John Oliver slams Marjorie Taylor Greene for monkeypox comments: 'Obvious dog whistle bigotry'

Stephen Proctor
Updated ·2 min read
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On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Sunday, Oliver called out Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for recent comments she made about monkeypox, which is rapidly spreading across the country, especially in the LGBTQ community. Though anybody can contract monkeypox, Greene is among those who repeatedly insist it’s strictly an LGBTQ problem.

“Of course monkeypox is a threat to some people in our population, but we know what causes it, and that’s pretty much, um — it’s basically a sexually transmitted disease, so it’s not a threat to most of the population,” Greene said. “And so it’s not a global pandemic. It’s really not. And people just have to laugh at it, mock it, and reject it. So I think it’s another scam.”

“Okay, obviously that is ridiculous,” Oliver said in response. “If the way to get rid of something awful was for people to laugh at it and mock it, that woman clearly wouldn’t be in Congress, and yet, here we all are.”

Oliver also slammed Greene for tweets she posted. One he believes to be a dog whistle for conservatives meant to push the homophobic talking point that homosexuals are “grooming” children. The other, a tweet suggesting that school children should carry guns to protect themselves.

“Greene also tweeted, ‘If monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease, why are kids getting it?’ in an act of obvious dog whistle bigotry, suggesting gay people are a danger to children,” Oliver said, “when what’s clearly an actual danger to children is the QAnon congresswoman who once tweeted, ‘The kids at Uvalde needed JR-15s.’”

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.

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