Fighting back tears, John Oliver choked up Sunday night while urging undecided and reluctant voters to turn out Tuesday to elect Kamala Harris as president.
“What am I going to be feeling on Wednesday? And is there anything I’m going to wish I’d said right now?” Oliver said at the start of his impassioned 10-minute closing monologue on Last Week Tonight.
Oliver said he supports Harris’ proposals to expand Medicare for long-term elder care, as well as expanding reproductive freedoms and boosting incomes for poor Americans. He also acknowledged that several episodes in this 11th season of his late night HBO show already have warned of the danger of a second Trump term and the policies spelled out in Project 2025. “All of that is why a bunch of our stories this year have ended with me telling you to vote against Donald Trump,” Oliver said. “But to be clear, I am voting for Kamala Harris. And I think you should, too.”
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Oliver directed his Sunday night plea to those voters “rightly furious” about the Biden administration’s “indefensible” policy toward the war in Gaza. “Look, I get why this is so difficult, and I know there are some who won’t vote for Harris under any circumstances because of this issue,” he said, adding: “I wish Harris had done more to reach out to you, beyond sending Bill Clinton to basically scold you this week. That didn’t seem remotely helpful to me, and honestly, felt a bit like bullying.”
But he also pointed to Muslim and Arab voices “who have also wrestled hard with this question and arrived at the conclusion that despite their pain, to vote for Harris.” Such as Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, one of the Palestinians who had hoped to speak at this summer’s DNC but was rebuked. Oliver played a TikTok from Romman where she explained her reasons for sticking with Harris and the Democrats. “It’s honestly worth watching the whole thing,” Oliver said.
Oliver said that Romman already had voted early for Harris in Georgia, reportedly agreeing to pair her Harris vote with a protest vote in a safely Democratic state.
That’s better than letting Trump win, Oliver said. “I know it’s hard to imagine things getting worse on this, but to be fair, Trump has always been one to roll up his sleeves, throw on a very unflattering vest, and dig us into a new layer of hell,” he said. “The damage of a second Trump term would last far beyond the next four years and encumber any potential progressive president in the future.”
Oliver said a Trump win also would allow him to replace Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, “cementing a majority that would likely last for the rest of my life. Which admittedly may not actually be that long if Measles McGee here (RFK Jr.) is allowed to let everything get out of control.”
“I know this isn’t inspiring to hear. But politics isn’t always inspiring. It’s transactional. It rarely matches our greatest hopes and dreams. I’ll be honest: I really didn’t want the first vote I cast as an American citizen to be for Joe f---ing Biden. But here we are,” Oliver argued, his emotions welling up. “Here is how I look at it. The struggle for justice isn’t just about what happens on Election Day. It’s a fight waged constantly, day in day out, in protests on the street, meetings with legislators and in the thousand small actions that cumulatively move the government forward an inch at a time.”
Besides, a Harris win would mean Oliver wouldn’t have to care about Trump any longer, at least politically. “Doesn’t that sound great?” he asked. “And I know the problems that he’s a symptom of would of course remain, but we wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where he’s no longer an active threat? Just an annoyance.”
Oliver said voting for Harris would mean the world could laugh at this past week’s photo of an orange, gaping-mouthed Trump in a fluorescent vest and allow Americans to carry on with life without worrying about what he might do next.
“I want so badly to live in that world, and I hope everyone does everything in their power in the next 48 hours to make that world possible.”
