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John Oliver
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Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple that brandished guns from their home back in June while Black Lives Matter protesters walked by, were given a platform at the Republican national convention last week and wasted no time in going after Joe Biden and stoking fear.
“Make no mistake: no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America,” Patricia McCloskey said in a prerecorded message. “They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning,” which “would bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into thriving suburban neighborhoods.”
On his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday, John Oliver took issue with the McCloskeys’ “barely disguised racial panic” and what he believes to be a call to action.
“ ‘Think about how incendiary that message is: Violence and criminals are coming to your community in the form of low-quality apartments, and you must defend yourself. Take it from us, the couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters. And rhetoric like that, and the worldview it encompasses, has consequences.’ ”
What consequences exactly?
From there, Oliver talked about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old vigilante who was arrested for allegedly killing two BLM protesters following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
“I don’t know if he saw the McCloskeys speak the night before he drove to a city he didn’t live in to defend property he didn’t own,” Oliver said. “What I do know is he was an avid Trump supporter, even sitting front row at a rally back in January, and Trump and his media ecosystem have been delivering essentially the same message as the McCloskeys for years now.”
Oliver then pointed the finger at Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sparked controversy when, as you can see in this clip, he explained away Rittenhouse’s actions.
Oliver’s response:
“Well, you don’t seem to be shocked —and that alone should be pretty f***ng shocking,” he said. “Because let’s be clear. A 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle cannot maintain order, because a 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle trying to maintain order is himself the definition of disorder.”
Watch the whole episode, with the McCloskeys appearing around the 6:10 mark:
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