John Oliver urges vigilance against trump

News Hour:

“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver took the extraordinary step of urging viewers on-air to donate to Planned Parenthood, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Trevor Project and other organizations serving communities that may come under fire during the Trump administration.

The host of “Last Week Tonight” was fiery in the show’s third season finale Sunday, warning viewers in the most dire terms about what he sees as the threat to the nation now that Republican Donald Trump has won the presidential race.

“How the f— did we get here?” Oliver said.

Oliver urged viewers to donate to various non-profit orgs, including the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the International Refugee Assistance Project, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Natural Resources Defense Counsel. He also implored viewers to support top-tier journalism by subscriber to a major newspaper, or donating to the non-profit journalism collective or Pro Publica in order to help news outlets scrutinize Trump’s moves.

“Keep reminding yourself, ‘This is not normal,’ ” Oliver asserted as reviewed a litany of shocking statements from Trump. He also raised questions about the views and qualifications of some of those who are serving on Trump’s transition team, and about Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana.

“He looks like he’s from the 1950s but he thinks like he’s from the 1650s,” Oliver said of Pence’s views on homosexuality, abortion and evolution, among other issues.

“Last Week Tonight” took aim at its sibling network CNN in a segment calling out mainstream media for giving Trump too much coverage too early in the campaign without holding his feet to the fire. He also sounded the alarm on the rise of “fake news” spread via social media and talk radio by specious websites, calling them a “cottage industry specializing in hyper-partisan, sometimes wildly distorted clickbait.”

Oliver ran clips of Trump being confronted on air by NBC News’ Chuck Todd and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly for spreading information found to be false.

In closing, Oliver declared: “I’m calling it early — 2016 has been the f—— worst.” The half-hour episode wrapped with a montage of everyday people and celebrities including Amy Schumer, Larry David, Jeffrey Tambor, Billy Eichner, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally saying some variation of “f— 2016.”

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