John Oliver Tackles Trump’s ‘Shocking and Utterly Inevitable’ Positive Diagnosis: ‘White House Has Handled This Situation Terribly’
During Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver tackled President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis — explaining why the White House has “handled the situation terribly,” every step of the way.
Oliver pointed out that Trump’s positive diagnosis taken over some other major stories, such as his questionable rallying cry to the Proud Boys, Melania’s war on Christmas, and the $750 Trump paid in taxes. All of those bombshell stories became irrelevant once the president and first lady tested positive for the coronavirus.
“It was news that felt both shocking and utterly inevitable,” said Oliver, referring to the president’s rocky relationship with masks.
“I put a mask on when I think I need it,” Trump said at the debate last week before mocking Joe Biden. “I don’t wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away, he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
Oliver noted that Biden wears a mask when it’s dangerous not to and joked that Trump would probably avoid a beekeeper suit even when keeping bees.
“Look, obviously, the president having the coronavirus is a very big deal, and we’re recording this on Saturday, so who knows what’s happened over the last 24 hours,” he noted. “What I do know is that so far, the White House has handled this situation terribly. First, the news only came out after reporters discovered that one of Trump’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, who traveled with him to the debate, had tested positive, prompting the obvious question of when the president had been exposed, and what he’d done about it.”
Oliver pointed out that even though Hicks tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, and the president had contact with her that week, Trump still traveled to a fundraiser in New Jersey.
“So many of the decisions that Trump and those around him made this week look absolutely appalling in hindsight, from his family refusing to wear masks at Tuesday’s debate, to failing to notify anyone on the Biden team that they may have been exposed, to the fact that the fundraiser he attended just before testing positive was a fucking buffet,” the host added. “But maybe the event that looks the worst took place last weekend.”
He was referring to Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination ceremony at the Rose Garden, during which the president announced her as the pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The event was likely a superspreader event, as many attended maskless, there was very little social distancing, and many guests even hugged or shook hands. A number of guests have since contracted the coronavirus, including Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) and former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
“The frustrating thing is Republicans seem to be handling this outbreak the way they handled the whole pandemic — with a mixture of denialism, hubris and treating it more as a PR crisis than one of public health which has had huge knock-on effects,” Oliver said. “This week, more than ever, proves that in the midst of a pandemic, when you act without caution, you cannot expect the virus to simply ‘stand back and stand by.'”
