John Oliver Trashes Donald Trump and the RNC for Validating Feelings Over Facts

“The entire convention was a mismanaged shit show.”


After a monthlong break, John Oliver returned to Last Week Tonight on Sunday to take on Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention, an event he described as a “mismanaged shit show.”

While the convention included such chaotic incidents as Melania Trump’s stolen speech and Sen. Ted Cruz getting booed off stage, Oliver revealed one disturbing theme that was able to emerge through all the confusion—and that was validating misguided emotions to create a sense of imminent threat.

“It was a four-day exercise in emphasizing feelings over facts,” Oliver said, while showing clips of various speakers repeating the theory that President Barack Obama is a Muslim or that the country’s violent crime rate is rising. 

Watch above to see the segment break down all the RNC’s craziness.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate