If you witnessed both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions over the past two weeks, you might have been left a little confused.
Let John Oliver sum it up for you.
While Republicans traditionally come off as the most overtly and feverishly patriotic, this year Oliver says, the RNC left commentators with a very negative vibe — mostly because Donald Trump was focusing more on “whatever Donald Trump thinks is wrong with America.”
The Democratic National Convention, conversely, seemed to him incredibly pro-American. Major leaders in the party were there giving impassioned speeches, Meryl Streep wore “a plastic tablecloth on the Fourth of July,” and even a retired Marine General John Allen spoke about ISIS.
But that’s not the story Oliver is most baffled by.
One of the speakers at the DNC was the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, Khizr Khan, who challenged Donald Trump to actually read the Constitution — and even offered his own copy to the candidate.
Donald Trump’s response to Khan has been, predictably, contentious. Trump criticized Khan’s wife for not saying anything during the speech and the back and forth lasted all weekend.
“We may be on the brink of electing such a damaged, sociopathic narcissist that the simple presidential duty of comforting the families of fallen soldiers may be beyond his capabilities” Oliver said. “And I genuinely did not think that that was a part of the job that someone could be bad at.”
