John Oliver is celebrating the Democrats’ blue tsunami by demolishing Pete Hegseth in a brutal 35-minute takedown.
The Last Week Tonight host returned to his desk Sunday in good spirits after Democrats took back control of the House and the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“It has been a busy week and, given the midterm results, a pretty good week, too,” the 49-year-old British comic said at the top of his HBO show. “Democrats won so big on Tuesday it was sometimes genuinely hard to take all the positive results in.”
Oliver then quickly turned the weekly episode to its main event: a withering critique of Secretary of Defense Hegseth amid a widespread push for incoming Democrat politicians to impeach the controversial Fox News star from Donald Trump’s administration.
“There is clearly damage here that cannot be undone, but the very least we can do is try and stem it by impeaching and removing this f***ing a**hole as soon as possible,” Oliver said. “Ideally in a way that also ensures he’ll be far from ever holding future federal offices, because it’s not like he’s ever going to change.”
Oliver took aim at Hegseth — who oversees a trillion-dollar agency that employs 3.4 million Americans — for a litany of issues, starting by mocking the fact that he posts videos of himself working out with troops.
He then shared a video of Hegseth’s recent “no fatties” speech to servicemembers and said the speech was “less like an inspiring piece of oratory and more like he’s reading from a book called Dr. Seuss for Concussed Bigots.”
Oliver’s monologue then went on to discuss Hegseth’s many “red flags,” from his sexual assault allegations to his infamous Signal scandal in which a journalist was accidentally added to a classified group chat.
He criticized Hegseth’s involvement in the Iran war, specifically mentioning Hegseth’s choice to cut off the civilian harm mitigation and response program.
“I cannot say that if Hegseth hadn’t gutted the civilian harm mitigation program, that it would have definitely prevented that strike,” Oliver said. “But this tragedy sure feels like the symptom of a military that seems to care a lot more about lethality-maxxing than actual human beings.”
Democrats including Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have backed the idea of impeaching Hegseth for his reckless misuse of power.
When approached for comment on Hegseth’s condemnation of college diversity, the Pentagon’s official response to Oliver over the analysis was that “the secretary is absolutely correct on this issue.”
Oliver also said a Pentagon spokesperson added, “Deport John Oliver.” The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
“Hopefully, Congress will fix what it never should have allowed to happen in the first place, and remove him from office,” Oliver said.
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