On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver wasted no time Sunday night diving into this past week’s House impeachment hearings.
Referring to the Trump-Ukraine scandal as “Stupid Watergate II,” the HBO host ripped Republicans — both on Capitol Hill and on Fox News, for trying to discredit the House investigation into President Donald Trump’s phone call asking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Oliver explained how the GOP is trying to throw Trump a lifeline — but he insisted it won’t work.
“The first technique is to insist that there is nothing to see here, because nothing happened,” he said before tossing to a clip of Fox News host Laura Ingraham arguing that Trump is in the clear because “attempted bribery isn’t in the constitution.”
Oliver said The Ingraham Angle host is was way off base.
“A crime doesn’t stop being a crime if it doesn’t work,” Oliver said. “If you tried to blow up an airliner and your vest doesn’t go off, you don’t get to go ‘well, no harm no foul,’ and then sit there watching Detective Pikachu for the rest of the flight.”
After referring to Warner Bros. film Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Oliver said there’s another key point Ingraham missed.
“Ukraine only got its aid after the House started asking questions. The Ukrainian president was days away from publicly announcing investigations, but canceled his announcement at the last minute after this story started breaking. So, the ‘nothing to see here ‘defense is pretty shaky,” he said.
Oliver also called out Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s argument that the only evidence against Trump is “hearsay.”
“Multiple people have gone on record saying the President was pressuring Zelensky for his own political gain, including his own chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who did so on camera,” Oliver stated. “So yes, the fact that there was quid pro quo is all ‘hearsay,’ in that you hear people say it all the f**king time.”
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs Sunday Nights on HBO.