John Oliver briefly addressed the latest round of public outrage over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem on Sunday by targeting two of the athlete's loudest critics: Donald Trump and Fox News star Judge Jeanine Pirro.
The "Last Week Tonight" host noted "all Hell broke loose" this weekend when the President of the United States held a rally in Alabama and said, "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now! He's fired! He's fired!'"
"Putting aside the free speech implications there, how is kneeling in front of a flag more disrespectful to it than grinding it against your null, old boner," Oliver joked, flashing an image of Trump hugging a flag. "I'm afraid it is true. The President of the United states took time out while -- it is worth noting -- over 3 million American citizens in Puerto Rico are without power to call Colin Kaepernick a 'son of a bitch.'"
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View Story"Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell denounced the president's comments. When you have lost the moral high ground to Roger f-cking Goodell, something is horribly wrong," Oliver joked.
Oliver then tore into Pirro for her Fox News rant against athletes kneeling in protest of police treatment of minorities and other injustices. "America's been incredibly good to every one of you," Pirro said in her lecture. "America's allowed you to shine and become financially prosperous ... shame on you. Shame on all of you!"
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View StoryThe HBO comedian pointed out the hypocritical notion that she thinks it's perfectly fine to make political statements of her own, while condemning athletes for using their platform to share their views or kneel .
"She is right, no one wants to hear about politics from a wildly successful athlete, you only want to hear about them from an abject failure of a prosecutor who somehow let Robert Durst slip through her fingers," he said. "And by the way, Jeanine, there's a flag behind you, have some f-cking respect."