Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has a message for those blaming Vice President Kamala Harris‘s loss in the Presidential Election on the party’s alliance with transgender rights; you’re “missing the mark.”
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Focusing this week’s episode of the late night show on the 2024 Presidential Election, Oliver took the opportunity to voice his support for transgender Americans and call out the growing number of Democrats who are “claiming the party needs to move to the center” and feel they should “stop pandering to the far left.”
He reminds audiences, “If what you want is a centrist campaign that’s quiet on trans issues, tough on the border, distances itself from Palestinians, talks a lot about law and order, and reaches out to moderate Republicans… that candidate existed, and she just lost.”
He went on to say, “Guess how many trans speakers there were at the DNC. I’ll give you a hint: it was a very round number,” reminding audiences there were none.
Oliver expresses frustration about those pushing anti-trans rhetoric, especially in regards to kids’ sports, showing how easily the fears and claims can be debunked: “There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere. Even if there were more, trans kids like all kids vary in athletic ability and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness,” and finally, “It is very weird for you to be so focused on this subject.”
Watch the full segment here:
In this dark time, Oliver takes a moment to look at some good that’s happen in recent weeks, “Even amid the GOP’s massive anti-trans ad campaign, on Tuesday, Delaware elected the country’s first openly trans member of Congress,” he says about Sarah McBride. He continues, “And around the country, at least 35 trans and otherwise gender-expansive candidates won races in places like Montana, Hawaii, and Kentucky, where Emma Curtis was elected to the Lexington city council. And that is a big deal.”
“It is a powerful thing to have one group saying ‘I don’t think you exist,’ and to be able to respond with ‘I’m literally an elected official,'” he said.
Read more at The Advocate and catch new episodes of Last Week Tonight on Sundays at 11PM on HBO and streaming on Max.