John Oliver commented on the conflict in Iran on Sunday Last week tonight.
“Now, despite the relentless bombing, the United States has been unable to prevent Iran from striking targets throughout the region and closing the Strait of Hormuz,” he summed up on his HBO show. “The news wasn’t great, so on Thursday, [United States Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth decided to speak to the American public directly.
Oliver showed a clip of Hegseth speaking about the situation in the Middle East at a press conference: “I stand here today talking to you, the American people. Not through filters, not through reporters, not through newscasts. … Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. They are you, the good, decent, patriotic American people. You, the hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing American patriots.”
Oliver quipped: “Well, put aside the whole Hegseth vibe there – which is ‘Welcome to my birthday dinner. One of you has been poisoned” – you don’t actually need to announce who you are and don’t talk to you. There’s a reason I don’t start this show by saying, “Hey, hey, hey, fuck this studio audience. I hope they jump in the Hudson River if they don’t laugh, that’s on them. Anyway, it’s been a busy week. “Maybe I think so, but I would never say so.”
The attack was dubbed “Epic Fury”, and Oliver wasted no opportunity to poke fun at the nickname.
“It’s definitely the stupidest name I’ve ever heard,” he said. “It’s like the VHS tape Hegseth dug out of himself while playing karate in the garage. It’s like the name of an energy drink marketed to ultimate monster truck enthusiasts that has so much caffeine it’ll make you shit your pants while having a heart attack.”
Oliver then offered an interview with a woman at a gas station, where prices have been rising since the start of the military operation, and noted that she had voted for President Trump three times.
“It was bad for me,” she said. “I seem foolish.” When asked what she would say to Trump if he would listen to her, she replied: “You are a worthless pile of shit.”
“You know what they say, ‘Fool me once, shame on you,'” Oliver said. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, there’s going to be a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, and my land trip to St. Louis is about to cost more than my car.”
Oliver then noted that Trump declared that the United States “won the war” and said that the president “seems desperate to portray this situation as more stable than it actually is.”
On Friday, Trump told reporters: “Oh, I think we’ve won. We’ve destroyed their Navy, their Air Force. We’ve destroyed their anti-aircraft, we’ve destroyed everything. We’re roaming free. From a military standpoint, all they’re doing is blocking the Strait, but from a military standpoint, they’re done.”
Oliver replied: “Oh, well, that’s great news, but here’s the rub. He already declared that we won the war 11 days ago. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it seems to have been going on ever since. And I have to say, for all of this administration’s disdain for news distribution, and their insistence on spreading the truth, they are stretching the truth to the breaking point here, because even as Trump claims we won, the Pentagon is requesting $200 billion in additional funding for this operation, which certainly suggests it will continue for a while. He also claimed that we have destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability, which is hard to believe, given that they are somehow still able to strike several other countries in the region, and twice this week he claimed that a former president supported his decision to go to war, something that everyone has since denied.
“The lies have become pretty blatant here, even by this president’s standards, and people are no doubt taking notice. In fact, you could argue that the only laser-focused, irrefutable ‘epic rage’ that came out this week was this blast targeting him,” he added, replaying a clip in which the woman was quoted as saying: “You’re a worthless pile of bullshit.”
