John Oliver Dunks on Midterms Losers Elon Musk and Haley Stevens

After issuing an urgent warning prior to the midterms about the GOP’s increasingly troubling ties to neo-Nazis (with a little dig at Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans, of “You Can See Everything” infamy, thrown in for good measure), John Oliver returned to the “Last Week Tonight” desk on Sunday to bask in the Democrats’ blue tsunami that saw them wrest back control of Congress in imposing fashion. “It has been a busy week and, given the midterm results, a pretty good week, too!” Oliver exclaimed at the top of his HBO show. “Democrats won so big on Tuesday it was sometimes genuinely hard to take all the positive results in.” Oliver opined how it was “genuinely hard to believe Texas had just turned blue,” adding it was “hard to process” all the wins, including 22 state trifectas, Chris Pappas becoming the first openly-gay man elected to U.S. Senate, Deb Haaland of New Mexico being the first Native American woman elected governor of a U.S. state, and Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms elected the first Black woman governor of a U.S. state. The comic also applauded how, “Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, meaning all the hateful shit thrown his way did not work, and also that this woman [Haley Stevens] imploded her own political career for nothing. Then, you realize Susan Collins lost too! A decade of having to listen to her express reservations about something before going ahead and doing it anyway are finally fucking over.” But wait, there’s more: “Then it hits you that Elon Musk wasted so much money! The half a billion dollars he spent to try and buy the election just went up in flames faster than a parked Cybertruck. Speaking of which: we also learned this week he’s ending production of Cybertrucks, which isn’t an election result but kind of feels like one.” Yes, Musk spent nearly $500 million during the midterm election cycle, including $200 million to (unsuccessfully) defeat Senator-elect James Talarico in Texas; while Stevens, a supposed Democrat, backed GOP candidate Mike Rogers over her primary rival (and eventual winner) El-Sayed.