Since Kamala Harris’ presidential election loss last Tuesday, many disappointed voters have criticized the Democratic party for a misdirected campaign that ultimately lost them the election — including their prioritization of celebrity endorsements, an outsized focus on social issues, such as abortion rights instead of the economy, and ignoring large swaths of the population, such as young, male voters.
However, John Oliver urges people to stop playing the blame game. “It is too early to have a definitive answer to [how Harris lost] but that has not stopped people from taking some big swings anyway,” the comedian and political commentator said during his first late night episode since the election.
“People are pointing the finger in all directions, from Latino voters to young men to Joe Rogan,” he continued. “You can basically play your own ‘Wheel of Blame’ and generally make sure it lands on whoever you were mad at in the first place. And to be honest, I get the appeal. It’s fun to blame people. Trump was literally just elected president again on a platform of doing exactly that.”
Oliver went on to take a jab at the least likely Democratic scapegoat: Katy Perry.
“I’d personally like to imagine that everything that happened is Katy Perry’s fault,” Oliver joked, citing the singer’s performance at Kamala Harris’s final rally the night before Election Day, where she sang three of her own songs before taking on a cover of Whitney Houston’s 1986 classic, “Greatest Love of All.”
“Why would you try to cover Whitney Houston?”
Oliver then went through Trump’s early candidates for the team he plans to bring with him into the White House, including the world’s richest man and top Trump donor Elon Musk. Trump has mentioned his interest in tapping the SpaceX founder to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” where he would cut costs and streamline the federal bureaucracy.
However, Oliver says he doesn’t worry about Musk’s heavy involvement outside of regulating his own companies. “I don’t see him reading through the federal budget line by line.”
Finally, he ended the show sharing what “stage of grief” he’s currently in following the election: anger — particularly for the marginalized communities, such as immigrants, trans people and women, most threatened by a Trump presidency.
“But try not to completely obliterate yourself in despair,” he ended the show. “Despair doesn’t help anything. If anything, it makes things worse.”
