John Oliver returned from his summer vacation on Sunday night, and to kick things back into gear, he brought a laundry list of reminders of every time President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein have been linked over the years.
To start his show, the HBO host conceded they’d missed a lot — including the “terrible” cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” something Trump has delighted in and threatened other talk shows with — but wanted to carve out time to talk about the ongoing criticisms Trump is facing for the Epstein files.
Oliver noted that “it’s understandable” that Trump can’t even convince his own base to stop talking about the files, let alone anyone else.
“Because to do so, you essentially have to believe everything we’ve learned about Trump over the years is irrelevant or sheer coincidence,” Oliver explained, launching into a list of said things we’ve learned.
“That all Trump did was repeatedly host Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, have him at his wedding, hang out with him at Victoria’s Secret fashion shows, get listed as a passenger on his plane eight times, joke with him at a party while pointing out hot women and saying something into his ear that got the most grotesque smile in the history of human expressions, tell a reporter ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years, terrific guy. He likes beautiful women almost as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,’ and allegedly host a calendar girl competition, where other than the two dozen or so women flown in to provide the entertainment, the only guests were him and Jefferey Epstein!” Oliver recited.
The HBO host then reminded audiences of the president’s own public treatment of women over the years.
“You’d also have to forget about Trump bragging about his ability to grab women’s genitals, and claiming he’d go backstage at his beauty pageants while women were getting dressed, something he was accused of doing by five Miss Teen USA contestants, and once remarking of his own infant daughter Tiffany that ‘She’s got Marla’s legs, we don’t know whether or not she’s got this yet, but time will tell,’” Oliver said.
“Beyond that though, there’s nothing there!” he continued. “Except for a jury finding him liable for sexual abuse, but other than that, there’s nothing to see!”
Oliver noted that Trump has denied many of these allegations and reports, and that it’s at least a small possibility that the president being named in the Epstein files “shows nothing more” than that they were “two creeps who enjoyed one another’s company.”
The late night host doesn’t necessarily believe that though, and is delighted by the fact that social media posts from the Trump administration are still being flooded with comments demanding the files.
“But even if that is the case, and Trump still eventually ends up consumed by the conspiracy monster he cynically helped create and now can’t control, then at least that’ll be a sliver of something that’s frankly been in short supply in this whole Epstein story. And that is actual justice.”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” airs Sunday nights at 11 p.m. ET on HBO.
