“That is Donald Trump in a nutshell — proposing a terrible idea in a tone-deaf way then refusing to acknowledge that he just lost the popular vote,” the late-night host joked.
John Oliver slammed President Trump for suggesting that teachers in schools be armed in the wake of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida earlier this month.
At a “listening session” last week with parents and students, including many affected by the Feb. 14 shooting, in which 17 people were killed, Trump suggested the idea, which received no support from those present.
“We need to let people know — you come into our schools, you’re going to be dead, and it’s going be fast,” Trump said during the event.
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took Trump to task for that remark.
“OK, so first thing there: ‘You’re going to be dead, and it’s going to be fast’ is already the slogan for Carl’s Jr., so you can’t use that,” he joked.
He went on: “Trump’s support for this clearly terrible idea seemed to develop over the week. He actually focus-grouped it on Wednesday during a listening session featuring survivors of the shooting — a session, incidentally, for which his notes included a reminder to say ‘I hear you’ [as seen on photographers’ pictures of his note cards], which is what you might write down if you were a robot pretending to be a person pretending to be a robot pretending to be a person.”
During the listening session, Trump asked for a show of hands from those who supported arming teachers, but very few did. Conversely, most raised their hands when he asked who opposed the idea.
“That is Donald Trump in a nutshell — proposing a terrible idea in a tone-deaf way then refusing to acknowledge that he just lost the popular vote,” Oliver joked.
Oliver’s comments in Sunday night’s show follow his impassioned plea last week to lawmakers, calling for need to address gun control immediately and stop putting it off.
“These events are now so familiar that we basically automatically know how each side will play out,” Oliver said of the tragedy. ” ‘Thoughts and prayers,’ ‘Fuck your thoughts and prayers,’ ‘It’s a mental-health problem,’ ‘Yeah, but it’s also a gun problem,’ and then someone says, ‘Now is not the time to talk about gun control,’ and everyone moves on until it inevitably happens again.”
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