John Oliver Torches Ted Cruz, Rick Perry for Their Actions Amid Texas Power Crisis: ‘Ultimate Example of Self-Defeating Texan Swagger’

For the second week in a row, John Oliver went after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight — torching the senator and fellow Texas Republicans for their various mistakes amid the climate crisis in their state.

The host first mocked Cruz for telling the world he was “bullied into international travel by twins” before consequently getting “cyber-bullied into coming home by the internet, leaving his wife to solo parent two kids on vacation in another country while trying to figure out who in her mom group doxxed her.”

“It’s all amazing,” added the host.

Oliver later went after former Texas governor Rick Perry for claiming Texans would rather lack power than have federal regulations, calling him the “ultimate example of self-defeating Texan swagger this week.”

“Oh, fuck off, Rick Perry,” Oliver added. “Far be it from me to question the wisdom of a man who failed running for president twice, and who came in 12th on Dancing With the Stars, meaning he lost to Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, and Vanilla Ice.”

Going after a third conservative figure for their questionable actions amid the Texas storm, Oliver mocked Fox News host Tucker Carlson for pinning the crisis on green energy.

“Texas saw a full-blown humanitarian crisis this week, with many losing electricity and access to clean water, hospitals having to evacuate patients and dozens of deaths,” said Oliver. “And if you watched Fox News, there was one culprit for all of this: green energy. Because multiple hosts placed the blame firmly on frozen wind turbines—and none more loudly than this guy.”

Oliver then cut to a clip of Carlson railing against green energy and windmills, mocking them as “silly fashion accessories.”

“The windmills failed, like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died,” Carlson said, adding, “Green energy means a less reliable power grid—period. It means failures, like the ones we’re seeing now in Texas. That’s not a talking point, it’s not a political slogan, we’re not taking money from ExxonMobil to say it. Again, that is true. It’s science.”

“Ok, first, we know Exxon Mobile isn’t paying you, of course, no one is,” Oliver jeered. “Your show has lost so many advertisers you’re basically being bankrolled by a man in a sexual relationship with a pillow. Second, just because you loudly insist something is science doesn’t make it science. That’s science. Finally, calling windmills silly fashion accessories is just absurd. The only time you could conceivably make that claim is when The Bachelor contestant, Deandra, dressed up as a windmill for her night one entrance.”

Oliver concluded the segment by asking viewers to help Texans by donating to feedingtexas.org.

Following his tangent on Texas, Oliver examined how poorly workers are being treated at meatpacking facilities, revealing, “It can be genuinely cheaper for companies to run an unsafe plant and occasionally pay those fines than for them to provide a safe work environment.”

“That fine amounts to .00003% of JBS’ profits last year,” Oliver said. “And if you fine a company a fraction of a percent of their profits, don’t be surprised when they carry on only giving a fraction of a fuck about the welfare of their workers.”

Watch above, via YouTube.