John Oliver Shreds Trump’s ‘Callous Indifference to Human Life’ Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

John Oliver ripped Donald Trump’s “callous indifference to human life” on Sunday while discussing the president’s conduct throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

On Last Week Tonight, Oliver used much of his show to address the misinformation Trump and his advisers have put out as the virus continues to put the world on edge. He started by looking at the recent press conference where Trump said that a vaccine would be ready within the year, just for health officials to factcheck in real time by saying it could be a year, to a year and a half before such a vaccine is ready.

“It now seems that every Trump press conference has to come with an epilogue from an expert clarifying all the things he just got wrong,” Oliver remarked. He then turned to Trump’s comments at the Center for Disease Control, where the president bragged of his “natural ability” for medical science, called Washington Governor Jay Inslee “a snake,” and claimed, “Anybody that needs a test gets a test; they’re there, they have the tests, and the tests are beautiful.”

“Set aside how weird it is to call a test for a deadly disease ‘beautiful.’ The fact is what he just said is flagrantly untrue,” said Oliver. “There are currently not enough available tests. You can’t just state something as a fact and wish it were true.”

Eventually, Oliver tore into Trump over not wanting 3,500 passengers to disembark from the Grand Princess cruise ship because nearly two dozen people on board have tested positive for the virus, and moving them off the ship and into quarantine would cause the U.S.’ case numbers to go up.

“If Trump had gotten his way and we had left people on board indefinitely, the infection would’ve likely spread more,” Oliver said. “I would say it’s impossible to have such a callous indifference to human life, but he does seem to have a ‘natural ability’ for it.”