Election Day last Tuesday turned into an extended Election Week that was a complete blur of constant news alerts, vote counting updates, and deliriously strange press conferences. Suffice to say, a lot happened last week before media outlets projected Joe Biden would secure enough electoral votes to be the next president of the United States—and thankfully, John Oliver and Last Week Tonight are here to give us a recap and some much-needed perspective on what just happened.
Before jumping back to the events of the week, he started with the celebrations that took place throughout the country on Saturday once the Biden call was made. “It was like that all day here in New York," Oliver said. "There was a mood here that can only be described as a reverse 9/11. Why? Because it combined complete euphoria and abiding disgust for Rudy Giuliani. And this time, people were actually dancing on the rooftops in New Jersey. It was a really good day! Never forget."
Oliver explained that it's hard to overstate the levels of relief throughout many parts of the country after what he described as "a truly draining week.” The week included days of tension over the slow vote count, Trump's baseless allegations of voter fraud and false declaration of victory on Tuesday, the contradictory messaging by the Trump team to count the vote and stop counting the vote, and various Trump children and surrogates spreading blatant misinformation.
He did commend Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for comparing a particularly "unhinged" Giuliani press conference with a bad House of Cards episode. “It’s like House of Cards because it’s full of political intrigue, there’s a sexual predator pretending to be president at the very heart of it and it’s gone on for four seasons too long," Oliver noted.
There was the guy in the “BBQ, Beer and Freedom” t-shirt; various Trump lawsuits that were completely dismissed by judges; and the arguments over Republican poll watchers, and hilariously flimsy fraud claims.
“Here's the really important thing: after this absolute year of a week — the days of counting, the misinformation, the desperate, pathetic attempts to paint this process as fraudulent — the fact is Trump lost this election," Oliver said. "He lost! All that bullshit which we’ve grown accustomed to seeing work did not work this time." And while Trump and his family will continue "grifting and lying" as they do, “once he’s out of the White House, it’s just not going to have the same effect anymore. It’s not going to directly impact every American’s life and that alone is fucking fantastic."
"There will be big systemic institutional problems we need to talk about in the months and the years to come, and we will,” Oliver added. “But for now, after what’s just happened, I frankly think that we have all earned the right to put on our masks, go outside, and party like octopuses on fucking ecstasy."
