Last Week Tonight host John Oliver mocked Fox News host Jesse Watters for sharing unverified video of alleged "vandals" of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and claiming that liberal media would claim that the people who were seen reaching into the pool "dropped their wedding ring."
The renovation of the Reflecting Pool has become a debacle, marked by recurring algae blooms, workers resorting to pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to combat the problem, and a political blame game in which some Republicans have attempted to pin responsibility for the mess on Democrats.
To make matters worse, paint has reportedly begun peeling from the floor of the Reflecting Pool. The New York Times linked the problem to a $14.7 million no-bid contract awarded to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings under a claim of urgent need.
President Donald Trump has gone so far as to claim that "vandals" used "probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind" to make a "slit" in the pool's paint job, though he did not provide any proof to back this up.
Notably, after defending his administration's work on the Reflecting Pool, he said he "can't help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up." He claimed evidence would be presented "in court" and that reporters should simply reach out to the Parks Department to find out more.
After ABC News reported that Trump continued to blame vandals for the peeling paint and other problems at the Reflecting Pool, while noting that he "provided no evidence of vandalism himself," he threatened to file a lawsuit against the network.
On this point, Oliver said:
“Experts have noted it would be very challenging to cut that liner, and it was far more likely that the repairs were done ‘just too hastily.’ It also may not have helped that during them Trump literally drove over the pool in his motorcade."
"And yet, Trump kept pushing the sabotage conspiracy and his supporters kept trying to sell it when the evidence was just laughably weak.”
He then cut to a clip of Watters amplifying Trump's sabotage claims, using grainy footage of two people reaching into the Reflecting Pool to speculate about possible foul play.
Watters said:
“We don’t know who these people are. But what are they doing with their hands in the pool? Are they cutting the lining? Are they peeling off the paint? We don’t know if they’re committing a crime. They’ll probably tell you they dropped their wedding ring.”
After airing the clip, Oliver shot back:
“Wait – is that the best you’ve got? God, that is pathetic. As for, they’ll probably tell you they dropped their wedding ring. Yeah, maybe they did. Maybe those people at the Reflecting Pool dropped their ring after leaving their wife for a 25-year-old coworker. Jesse would know what that is like.”
“I do not blame his mom for that; she’s a child psychologist, and she tried her best. Sometimes you just get one that sucks.”
“It does now make much more sense that Jesse will willingly humiliate himself by pursuing the approval of a withholding parental figure that will simply never come and sadly he’ll now die starving for it while his mom spends Thanksgiving in a warm home surrounded by people that she loves."
"It’s basically A Christmas Carol if Scrooge had ignored all the ghosts even though one was literally his mom.”
You can hear what Oliver said in the video below.
Oliver's final jab referenced the time Watters' mother, Democratic voter Anne Watters, told him there was a "scheduling situation" and that he would not be included at her table one Thanksgiving.
People loved Oliver's remarks.
As Oliver's words make clear, MAGA will do anything but admit Trump is lying, and people like Watters will continue to embarrass themselves in the process.
New York Post
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
