John Oliver Slams Kavanaugh Supporters in a Particularly Urgent Last Week Tonight
Last week was a particularly dark one for American politics, as Republicans attempted to brush off a..
Last week was a particularly dark one for American politics, as Republicans attempted to brush off a chilling allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Christine Blasey Ford claims that Kavanaugh and a classmate trapped her in a bedroom during a high-school party, with Kavanaugh pinning her down on a bed, groping her, and clapping a hand over her mouth as she attempted to scream. Nevertheless, the G.O.P. has employed several tactics to try and rush Kavanaugh through to confirmation anyway. Late-night hosts tackled the issue throughout the week—and on Sunday, John Oliver weighed in as well, analyzing key points and referring back to a recent interview he conducted with Anita Hill, who faced character assassination in the 1990s after making her own sexual misconduct claims about Clarence Thomas. (Thomas, of course, was confirmed in spite of Hills testimony.)
Oliver taped his episode before news of a second accuser broke on Sunday night. Kavanaugh, whom Oliver described as having “resting lacrosse face,” has denied both allegations against him. Still, its hard not to find some of Kavanaughs past comments disturbing in light of the accusations against him. In particular, many have pointed to his statement in a 2015 speech that “what happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep . . . Thats been a good thing for all of us, I think.”
“For the record, the motto what happens here stays here makes anything sound awful and creepy by default,” Oliver said. “If you saw that slogan at your dentists office, theres no fucking way you would let them give you anesthesia.“
By far the most bizarre defense of Kavanaugh last week came from Ed Whelan, Kavanaughs friend and a prominent conservative lawyer. In a 26-tweet thread, Whelan claimed that Ford had the wrong guy, spinning a conspiracy theory alleging that another classmate committed the alleged assault. His evidence? Information from Google Maps and a floor plan from Zillow, as well as some past and present photos of the two men to prove that they look alike. “In doing so,” Oliver said, Whelan “baselessly accused a private citizen of a sex crime, which is a terrible thing to do—and Zillow is just a bizarre way to do it. That would be like sending a death threat using Etsy. I dont really know whats more surprising: that someone wants me to die, or how gorgeous the needlework is. What a hand!”
As he closed his segment, Oliver referred back to his interview this summer with Anita Hill, whose own testimony against Clarence Thomas ahead of his Supreme Court confirmation led to the widespread and infamous assassination of her character. During that interview, Hill expressed optimism overall about the progress weve made, saying that thanks to the #MeToo movement in particular, “There has been a tremendous amount of change in public attitude and there has been a change in the information we have about sexual harassment. Even a few years ago, people were ambivalent about what the consequences should be concerning behaving incredibly badly in the workplace.”
During his segment Sunday night, though, Oliver alluded to another, unaired portion of the interview, in which he asked Hill whether she believed the tone of such a hearing would be different today. Hill replied that she didnt believe things would go far enough to reach a hearing. “I think that a nominee would not make it. I think that now were gonna be vetting people to see if some of these issues are in their past . . . I think at least weve gotten that far. If there were a hearing and we did get to that, I think absolutely the tone would be different.”
“I really, really hope that she is right,” Oliver said. “Because Ford is now set to testify on Thursday, and from what weve seen so far in terms of victim-blaming and outright character assassination, it could well be a sad litmus test for where we are as a society. But the thing is, it is not too late right now. We can still give her claims the full and serious attention they deserve—and we absolutely should do that, because this is a lifetime appointment. The stakes could not be higher. As Brett Kavanaugh would put it, What gets on the Supreme Court stays on the Supreme Court.”
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
