John Oliver: ‘The real takeaway of this election is that there is no easy answer to who we are’
The election of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as the next vice president reflects the ever-changing politics and demographics of the United States, according to “Last Night Tonight” host John Oliver.
“The real takeaway of this election is that there is no easy answer to who we are,” said Oliver —a British native who became a U.S. citizen shortly before the start of 2020 and voted in the presidential election.
Oliver broke down the election on his Sunday night HBO show, where he explored the stark contrasts between president-elect Biden and his team’s rise to power, and that of lame-duck President Trump, who has still not accepted the result of last week’s election.
“Kamala Harris is now going to be vice president — the first woman vice president, the first South Asian American vice president, the first Black vice president and the second black person we sent to the White House in the last 12 years — that’s incredible,” he said.
Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president in 2009 and served until 2017. Biden, who picked Harris as his vice president, served as V.P. to Obama.
“Unfortunately, we did elect a white supremacist in between them and the fact is, that all of that together, is kind of who we are,” Oliver said.
President Trump has alternately pandered to and denounced white supremacist groups throughout his presidency. In 2018 he declared himself a nationalist, but claimed during his last debate with Biden that only President Lincoln — who ended slavery — had done more for “the black community” than him.
Oliver urged viewers to be mindful that the dichotomy he’d just spelled out demonstrates America remains capable of swinging widely from left to right as the nation moves forward.
“We’re the country that did all those things and it’s important not to deny that reality,” Oliver said.
