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John Oliver Dives Deep Into Trump's 'Stupid Watergate'
By
John Del Signore
Published May 22, 2017
Modified May 22, 2017
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 22, 2017
Modified May 22, 2017
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John Oliver turned the full force of his comedic firehouse on the Trump administration last night, setting aside a planned segment on the TSA to focus instead on what he's calling "Stupid Watergate," a "scandal with all the potential ramifications of Watergate, but where everyone involved is stupid and bad at everything." For anyone whose head has been spinning from the recent geyser of allegations leaking from the White House, Oliver's segment is a cathartic recap of everything that went down last week.
The 24 minute long examination of the administration's bubbling crises attempts to break down all the news with four simple yet incisive questions: “What the f-ck is going on?” “How big a deal is this?” “Where do we go from here?” and “Is this real life?” Oliver's incredulity is electric: "Can you even remember how this week began?!" he shouts with wide-eyed astonishment. And then it's off to the stupid races.
The segment's highlight, perhaps, is when Oliver considers the NY Times report that, one day after firing FBI Director James Comey, Trump bragged to high-ranking Russian officials in the Oval Office that he fired Comey because he was “a real nut job” and that “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” Oliver: "It’s almost difficult to believe your ears when you hear something so audaciously corrupt. It’s like if Hillary Clinton had sent an email with the subject line: ‘Sup—I did Benghazi.'"
But at the end of it all, Oliver soberly points out that given Republicans' control of the House and Senate, Trump is unlikely to be impeached, even if the Justice Department concludes that he could charged with obstruction of justice. "The likelihood is that Trump will survive this and continue as president, which shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone,” Oliver concludes. “Why would this be the end of the line for him? Trump has seemed to reach the end of the line on multiple occasions only for nothing to happen." It was ever thus.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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