After a week off, John Oliver returned to the Last Week Tonight desk on Sunday. And the comic had a lot to catch up on, but instead of tackling Kanye West’s antisemitic hate spree or Elon Musk purchasing Twitter for $44 billion because he has no IRL friends, the HBO host instead dedicated the majority of his show to bail reform—specifically, the specious right-wing argument that bail reform has led to a spike in violent crime.
A clip of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson opining of the link, “It seems so clear that it is,” caused Oliver to go off on one of his favorite targets.
“Wow. I’m honestly surprised anything seems clear to a man with resting concussion face. He honestly looks like he’s studying a full-body mirror desperately trying to find his penis,” cracked Oliver, adding, “It’s now to the point where any crime mentioned on Fox News gets linked to bail reform, whether it’s relevant or not.”
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Yes, this included recent hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul, allegedly by a man who was not out on bail.
“When you let dangerous criminals out on the streets with bail and not put them in prison, you’re just asking for this sort of incident to happen,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Fox News.
“Now, he’s wrong about a few things there. Again, the suspect was not out on bail. Also, no one gets bailed out of prison—that’s where convicted people go,” offered Oliver. (Elon Musk went a step further to spread Pelosi-related conspiracy theories.)
Oliver pointed out that approximately two-thirds of the people being held in locally run jails in the U.S. have not been convicted of a crime and are there simply because they couldn’t afford bail.
“We shouldn’t hold people captive in shitty conditions simply because they can’t buy their way out,” he exclaimed. “That is what Spirit Airlines is for.”
