John Oliver is rolling out a new series of “Catheter Cowboy” TV commercials in the D.C. area aimed at President Trump’s eyes via “Fox & Friends.”
While his “Last Week Tonight” HBO show is on hiatus, the truth-telling cowboy (“Star Trek” supporting actor Thomas Kopache) will conclude by telling Trump: “If you’re not enjoying this, there’s no shame in quitting.”
On Sunday’s show, Oliver closed his fourth season by explaining how Trump avoids accountability. The president, he says, uses three techniques:
Whatboutism — “changing the subject to someone else’s perceived wrongdoing.”
Deligitimizing the media — “technically fake fake news news…an old Soviet propaganda tool.”
(Example: “A defense attorney could not stand up in court and say: Maybe my client did murder those people, but what about Jeffrey Dahmer? What about Al Capone? … I rest my case here, people.)
And trolling — aimed at making people mad. “Who benefits from mass confusion about whether we’re about to go to war?” Oliver said.
Worse is how Trump’s behavior is echoed, Oliver said, showing a clip of Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, fleeing a reporter while chanting “Fake news, fake news.”
“If there is one thing worse than something terrible, it’s a cover band of that terrible thing,” Oliver said. “If Trump is Nickelback, [Gosar] is Bickelnack — not as good as the original, but a horrible sign that the disease is spreading.