John Oliver Shares His Deeply Cynical Trump Verdict Take

HBO
HBO

John Oliver might’ve felt so ecstatic watching the jury convict Donald Trump on Thursday, but the late-night host quickly curbed our enthusiasm by predicting that the former president could still somehow win his way back into the White House this November.

Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in a scheme to illegally influence his 2016 presidential election by paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about Trump’s extramarital dalliance with her.

Oliver opened his latest episode of Last Week Tonight on Sunday by reporting: “A New York businessman got into some legal trouble, which was undeniably fun to watch unfold live.”

He then shared a clip of NBC News anchor and legal correspondent Laura Jarrett reading aloud the first 23 guilty verdicts from the New York City jury. Oliver stopped the clip after Jarrett read count 23, then quipped: “And it is so satisfying to watch, I’d honestly be surprised if someone hadn’t already uploaded it to PornHub by now.”

But he then put a damper on it by adding: “Anyway, that will be so fun to remember five months from now when we’re all watching that exact anchor count the 270 electoral votes that Trump’s won because nothing matters and we live in a broken world.”

That said, Oliver might not remain so nihilist about the impact of having a convicted felon still in the running for the presidency.

“There might well be more to say about this after the sentencing,” he said.

Judge Juan Merchan will sentence Trump on July 11.

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