John Oliver took aim at Robert F Kennedy Jr on this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight, referring to the presidential candidate as “a full-blown menace”.
He joked that the focus this week would be on the election, “one of the last stories you want us to cover right now”.
RFK Jr has become a prominent third option for November’s US election and has used his physical fitness as a key component of his campaign with videos containing shirtless workout clips, looking “less like a campaign ad and more like the dating profile of a dad who just lost custody”.
Kennedy is also “often called a conspiracy theorist”, yet currently has enough support in states such as Michigan to potentially tip the balance with Trump and Harris neck and neck.
Oliver said that RFK Jr was “first and foremost a Kennedy”, so was as establishment as they come.His early career did see him “doing some genuinely laudable work”, and Kennedy is still active on some important causes like microplastics.
Yet he is also “a lot more rightwing on certain issues that you might assume”, such as the war in Gaza and immigration.
He was also accused by a former babysitter of sexual assault, a claim that had him respond by speaking of his “rambunctious youth” and that there were many more skeletons in the closet.
While Kennedy goes “out of his way to seem reasonable and open-minded” on more mainstream podcasts, he still has a lot of extreme views, such as refusing to drop an early theory of how Aids began, blaming it on the use of poppers and gay men “burning the candle at both ends”.
He has also frequently attacked Anthony Fauci, claiming the immunologist wanted to call Aids a virus so he could profit from drugs to treat it. Oliver said RFK Jr’s Aids denialism has had “real damage”, as has his belief that psychiatric drugs lead to school shootings.
Oliver blasted RFK Jr for having “so many confident assertions” on unchallenged platforms, showing footage of him on an extremist podcast saying he would tell a random mother with a baby not to get it vaccinated.
“You don’t get to say ‘I’m not anti-vaxx’ then wander around the woods telling people not to vaccinate their babies like you’re some red-pilled version of Smoky the Bear,” Oliver said.
Kennedy has also pushed the “bullshit” theory that autism is a result of vaccinations, something that is “clearly absurd” while showing “a certain cruelty” toward autistic people.
“There is an earned distrust of pharma and medical authorities,” Oliver said, while admitting that it is “comforting at a frightening time” to believe certain things Kennedy might say.
Kennedy’s popularity surged during the early days of Covid as there was “a lot of uncertainty back then” but his views “caused real harm to real people”. He provided the introduction to a debunked book linking the deaths of young people to Covid vaccines. Multiple children and teens mentioned had no relation to the vaccine in any way.
“The idea of RFK is appealing but so many of the reasons to support him do not stand up to the slightest of scrutiny,” Oliver said.
Kennedy’s candidacy is also dangerous for the election as it could help the Republicans, which is why one of the party’s mega-donors, Timothy Mellon, has been helping to fund his campaign.
RFK Jr “may wind up working” for Trump, with murmurs of a cabinet position if the Republican wins – alarmingly in health and human services. “If that is true then it’s a fucking nightmare,” Oliver said.
