John Oliver explains Trump's 'Stupid Watergate' and why he probably won't be impeached

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May 22, 2017 3:55 PM

"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver recapped the latest round of President Donald Trump's scandals, which he dubbed "Stupid Watergate."

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

The constant barrage of breaking news about President Donald Trump and his administration over the past week motivated HBO's "Last Week Tonight" on Sunday to look at the scandals, which the show dubbed "Stupid Watergate."

Host John Oliver described the issue as "a scandal with all the potential ramifications of Watergate, but where everyone involved is stupid and bad at everything."

The bulk of Sunday's show recapped some major recent events and tried to answer: "What the f--- is going on?" "How big a deal is this?" "Where do we go from here?" and, finally, "Is this real life?"

Oliver highlighted reports of Trump revealing classified information to the Russians when they visited the White House the day after he fired FBI Director James Comey; Comey's memo that Trump asked him to stop the investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser; Trump complaining during a speech at the Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony that no other US president had been treated worse than him; and the special counsel appointed to investigate ties between Trump's team and Russia.

And then there's the other news within those major stories, like reports that Comey told a friend he wore a blue suit to a White House ceremony to blend into the curtains and avoid being seen by Trump; Trump calling Comey a "nut job" in front of the Russians; and Sen. John McCain saying everything going on was of "Watergate size and scale."

Yes, this all happened in the past seven days.

"This certainly all has the appearances of a pretty big deal," Oliver said, addressing some Senate Democrats' calls for Trump to be impeached.

But then Oliver explained that if Trump were impeached, the next president would be Vice President Mike Pence, who has advocated defunding Planned Parenthood and opposed the ending of "don't ask, don't tell," to name a couple of things.

And impeachment would be a very long shot, Oliver said, because it would be done in the House and Senate, which are currently controlled by Republicans.

"It seems like when it comes to President Trump, he's always approaching the end of the line, but it never seems to come," Oliver said.

What's also troubling, he said, is that all of this involves a sitting president who said in his first 100 days that he missed his old life.

"That is why this is truly Stupid Watergate," Oliver said, "because, no matter what, we are in for an agonizingly long period of leaks, allegations, and recriminations, all over a presidential campaign to put a man in power who may not entirely want to be there. Say what you want about Nixon, at least he wanted the f---ing job."

Watch the entire "Last Week Tonight" segment:

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