John Oliver has some ideas for how to better interview President Donald Trump, whose bombastic statements require a little extra interrogation.
Specifically, the Last Week Tonight host said ABC News correspondent Terry Moran made a tactical error in changing the subject when Trump insisted in an interview that a mistakenly deported father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, had “MS-13” tattooed across his knuckles.
Trump seemed to have a meltdown and wouldn’t let the issue go even when Moran insisted they move on.
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Oliver insisted on playing a full 90 seconds of the exchange so his audience could witness it for themselves.
“I am genuinely shocked Trump doesn’t drink alcohol, because that is the most drunk at an IHOP conversation I think I’ve ever heard,” Oliver said after the clip aired.
He continued: “And no disrespect to Terry, but maybe don’t move on from that.
“I know you’ve got other questions to get to, but if the president of the United States is trying to tell you that this amateur-hour Photoshop is real, let him go get the picture and make him say it again. Point to that Helvetica-looking M and make the president say, ‘Yes, I believe that artless M that’s weirdly clearer and darker than all the other tattoos is real.’
“Make him say, ‘I believe that man went to a tattoo parlor and said the skull’s pretty spooky but what I’d really like is a neatly aligned 3 directly on the bone of my knuckle, and can you please make it so that it doesn’t stretch or bend with the natural curves of the human hand, and also make it look like a typewriter did it?’”
“Because, Terry, sometimes when Trump’s doing his normal racist Bluesky-ing, you do need to cut him off to slow the flow of hatred into the world. But if he wants to tell America that this laughably doctored picture is evidence of a major threat to American safety, you have an obligation to let the man cook.”
