John Oliver had harsh words for Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos for how he has cozied up to Trump in the past year, including a NSFW joke to prove his point.
Oliver devoted Sunday’s Last Week Tonight to defending the press against attacks from President Donald J. Trump. In his monologue, he took aim at certain well-known figures, including 61-year-old Bezos.
During Trump’s first term, the Bezos-owned Washington Post had adopted a front-page slogan that read, “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” Oliver highlighted, claiming it symbolized how the newspaper stood as one of the “fierce watchdogs for truth.”
The slogan has since disappeared. And, so too, the Post’s fierceness.
“Even before the election, they seemed noticeably gentler,” Oliver said, recounting how Bezos had killed the paper’s endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris in October, and how this February, he had ordered the paper’s op-ed pages to focus solely on “personal liberties and free markets.”
“Bezos has seemingly gone out of his way to cozy up to Trump. With his company paying $40 million to license a documentary on (first lady) Melania, the most Amazon has ever spent on a documentary,” Oliver said, while noting that Bezos also stood behind the president at his inauguration this January.
“C’mon!” Oliver exclaimed. “That’s not just bending the knee. That’s bending both knees, arching your back and relaxing your holes.”
Despite his criticism of Bezos, Oliver noted the billionaire isn’t the only media owner “making notable concessions,” citing Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong who owns the Los Angeles Times, and who reportedly asked his staff last December to “take a break” from writing about Trump.
