John Oliver was near tears in an emotional speech on Last Week Tonight, as he urged viewers to vote for Kamala Harris in the upcoming US Election.
On November 5, Americans who haven’t voted early will be heading to the polls in their droves, having their say on who will be the next leader of the country.
A string of famous faces have publicly backed the current Vice President for the top job over Republican candidate Donald Trump – with Beyonce, Cardi B, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Aniston and Selena Gomez among them.
On Sunday night, the late-night host took the last opportunity to plead with the public to make their voices heard, in what is expected to be a close vote.
The Birmingham-born comedian began: ‘This could come down to a handful of votes in a handful of states. Given that, I’ve been thinking, “What am I going to be feeling on Wednesday? Is there anything I’m going to wish I’d said right now?”
‘That’s for a pretty clear reason: picking apart policy proposals when the alternative is Trump, is like debating which color to pain the living room when your house is on f**king fire. You have to prioritize the imminent threat.’
Oliver, who became an American citizen in 2019, argued that while Harris’ platform is ‘by no means’ everything he would ‘personally want’, there are aspects he likes, naming her proposal to expand Medicare to cover long-term care, and her promise to expand reproductive freedom.
He also conceded that he has ‘plenty of issues with the administration she’s been part of’, highlighting problems with policies on immigration and their ‘indefensible’ response to the ‘ongoing slaughter’ in Gaza.
‘To be clear, I am voting for Kamala Harris and I think you should too,’ the presenter continued. ‘Elections alone aren’t sufficient for large-scale change, but they’re absolutely necessary for it to ever happen.
‘Because it’s the day when you essentially get to choose who you’d prefer to be pushing for the next four years, and where you’ll be pushing them from.’
Oliver’s voice cracked as he declared: ‘Look, I love this country. I’m an immigrant. I chose to be here. In the words of the late, great Lee Greenwood: I’m proud to be an American.
‘I’d argue there is nothing more American than having a healthy, adversarial relationship with those in power, even if you voted for them.’
‘I know this hasn’t been a very uplifting speech, if it helps at all, there’s one final thing I’m going to be genuinely excited for on Tuesday. That is, if Donald Trump loses this election, he’s basically finished,’ he added, to huge cheers from the audience.
‘I know he would put us through hell before he left the stage, but when the dust settled, he’d have lost two elections in a row and would be campaigning as an 82-year-old next time. I think he’d be done.
‘Doesn’t that sound great? I know, the problems that he’s a symptom of would of course remain, but we wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where he’s no longer an active threat, just an annoyance?
‘I want so badly to live in that world and I hope everyone does everything in their power in the next 48 hours to make that world possible.’
Oliver isn’t the only famous face to use his platform in support of Harris as Jennifer Lopez appeared at a rally in Las Vegas last week, while Madonna and the Avengers have also endorsed her publicly.
Former Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger shocked everyone when he issued a statement confirming that he was voting for the Harris / Walz campaign a few days ago.
‘It is probably not a surprise that I hate politics more than ever, which, if you are a normal person who isn’t addicted to this crap, you probably understand,’ he said in a lengthy Twitter post, vowing that he doesn’t ‘like either party right now’
‘To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious.
‘And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.’
