John Oliver blasts Trump's approach to ending policy of separating immigrant children

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John Oliver blasts Trump's approach to ending policy of separating immigrant children

john oliver

HBO

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

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  • John Oliver on Sunday criticized President Trump's approach to ending his administration's controversial "zero tolerance" policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.
  • After pointing out several issues that remain with Trump's recent executive order that put a stop to the policy, Oliver criticized Fox News commentators for continuing to "defend the indefensible" in speaking about the issue on air.

On Sunday's "Last Week Tonight," host John Oliver criticized President Trump's 180-degree turn in his decision to end his administration's controversial practice of separating immigrant children from their parents.

Days after the president tried to deflect the blame from his "zero tolerance" immigration policy on to
"weak and ineffective" Democratic congressional members, saying that there was nothing he could do about the policy through executive order, Trump then signed an executive order that put a halt to his administration's placing immigrant children in separate facilities from their parents.

"Yes, Trump claimed he couldn't do a thing and then he did it, which is a little strange because he usually claims he can do things and then doesn't do them, like draining the swamp or locking up Hillary or attending Tiffany's sweet 16," Oliver joked.

Oliver then listed several issues that remain with Trump's executive order.

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"Unfortunately, that executive order has some significant hitches, because while families will now not be separated, that's because they'll be detained together, and under current rules, the children can't be held in detention facilities for more than 20 days, which means less than three weeks from now, they could start splitting families up all over again," Oliver said.

Oliver went on to criticize political commentators and supporters of Trump on Fox News for continuing to "defend the indefensible" in their commentary on the issue.

The "Last Week Tonight" host threw to a clip of Fox News commentator Stuart Varney, who tried to downplay the issue on air:

"If you read the headlines or you watch the evening news today or yesterday or this week at all, it's 'trade war,' it's 'children in cages,'" Varney said in the clip. "The real big story that affects everybody in America is the success of the president's tax-cut package and what it's done for the economy."

"That deflection technique doesn't really work when the thing you're deflecting from is children in cages," Oliver said. "If a realtor selling a house were to say, 'Why are we talking about the children in cages? The kitchen has marble countertops,' the only acceptable response would be, 'Because they're children and they're in cages! Someone needs to let them out, you f---ing monster!'"

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Watch the episode on HBO Go.

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