John Oliver on Maga’s James Talarico smears: ‘middle school level homophobia’

On his HBO show on Sunday night, John Oliver focused on the last-minute rallies being held across the US leading up to the midterms.

In Texas, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton implored the few supporters assembled at a rally to not leave.

“Sure, but if you actually like the person you’re seeing, you don’t worry about work in the morning, do you?” said Oliver. “You don’t leave a Springsteen concert at 8.30 saying: ‘Well, I was really hoping I’d see him do Born To Run but it’s a work night.’”

Recent polls have indicated that Republicans are on track to lose their majority in the House and possibly in the Senate, leading to stunts like what Oliver called Donald Trump’s “ridiculous” recent convention.

At the rally, Trump led the crowd in a chant of: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States, who loves us so much that he can’t even breathe” that they would vote in the midterms.

“What in the Paramore lyrics is he talking about there?” asked Oliver.

Trump’s approval rating has tanked, hitting a new low of just 37% amid his war in Iran, rising gas prices and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the US.

“I know it feels very weird to boil down two years of violent chaos to ‘gas prices go up’, but affordability is something many people do vote on,” said Oliver. “Part of the reason that we’re in this mess right now is the price of fucking eggs.”

Some Republican candidates have been trying to distance themselves from Trump, with one report finding that 99% of GOP spending is going towards ads that do not mention the president.

In a recent interview, Mike Rogers, the Republican Michigan Senate candidate, appeared to dodge attempts to connect him to Trump, saying there were issues with his earpiece and sidestepping the question.

“I haven’t seen someone dodge a question that shamelessly since I spent three hours gasping aloud at two complete lunatics who’ve never blinked once in their lives,” Oliver said, as shots of Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans from You Can See Everything flashed up on the screen.

“If you want to talk about that movie, please contact anyone who works here,” he added. “It’s derailed our workflow to an unacceptable degree.”

Meanwhile, the Florida congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar released an ad cautioning that Trump’s advisers on immigration policy had gone too far.

“Saying some of Trump’s immigration efforts have gone too far is like saying some Nicolas Cage performances are a scooch unhinged,” Oliver said.

Oliver also said Trump has “thumbed the scale” in some midterm races, such as in upstate New York where he endorsed Anthony Constantino for a House race. Constantino is the CEO of a sticker company as well as a rapper – he recently made a hip-hop diss track aimed at Zohran Mamdani.

“Hamilton was a mistake,” said Oliver after playing a clip of Constantino rapping.

“Trump pushed hard for Constantino despite the fact that he doesn’t seem remotely ready for the job,” the host added. “When he was asked to simply name the biggest city in his district he said: ‘I don’t know, ask Grok.’

The New York Times recently reported that Democrats have been plotting to “sabotage” the campaign of incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan by placing another candidate with the same name on the ballot.

“Yeah, Democrats allegedly tried to confuse voters by getting another Dan Sullivan to run,” said Oliver. “Which again confirms my theory that when you hear ‘secret Republican plot’, it’s always some elaborate House of Cards chicanery. But when you hear ‘secret Democratic plot’, it’s the most rinky-dink, Scooby-Doo clown car mix-em-up imaginable.”

Trump and his administration have aimed to sow “fear and doubt” ahead of the midterms, said Oliver, pointing out the recent ICE raid on Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s house and his address on so-called “voter fraud”.

The president has attacked the integrity of elections on more than 70% of the days since he returned to office. When asked if he would commit to accepting the midterms results last week, he said that he will if they were “honest elections”.

“That’s a pretty big disclaimer, isn’t it?” asked Oliver. “It basically seems that Trump’s principles are: ‘If you don’t vote, got to hell, and if I don’t win, the entire thing can go to hell.’”

Oliver described Republican tactics in Michigan as “fear-mongering”, with Trump targeting Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed with Islamophobic taunts.

“It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump engages in Islamophobia, but the party seems more than happy to join him in that sewer,” the host said, before showing Republican-funded attack ads targeting El-Sayed.

In Texas, a Pac called Citizens for Sanity released an ad featuring an AI-generated James Talarico singing My Favorite Things, while Paxton, his Republican opponent, released an ad calling Talarico “too low-T for Texas”.

“Come on!” responded Oliver. “God forbid a man use pomade, exfoliant and generally try to look a little bit more put together than Jabba the slut.

“All that middle school level homophobia gets even weirder given that Trump’s simultaneously been slobbering over the hotness of the male candidates he’s been promoting,” Oliver said, before showing clips of the president praising the “ass” of Ohio candidate Jon Husted.