John Oliver Roasts Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: You’ve Accomplished Nothing Based on ‘Merit’
John Oliver went after White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner over their security clearance controversy on Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight.
Setting Oliver off was a New York Times report last week that found President Donald Trump ordered former chief of staff John Kelly to give Kushner, his son-in-law, top-secret security clearance, against the advice of officials and a White House lawyer.
“Jared is exactly where you’d expect a boy his age to be,” Oliver started, noting the 38-year-old’s responsibility to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict: “Trying to broker a peace deal in one of the most intractable conflicts in geopolitical history.”
“One major issue with Jared having access to state secrets is, you know, it’s Jared. A guy who, even among Jareds, stands out as the Jared of the group,” Oliver joked. “But the other issue with his top secret clearance concerns national security,” he continued, referencing a Washington Post report that officials from multiple foreign countries saw Kushner as “exploitable.”
Oliver made sure to go off on a diatribe about Kushner’s appearance, calling him a “17th Century portrait of a Dutch teenager.”
The Comedy Central host pointed out that administration officials have repeatedly denied Trump interfered with the security process, including Ivanka Trump, who in an interview with ABC said the president had no involvement in her and Kushner’s clearances.
“Oh, please,” said Oliver. “I honestly don’t know what’s sadder there: either Ivanka is knowingly lying about her Dad forcing her and Jared’s security clearance through, or she genuinely thinks they got it on merit on their own. And if it is the latter Ivanka, there are some things that you really should know.”
“You only became an executive vice president of the Trump Organization at 24 because you’re Donald Trump’s daughter, not because you are a 24-year-old business prodigy. You only got a book deal because you’re Donald Trump’s daughter, not because you’re a brilliant author and wordsmith. And you only hosted the Miss Teen USA pageant because your Dad owned the contest, not for your sparkling on camera presence.”
Watch above, via Comedy Central.
