John Oliver is back in his stark white, corona-free Last Week Tonight void after a few weeks off, with the host covering the recent news blitz of Kamala Harris being chosen as Joe Biden’s vice-president for the Democratic ticket. (But no love for Maya Rudolph’s impending career renaissance? With memes? Boo.) Oliver noted, though, that Harris’s announcement soon became clouded by the response from President Trump and a certain group of Republican cronies, who, surprise surprise, were eager to question if she could legally hold the position … despite being born in California, the titular Sunshine State. “The big news was Kamala Harris being announced as Biden’s running mate, a decision that sent conservatives scrambling for attack strategies, from claiming it’s an extreme, far-left ticket — which it absolutely isn’t — to a baseless accusation that she may not meet the citizenship requirements to hold the office despite being very much born in the United States,†Oliver explained. “It’s a depressing resurgence of birtherism, so of course Trump jumped all over it.â€
Oliver proceeded to play a clip of the president saying that he “heard†Harris “doesn’t meet the requirements†to serve as vice-president with her citizenship status, which was posited last week in a Newsweek op-ed — an op-ed that the magazine has since apologized for publishing. (Harris’s mother was born in India, while her father was born in Jamaica.) “Oh, I’ll tell you if it’s right. It fucking isn’t!†Oliver said. “And it’s frankly amazing how slow Trump is to respond to so many things like, I don’t know, public-health crises, yet when it comes to amplifying racist conspiracy theories, suddenly he’s the Flash on cocaine.†Perhaps the CW would be interested.