John Oliver Slams GOP’s Election Denier, Nationalist Candidate in Pennsylvania Governor Race

Doug Mastriano’s ties aren’t the only thing John Oliver doesn’t like about the man who won the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania governor last week.

But, to be fair, he really doesn’t like those ties.

Mastriano, a state senator who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in his current campaign, is known for wearing ties with sayings like, “Gave proof through the night, in God we trust,” which is “not how that song goes,” Oliver noted on Sunday’s edition of HBO’s Last Week Tonight.

Another one, reading, “With God all things are possible,” looks like it comes from the “JC Penney Youth Minister DUI Hearing section,” Oliver joked.

Mastriano marched on the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, 2021, following the presidential election in which Joe Biden defeated Trump, but says he did not break the law.

“Yeah, he marched on the capital on Jan. 6, something which has become a weird point of pride for Republicans,” said Oliver. “It’s like hearing someone brag they were on the boat the night Natalie Wood died. I don’t know what’s more troubling there — that you think that makes you sound good, or that some people might actually agree with you.”

Mastriano also gave an interview recently in which he said he already has his team picked out, including a secretary of state who is a “world-class person that knows voting integrity better than anyone else in the nation.”

Quipped Oliver: “I don’t know who he’s got in mind, but I do know there is no way they are a ‘world-class person’ because one, anyone Mastriano likes is immediately suspicious, and two, the only truly world-class people on the planet are Dolly Parton, and end of list.”

But Oliver also had some criticism for Mastriano’s Democratic opponent in the November election, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who’d been running ads promoting how closely Mastriano’s beliefs and platforms aligned with Trump in the hopes that he’d ultimately beat a candidate who may be deemed too far right.

“That is fucking risky,” he said. “I get the tactic behind wanting to choose the opponent that you have the best chance of beating, but as has been made painfully clear over the last decade, the most extreme Republican isn’t necessarily the least electable. So I really hope Democrats know what they’re doing with Mastriano, but they will be making a huge mistake in underestimating him, because if I may quote my own favorite tie,” he said, showing it to the camera, “All things are possible, and most of those possibilities are very bad.”