Judith Stewart-Abernathy

My husband and I have found John Oliver's Last Week Tonight to be one of our favorite shows, and his usually well-researched, biting humor something to look forward to each week. I was, however, disappointed by last week's piece on the rescue of Americans and Afghan civilians who had worked with the Americans from Kabul Airport due to errors. The photo of a plane full of Afghan refugees attributed to the current rescue in Kabul is apparently from an event returning Afghan refugees from Turkey in 2018 according to a section in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, section "Not Real News Fact Check Extra" from Sun, Aug 22nd. The fact check was by AP writer Ali Swensen in New York. Also lacking in the piece was some important context, e.g. the trap Biden was placed in during Trump negotiations in 2020, and DT's rather evil aide Stephen Miller and Trump actively screwing up the VISA program and refusing to begin rescuing Afghan people who helped the Americans for several years during Trump's term. I also wonder if Biden's hesitancy to begin fast-tracking these VISAs and removing Afghans early in his term may have been because the then president of Afghanistan might not have wanted this obvious flight of citizenry to become public to the world.