He began by characterizing the RNC as a week full of lying in front of flags. In just two minutes, Oliver took down the idea that anything the GOP said about former Vice President Joe Biden was true. In fact, the Republicans lied so much about Biden, that Oliver found it almost comical.
Trump lied about passing the Veterans Choice Act, which he didn't, and Larry Kudlow claiming that leadership came "swiftly" from Trump to handle the coronavirus pandemic, which it didn't.
"What are you doing!?" Oliver exclaimed. "You can't talk about the coronavirus in the past tense when it's in a very real sense, still raging."
He went on to address the story Nikki Haley told about taking down the Confederate Flag in South Carolina as a story of peace and hope. It only happened after a white supremacist shot up a Black church, and activist Bree Newsome climbed the pole and took the flag down herself only to have it replaced moments later. Haley also supports a candidate that speaks out in favor of the Confederate flag as part of the South.
When it came to Vice President Mike Pence, he made a claim that "the American people don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and supporting our African-American neighbors."
"Hold on, who is 'we' in that statement," asked Oliver. "Because it seems like you're making a distinction between 'we the American people' and 'our African-American neighbors.' I guess, by extension, are a different group entirely."
In contrast to the Republican Party, Democrats worked diligently to include African-Americans in the group of "we the people" instead of excluding them as nothing more than "our neighbors."
Oliver wasn't shocked by the comment because Mike Pence, to him, "looks like a doll that should be living in Ken's white flight dream house."
Calling it an example of "barely disguised racial panic," Oliver said that the Republicans' point of the convention seemed to be a way of giving GOP voters a pass at voting for Trump without being called a racist.
"All this overt talk of racial harmony was very much in conflict with the steady diet of barely disguised racial panic that viewers were also being fed," he continued.
When it came to the McCluskeys speaking out against Biden, the couple claimed that people would be forced to defend themselves and their property under his America. It's an odd claim, Oliver noted, because the couple was seen doing exactly that in Trump's America, holding a handgun and AR-15 at Black Lives Matter protesters.
Oliver then pivoted to talk about the unrest in Wisconsin, and a Trump supporter drove from Illinois to the city and killing two protesters. When police had a rational conversation with Jacob Blake, they opened fire on him. When the killer was walking down the street with the massive gun that he'd just used to kill two people, the police thanked him. The Kenosha Police Department responded by blaming the protesters for getting themselves shot by the gunman.
Showing video from a few years ago, Oliver exposed Kenosha Sheriff David Beth, who went into great detail about how "these people" should be stopped from reproducing, a philosophy shared by Nazis.
"Sorry, can I quickly interrupt you there," Oliver paused. "Because calling for American citizens to be stopped from having small children isn't politically incorrect, so much as politically 1940s Germany. And he wasn't just idly saying that. He really thought through a whole plan."
The fear and angst about people of color was summed up by NBA head coach Doc Rivers, Oliver said, showing the video.
"All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear," Rivers said. "We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot."
"What stands out to me is, just watching the Republican convention, and they're spewing this fear," Rivers continued. "All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear. We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones that we're denied to live in certain communities. We've been hung. We've been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear."
"It's amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back," Rivers also said. "It's really so sad. Like, I should just be a coach. And I'm so often reminded of my color. It's just really sad."
"We got to do better. But we got to demand better. It's funny. We protest. They send riot guards. They send people in riot outfits. They go up to Michigan with guns. They're spitting on cops. Nothing happens. The training has to change in the police force. The unions have to be taken down in the police force. My dad was a cop. I believe in good cops. We're not trying to defund the police and take all their money away. We're trying to get them to protect us, just like they protect everybody else," he went on.
"I didn't want to talk about it before the game, because it's so hard to just keep watching that. That video, if you watch that video, you don't need to be Black to be outraged. You need to be American and outraged. And how dare the Republicans talk about fear. We're the ones that need to be scared. We're the ones having the talk. To every Black child. What white father has given his son a talk about being careful if you get pulled over? It's just ridiculous. And it keeps going. There's no charges. Breonna Tayl0r — no charges. Nothing. All we're asking is that you live up to the Constitution. For everybody. For everyone. Thank you."
It has become clear that the system doesn't change until it is forced to, Oliver explained.
He also noted that "simply voting in November" isn't going to be enough to change the problems facing the country. Every single candidate up and down the ticket must be progressive from U.S. Senate down to sheriffs like David Beth.
Watch Oliver's segment in the video below:
