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Comedian John Oliver (left), House Speaker Mike Johnson (right)
The comedian called Johnson "an anti-LGBT bigot who believes in more accountability for his son's search engine history than for the people who tried to overthrow the government."
John Oliver is taking aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson's anti-LGBTQ+ record.
The comedian spent a chunk of his most recent Last Week Tonightepisode making fun of the latest revelations about the new House Speaker, including his extremist anti-queer ties and bizarre internet history monitoring app, which he shares with his teenage son.
"For all of the fear of a second Trump term, it's worth remembering our current speaker of the House is an anti-LGBT bigot, who believes in more accountability for his son's search engine history than he does for the people who tried to overthrow the government," Oliver said.
Among other things, Johnson has written the forward for a homophobic book promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, worked on behalf of several anti-LGBTQ+ organizations and clients, and made countless disparaging remarks about queer people, particularly LGBTQ+ youth.
Oliver noted that "because there was so little vetting of Johnson before he became speaker, we kept discovering new unsettling facts about him."
One of the strangest pieces of information surrounding Johnson to resurface was his claim that he and his teenage son are each other's "accountability partners" on a Christian app that monitors internet search history for "sinful" content.
Covenant Eyes, which compiles data weekly and flags any inappropriate searches immediately, is also not currently in compliance with U.S. privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, by their own admission.
"It's probably not ideal for national security if a guy second in line to the presidency has that app on his phone," Oliver continued.
The comedian then directed a message to Johnson's 17-year-old son, who has become the unlucky center of attention amid his father's strange behavior.
"If Mike Johnson's son is watching this, I'm really sorry. Your dad seems like a lot," Oliver said. "And if he is watching this online, then I guess Mike probably is, too. Hi Mike! You must've gotten that alert after we showed the picture of the camel."
Unfortunately for Johnson, Oliver noted that "he can't blur his views and hope no one notices, because much like his son, we're unfortunately now all watching him."
