Senator Bernie Sanders found himself forced into a peacekeeping role on Capitol Hill last week, after one of his fellow senators challenged a teamster to a fight, mid-meeting. Sanders was able to stop anything from happening, but John Oliver is pretty peeved at him for it.
In case you missed it, things between Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin and the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien, got tense during a meeting, after weeks of barbs traded between the two online. At one point, Mullin challenged, “You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here,” telling O’Brien to “stand your butt up.”
But, Sanders intervened, scolding Mullin and reminding him that he’s a United States senator.
“Respectfully, Bernie, shut up!” John Oliver scolded. “I mean, it is nice to hear you call for a cease-fire, a lot of us thought that you’d forgotten how to do that. But shut up!”
HOLY SHIT JOHN OLIVER BEING THE BEST AS ALWAYS pic.twitter.com/21vKWtIoRm
— anonforsafety 🇵🇭🏳️🌈 (@leftwingalt) November 20, 2023
The punchline drew audible “oohs” from the audience, as Oliver was obviously referring to the U.S. involvement in the Hamas-Israel war, but Oliver pushed forward.
“I wanna see anabolic Jim Halpert get his ass handed to him, because do you know who Sean O’Brien is? He’s a 4th-generation Boston teamster,” Oliver said. “He basically came out of the womb wearing brass knuckles. I want to see Senator Anger Management get his jock rocked by bean town’s Mr. Clean here! That’s what I want!”
You can watch part of the segment from “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” in the video above.
