John Oliver celebrates Trump's defeat, recaps the 'absolute year of a week' it happened


The 2020 election "was clearly a very long, very tense week, although thankfully, it all felt worth it due to how it ended," an uncharacteristically upbeat John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight: Donald Trump "isn't going to be president anymore." People took to the streets to celebrate in cities across America, he noted, and in New York "there was a mood here that can only be described as reverse 9/11. Why? Because it combined complete euphoria, an abiding disgust for Rudy Giuliani, and this time people were actually dancing on the rooftops in New Jersey."
"It is genuinely hard to overstate the level of relief that has been flying around parts of this country, especially at the end of a truly draining week, and tonight we thought it might be worth mapping out exactly how we got to this point over the last seven days," Oliver said. He started with the predictably slow ballot count, Trump's "nightmarish speech from the White House" early Wednesday, and his camp's subsequent attempts to do "absolutely everything they could think of to subvert this election," including rampant "conspiracy theorizing" and a flurry of "ridiculous" lawsuits in multiple states to try to "cast a cloud over the whole process." Still, he said, "perhaps the single most pathetic part of this week is that in the moments before this race was called on Saturday morning, Trump tweeted out 'I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!'"
"But here is the really important thing: After this absolute year of a week — the days of counting, the misinformation, the desperate, pathetic attempts to paint this process as fraudulent — the fact is, Trump lost this election," Oliver said. "He lost. All that bulls--t which we've grown accustomed to seeing work, did not work this time. And it's not like Trump and his family are going to stop — they're gonna carry on grifting and lying like they've always done. But once he's out of the White House, it's just not going to have the same effect anymore. It's not going to directly impact every American's life."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Oliver did touch on America's forthcoming reckoning with "what Trumpism is going to mean going forward" and note that Democrats also face questions after they "didn't get anything they hoped for." But he also took a minute — well, 30 seconds — just to celebrate, and it involves octopuses, and it's NSFW. Watch below. Peter Weber
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Will online age checks doom internet freedom?
Today's Big Question Or do they protect children from harm?
-
At least 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquake
speed read A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan
-
Trump crypto token launch earns family billions
Speed Read The World Liberty Financial token is now the Trump family's 'most valuable asset'
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle