October 24, 2016

John Oliver Mocks Donald Trump’s Plan to Contest the Election With Special Offer

In exchange for a concession, the “Last Week Tonight” host is prepared to give Trump something he badly wants.


As Donald Trump continues to lay the groundwork for a massive loss against Hillary Clinton, the GOP candidate has made it increasingly clear that he does not intend to accept the results in a peaceful manner. While the scenario of a contested election is shocking, Trump’s refusal to accept that he is a loser is not. After all, as Clinton pointed out at the final presidential debate last week, Trump once even complained that the Emmy Awards were rigged after his show the The Celebrity Apprentice lost three years in a row.

“Of course he wants an Emmy,” John Oliver explained on Sunday. “It’s a woman, it’s gold, and it’s proportionate to his tiny hands. It’s basically Trump’s ideal mate.”

The Last Week Tonight host then presented Trump with a proposition—one that would help the real estate magnate avoid admitting that he is in fact a loser—in exchange for him to accept the outcome of the results. After all, Oliver has something the world knows Trump desperately wants. Watch above.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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