John Oliver Demolishes the Argument that Clinton and Trump Are Equally Flawed

     September 26, 2016


This morning at the gym, I saw a terrifying statistic on TV: Americans believe Donald Trump is more honest and trustworthy than Hillary Clinton. Granted, some of this is Clinton’s doing, although when she does say things that are factually true like half of Trump’s supporters are racist, people chastise her for saying that out loud, so she’s in a bit of a lose-lose situation.

Nevertheless, the Trump campaign has also helped manufacture the notion that Trump is the more trustworthy candidate despite the fact that he lies pretty much non-stop. Some voters have just thrown up their hands and said, “They’re equally bad! I’ll vote third-party! Me and my protest vote are great!”


Image via HBO

Enter Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to try and set the record straight. In the course of his 21-minute segment, Oliver breaks down the cases against both candidates, and concedes that the two major Clinton “scandals” of the election season—her private e-mail server and the Clinton Foundation—warrant some inspection and that mistakes were made. But to say those errors are on par with Trump’s constant and systemic grift and malfeasance is ridiculous.

This video comes right before tonight’s big debate, and it’s part of the effort to make truth a centerpiece of this election. We all know that politicians stretch the truth, but for Trump he absolutely demolishes it. And the scary thing is that people may not even care that he does it. For some reason, it’s bad for Clinton to have any trace of suspicious activity, but Trump’s lies are just an adorable part of his brand.

I have no response for Trump supporters, but for those of you who think that Clinton and Trump are just two sides of the same coin, I encourage you to watch the video below: