John Oliver customarily keeps his cool when drolly eviscerating targets on Last Week Tonight, his Emmy-winning HBO late-night program. But on Sunday’s episode, dedicated to recapping the Democratic national convention, the British satirist’s temper notably flared when addressing Donald Trump’s recent controversial remarks concerning the emotional DNC speech made by Khizr Khan, the Muslim father of a US army captain, killed in the Iraq war.
Asked during an ABC News interview to comment on the criticisms leveled by Khan, whose wife, Ghazala, stood silent by his side during his speech, Trump insinuated that she was “not allowed” to speak because of her religion.
“She chose not to speak because she gets too upset when she sees images of her dead son’s face, you fucking asshole,” Oliver said to the camera.
Regarding Trump’s boasts that he too has made sacrifices, by running a business, employing “tens of thousands of people” and building structures, Oliver said: “No, they are absolutely not [sacrifices].
“They are self-serving half-truths from a self-serving half-man who has somehow convinced half the country that sacrifice is the same thing as success.”
“Honestly,” he added, “the main takeaway from these two weeks is that, incredibly, we may be on the brink of electing such a damaged, sociopathic narcissist, that the simple presidential duty of comforting the families of fallen soldiers may actually be beyond his capabilities – and I genuinely did not think that was a part of the job that someone could be bad at.”
Elsewhere during the segment, Oliver also poked fun at the DNC, saying it “showed the Democrats to be a coalition of constantly squabbling if fundamentally like-minded Katy Perry fans”.
