John Oliver, host of the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, recently devoted an entire segment to criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration. During the segment, Oliver expressed his disapproval of certain decisions made by DeSantis while in office, such as banning gender-affirming care for minors, passing a 15-week abortion ban, censoring books related to Critical Race Theory, and denying female athletes the opportunity to compete against male-born transgender athletes.
In addition to his legislative actions, Oliver also criticized DeSantis’ close relationship with Fox News and his willingness to engage in symbolic culture wars rather than focus on tangible issues. He referred to these tactics as “f**king gross and awful” and suggested that any proclamation made by DeSantis was “completely pointless”.
Oliver went on to discuss the recent NCAA Women's 500 Free race where Olympian Emma Weyant won a silver medal behind transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. In response to this decision, DeSantis declared that such decisions prioritize ideology over female athletes’ opportunities and argued that it was unfair for males to compete in women’s sports.
In conclusion of his tirade against the Florida governor, Oliver suggested that he is no different from Donald Trump; someone who he says has become a "petty autocrat" and a "bully" rather than one who embraces difference of perspective. He ended by calling him a "f**king meatball", implying that all of DeSantis' attempts have been fruitless. Despite all this criticism however, it appears that DeSantis is still set on running for President in 2024 which will be very telling about how much faith Americans put in him despite what Oliver says.
One thing that stood out to me about that video though is that I'm pretty sure that all of the cheering, laughing, and clapping all comes from a track. In other words, there isn't really an audience there that is that supportive of what he's saying. It's just done that way to give the impression that there are.