Media

John Oliver: We know fate of Roe v. Wade is bad because Trump Jr is happy

Late-night host John Oliver on Sunday said that the news of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement is bad for anyone that cares about reproductive and LGBT rights noting that it is clear it should be a concern because of Donald Trump Jr.’s reaction to the vacancy. 

“Now this is obviously huge news,” Oliver said on “Last Week Tonight.” “For anyone who believes that the Constitution protects things like reproductive and LGBT rights, this is bad. And we know it’s bad because Donald Trump Jr. was happy.”

Oliver then mocked Trump Jr.’s reaction to Kennedy’s retirement announcement — Trump Jr. tweeted that the retirement was “lit.”

{mosads}

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with Mr. Junior on this because I personally don’t think this was ‘lit’ at all,” Oliver said, going on to mock Trump Jr.’s use of slang words by using a variety of other slang words. 

Many Democratic lawmakers last week quickly demanded that the Senate wait to hold hearings on a new Supreme Court justice until after the midterm elections in November. But Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he plans on holding a vote on one this fall. 

President Trump said he would nominate a new justice on July 9 and that it will come from a previously released White House list of 25 names.

Democrats have railed against McConnell for hypocrisy for moving so quickly to confirm a conservative justice when he delayed hearings for President Obama’s nominee in 2016 for more than 237 days. 

But Oliver said appealing to McConnell’s sense of fairness won’t work, because he doesn’t “give a flying f—” about consistency.

Oliver later says that the consequences will be “severely grim,” before playing clips of CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin discussing how Roe v. Wade will likely be overturned if Trump nominates another justice to the bench. 

“I’m happy to say there is some good news here,” Oliver concluded his show by saying, “Because, it turns out there is a Constitutional loophole that allows Democrats to … I’m obviously lying here, there is no good news, everything is terrible now.”