On Friday evening, AT&T’s employee PAC publicly announced that they would no longer be making contributions to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) due to his white nationalist associations and views.
“In addition to our prior statement, we want to let you know that the AT&T employees who manage the disbursements of our employee PAC have now had the opportunity to review the controversy regarding Rep. Steve King, and have determined that the PAC will not make future contributions to him,” they wrote. “The committee concluded that further support of Rep. King would not be consistent with one of our core values… ‘Stand for Equality.’”
Rep. King, whom even neo-Nazi rag The Daily Stormer branded “basically an open white nationalist at this point,” is seeking a ninth term as the representative of Iowa’s 4th District. But recently, after he backed white nationalist Faith Goldy for mayor of Toronto, Canada, and defended the Nazi-linked Austria Freedom Party, he’s lost plenty of support—including from those in his own party.
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Cue John Oliver, who addressed the controversy surrounding Rep. King on Sunday’s edition of his HBO show Last Week Tonight.
“Things are very spicy in Iowa’s 4th, where congressman Steve King, who has a history of flirting with white nationalists, has gotten in hot water for, among other things, meeting with an Austrian party founded by an SS officer in August. And when asked about that this week, he did not take it well,” Oliver explained.
He then threw to a clip of a journalist pressing Rep. King on whether he identified as a white nationalist, to which he offered, “This is over if you don’t stop talking!” before shouting, “Stop it!!!”
“That is a spectacular whiff when the question is simply, ‘Are you a white supremacist?’” joked Oliver. “People who aren’t white supremacists say ‘no,’ and even people who are white supremacists know to say ‘no,’ so it takes a special mix of racism and stupid to fuck that one up.”
The comic then reported how corporations like Purina, Land O’Lakes and AT&T—which happens to be his parent company—have backed out of supporting King before, in true Oliver fashion, laying into his corporate overlords.
“So the news really shouldn’t be ‘these companies bailed on him’ so much as ‘they were OK with him for a shockingly long time,’” said Oliver. “Although of course AT&T didn’t catch on to King’s white nationalism—picking up on clear signals isn’t exactly their forte!”
He then taunted his bosses Good Will Hunting-style: “How do you like dem apples, business daddy? I bet you don’t like dem apples, do ya?!”
As for Trump’s final argument to his base, the Republican Party leader seemed a bit worried at a recent rally, conceding that the GOP may lose the House in the midterms.
“It could happen, could happen,” said Trump at a rally in Huntington, West Virginia. “And you know what you do? My whole life, you know what I say? Don’t worry about it, I’ll just figure it out. Does that make sense?”
“You know what? That does actually kind of make sense,” said Oliver. “Trump has failed upward for 72 straight years, why should he stop now?”
