Last Week Tonight: John Oliver exposes who Sheriff Joe Arpaio really is

Donald Trump recently made his first presidential pardon for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, so John Oliver took to Last Week Tonight to explain how terrible this is.

We had a feeling John Oliver was going to have something biting to say about this!

As Oliver explains in the newest episode of Last Week Tonight, many presidents have made questionable pardons throughout history. Recently, Donald Trump joined the club by issuing his first presidential pardon, which is also a baffling one. Of course I am referring to Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

If you aren’t reading every single news story about Trump that comes out (for which I wouldn’t blame you), you might not know much about this story. That’s where Oliver comes in, to help fill the blanks. And he spends nearly 15 minutes delving into the questionable record of the former Arizona sheriff, who would do things like openly brag about feeding rotten meat to inmates.

From there, many awful aspects of Arpaio’s career are highlighted. This includes installing webcams in jails, showing female inmates using the toilet. Worse, the footage wound up online on pornographic websites. Though Arpaio had the cameras pulled (due to the backlash), they downplayed how bad it was by saying that it didn’t expose their genitals and that no minors were depicted (unless they “look older and lie” about their age).

That’s just one example of the many ways Arpaio has been accused of abusing inmates by abusing his power. “Hitler” is in fact the common nickname for him given by any given inmate who’s been in his custody. Sadly, his carelessness with the inmates may have even had fatal consequences — the jail has paid multiple court settlements for wrongful death lawsuits.

You can watch the entire segment in the YouTube video below.

Last Week Tonight airs Sunday nights at 11 PM EST on HBO.