John Oliver returned to the Last Week Tonight desk after a two-week absence and devoted the entirety of Sunday night’s episode to what he called a worrying trend on the rise within the Republican Party ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
John Oliver on Last Week Tonight (Credits: Variety / HBO)
According to Variety’s report on the episode, Oliver focused on what he described as the party’s apparent affinity for Nazis, laying out examples he said illustrated the trend. Among them was Peter Oberacker, a Republican candidate for New York’s 19th congressional district, who in 2015 posted a photo to Facebook on Veterans Day memorializing his late grandfather in full Wehrmacht uniform, after his grandfather died fighting for Nazi Germany. Oberacker later said it was the only photo of his grandfather that he had.
John Oliver’s Midterm Warning on Last Week Tonight
The episode framed the subject as an urgent warning with the midterms just days away, with Oliver arguing that the pattern he documented deserved voters’ attention before they head to the polls. The segment marked his first show back after two weeks off the air, and he gave the topic the full episode rather than treating it as one item among several.
Oliver has built Last Week Tonight’s reputation on long, research-heavy main stories, and this episode followed that format, using the extended runtime to walk through his examples in detail. Variety’s coverage of the episode highlighted the Oberacker case as one of the central examples Oliver presented on the night.
Also Read: Clayface Scores $3.5M Thursday Previews, Eyes $20M–$25M Opening Weekend
Source: Variety — read the full story there.
