks) June 8, 2020
The talk show host went over just a few of the more outrageous things President Trump has done since the protests began in Minneapolis, including allegedly cowering in a bunker as protesters demonstrated in DC. “Now as for the president himself, he initially hid from the protesters in a bunker, later claiming he wasn’t hiding, he was just ‘inspecting’ it,” Oliver joked. “Then, his attorney general had police gas protesters outside the White House so that Trump could have an inexplicable photo op at a nearby church while holding up a Bible like it’s the ticket for his sandwich order that was just called.
“He also, in announcing jobs numbers on Friday, invoked George Floyd’s name, saying, ‘This is a great day for him,’ which is utterly f**king disgusting,” Oliver continued. “If you said the name ‘Macy’s’ more than you said the name ‘Breonna Taylor’ this week, you can very much f**k off.” Oliver ended the episode in tears, sharing a speech from activist Kimberly Jones whose words had been “echoing around my head.” Watch Kimberly speak HERE.