Last Week Tonight was pre-empted by a clarification note for its Sunday audience: “This show was taped on Saturday, July 20.”
Sunday marked the return of host John Oliver to his HBO talk show after a nearly one-month hiatus and, even though his return to the Last Week desk was taped before the biggest news story that landed on Sunday, Oliver’s opening joke still landed: “Luckily, we didn’t miss much!”
In fact, he all-but predicted the news cycle would trump his monologue when the episode aired 24 hours after they taped.
In almost one breath, Oliver recounted the “catastrophic” election 2024 debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Trump then being shot in the ear during the failed assassination attempt that killed a rallygoer, and Biden saying he would reevaluate the 2024 race if a medical condition emerged before then coming down with COVID-19.
“The news is moving so fast,” said Oliver. “We are taping on Saturday. And who knows where things could be by the time you actually watch this?”
The biggest news story of the weekend, of course, landed on Sunday morning (after Oliver taped this episode) when Biden revealed his decision to end his 2024 campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket, sending TV news scrambling, despite prepping for the possible outcome.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter posted to his official social media, noting he will speak to the nation later this week.
Oliver began his main story talking about the Republic National Convention, which he called “the worst thing to happen to Milwaukee since Jeffrey Dahmer.” He pointed out the politicians onstage, “abject weirdos in the audience” — calling out the trend of attendees wearing bandages on their ears in support of Trump’s injury — and the “D-list” celebrity support from Hulk Hogan to Kid Rock.
The talk show host took issue with the promises of a “toned down” Trump and RNC in wake of the assassination attempt on his life. “A message of unity is not something traditionally associated with that event or this man,” said Oliver, who then took aim at Trump for coining the term “migrant crime.”
“Migrant crime is not on the rise. That is a fact,” he clarified. “What is also a fact, though, is that people now feel as though it is. And that feeling has the potential to cause massive harm. And all of this is making the genuine issues around immigration… that much harder. So, what can we do? Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we are currently four months out from an upcoming election. So just assume that the underlaying, ‘what can we do?’ for most of our U.S. stories from now until then is going to be: Do not vote for Donald Trump.”
It bears repeating, he said, repeating the message. “I’m not saying by any means that Biden is perfect, or even good, when it comes to immigration,” he continued. “But he, or whoever winds up being the Democratic candidate — because who on Earth knows anything about that right now?! — is going to be incontrovertibly better than the alternative.”
Referencing the bleak past few weeks of Democrats being anonymously quoted about “resigning themselves to a Trump presidency” before Biden dropped out, Oliver simply said, “Fuck that” to the prospect of another Trump White House.
