John Oliver used Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” to scorch ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show amid government pressure.
In a direct address to Bob Iger, the CEO of ABC parent company Disney, Oliver cautioned that when the “history of the time we’re living through” is written, “I’m not sure it’s those in this administration who are even going to come off the worst.”
“Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re going to come off terribly, but history is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen, whether it was for money, convenience or just comfort,” he continued.
Trying to appease President Donald Trump and his administration will always ultimately backfire because “giving the bully your lunch money doesn’t make him go away, it just makes him come back hungrier each time,” warned the comedian.
The Trump administration is “never going to stop, they’ve literally said that openly,” Oliver said, noting Trump’s demand that NBC fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers so that late night TV criticism of him is completely purged.
“Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here? And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court, instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school? Not, ‘OK, you’re the boss.’ Not, ‘Whatever you say goes.’ But instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a weak bully go away. And that is, ‘Fuck you. Make me.’”
Watch from the 25-minute mark here:
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