John Oliver slams Trump, cites PolitiFact

HBO host John Oliver finally unloaded on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, and referenced PolitiFact in the scathing 22-minute takedown.  

“At this point, Donald Trump is America’s back mole: it may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it’s gotten frighteningly bigger, it is no longer wise to ignore it,” said the Last Week Tonight host.

Oliver argued that Trump’s appealing qualities are not based in fact. Take, for example, the line that he “tells it like it is.”

HELP US RAISE $15,000 TO HIRE AN EXTRA FACT-CHECKER

“Does he? Because the website PolitiFact checked 77 of his statements, and rated 76 percent of as varying degrees of false,” Oliver said, referring to PolitiFact naming Trump’s campaign misstatements our 2015 Lie of the Year.

Oliver listed several of Trump’s false and inconsistent claims about self-funding his campaign, his successful business record and his positions on abortion, Syrian refugees and an assault weapons ban.

“I’m not even sure he knows he’s lying. I think he just doesn’t care about what the truth is,” Oliver said. “Donald Trump views the truth like this lemur views the Supreme Court vacancy: ‘I don’t care about it in any way.’”

As of Feb. 29, 2016, PolitiFact has examined 100 statements from Trump and rated 78 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire. View them all here.