John Oliver, armed with a fresh stash of Emmy-winning glory, had a legitimate excuse to steer clear of commentary on this month's presidential debate up until now. Last Sunday, he and his show, Last Week Tonight, snagged two more golden statuettes, one for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and the other for Outstanding Writing in a Variety Series. Yet, Oliver deemed it imperative to bring his audience up to speed on the tumultuous, chaotic events that had unfolded since, placing the blame squarely on JD Vance's shoulders for conjuring up Springfield, Ohio's turmoil out of thin air.
"Far from merely regurgitating hearsay, Vance has actively contributed to the chaos he now seeks to exploit," Oliver declared. "There's been no shortage of feline-feasting gags since the September 10th debate, but I insist on addressing this, not only because Trump's disruption in Springfield persists but also because it serves as a telling microcosm of his campaign."
Schools and hospitals have been repeatedly shuttered under the threat of bombs, while the town's Haitian community lives in a constant state of fear. Amidst this chaos, Trump has expressed his desire to visit Springfield, despite the town's Republican mayor's plea for him to steer clear.
Oliver pinpointed Vance as the catalyst for this pandemonium, tracing it back to a July letter penned by Springfield's city manager to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where Vance sits. The letter begged for federal funds to address a dire housing crisis and bolster services for the Haitian immigrants who had recently settled in Springfield.
As Oliver and others before him have noted, these Haitians were specifically recruited by local employers to fill job vacancies that went unfilled by locals. However, Vance chose to cherry-pick from the letter during a Senate hearing, highlighting the problems while omitting the proposed solutions. He then released a misleading statement, branding the city manager's plea as a "migrant crisis" rather than a housing one.
"I suppose we've learned the hard way not to expect precision from Vance when Haiti's name is in the mix," Oliver quipped, alluding to a clip where the junior senator from Ohio butchered the pronunciation of the Caribbean island.
Vance's distorted portrayal of Springfield's plea ignited a media firestorm, first on Fox News and then spreading like wildfire across various platforms, even reaching the likes of Elon Musk and neo-Nazi groups marching through Springfield, waving swastika banners, with one of their leaders addressing the city council.
A false photo, supposedly showing a Springfield resident strolling with a goose, further fueled the hysteria, despite TMZ revealing it to be a man in Columbus holding two geese injured in a car accident. Social media ran with rumors of duck-napping and duck-eating, and a Facebook user falsely claimed abuses against cats, only to retract and delete her post later. Yet, the damage had already been done.
On September 5th, Vance poured gasoline on the flames by posting footage of his July speech, linking the pet-eating rumors to Haitians. "This pet-eating hysteria was built on quicksand," Oliver emphasized. Even worse, as cited in a Wall Street Journal article from September 18th, Vance was privy to the truth all along. "It transpires that shortly after his initial post about Haitians consuming pets, his campaign reached out to the Springfield city manager, who recalls Vance's staff inquiring bluntly, 'Are the rumors about pets being taken and eaten true?' The city manager replied, 'I told him no.'"
Oliver added, "So Vance knew it was a lie from the get-go. Yet, instead of owning up, he and his team scrambled to dig up spurious evidence, all of which either bore no resemblance to his claims or crumbled under minimal scrutiny."
To add insult to injury, Vance also disseminated rumors about Haitians spreading communicable diseases like TB and HIV, and insinuated that an 11-year-old Springfield boy who perished in a school bus accident had been murdered by a Haitian. The boy's parents have pleaded for their son's tragic death not to be exploited, even addressing the city council on the night of the presidential debate.
"The last thing we need is for our worst day to be relentlessly and viciously thrust in our faces," Aiden's father said on September 10th, rebuking Vance and Trump for fostering hatred towards their neighbors. "Our son didn't deserve any of this nonsense, and neither did Springfield. They didn't seek attention; they sought assistance. Vance, on the other hand, was the one yearning for the spotlight."
Oliver concluded, acknowledging that while Vance may not excel in many endeavors, "it seems he's quite adept at parroting racist lies,
