HBO Show Host Offers Bribe to Justice Thomas to 'Get the F*** Off the Supreme Court'

Eric Liebowitz/HBO via AP

It doesn't get much more insulting than this. An HBO show host is offering Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas $1M per year to step down now from the nation's highest court. 

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John Oliver started his eleventh season of Last Week Tonight by trying to bribe Thomas to retire. It's not a lame partisan joke, either. Oliver claims he is serious and gives Thomas a 30-day deadline to accept his offer. 

Oliver, our intellectual better, gives three options on how to fix the Supreme Court. During the new season's premiere episode on Sunday night, Oliver said the Supreme Court is at "a breaking point." The fixes he offered up are “enforceable ethics codes, to term limits, to potentially expanding the court.” 

“If we’re going to keep the bar of accountability this low, perhaps it’s time to exploit that low bar the same way billionaires have successfully done for decades,” Oliver said.

He continued, “Clarance Thomas is arguably the most consequential Justice on the court right now and he’s never really seemed to like the job. He said, ‘It’s not worth doing for the grief.’ So what if he can keep the luxury perks he clearly enjoys without having to endure all of that grief.”

It isn't the first time Oliver has slammed Justice Thomas for what he perceives as ethical violations. Thomas did not recuse himself from cases where Oliver thought he should, citing a conflict of interest or gifts he may have received from special interest groups.

Though Oliver doesn't consider comedy the main focus of his show, this little rant is laughable unless you, too, are a progressive partisan hack. “If you watch our show, you know jokes aren’t really our thing. This is real. A million dollars a year until you or I die.”

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He specifically said the bribe would be paid by him, not HBO. He whipped out a contract and told viewers it was a "special offer", not a joke. He claimed to have consulted legal experts who said he wasn't violating the law.

In addition to the $1M bribe, Oliver tosses in a deal sweetener - a fancy new RV. A "condo on wheels" as Oliver described it.

Oliver also offered him a brand new top-of-the-line motorcoach worth $2.4 million, which includes a full bedroom with a king-size bed, one and a half baths, a fireplace, four TVs, a washer/dryer, and a residential-size fridge.

Oliver ended the bit by telling Justice Thomas to "get the f*** off the Supreme Court.”

Maybe it's just me but it's very irritating to hear a guy with a British accent rant about our country's highest court. Oliver became an American citizen in December 2019. We fought a war over getting out from under British control. His newly acquired citizenship gives him the freedom of speech - something that is being severely limited in his home country right now - but it doesn't make him an expert on anything.

Leftists hate Clarence Thomas. He is the longest-serving justice on the Court now. He's a black conservative and that sets Democrats off because they think they have a monopoly on black Americans. Top it off with Thomas' intellect and knowledge of the Constitution and those of us on the right have a true warrior in the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas gives no fs about the opinions of Democrats. 

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The reference to the RV was a way to slap Thomas over questions about a loan from a healthcare industry executive in 1999 to Thomas. It was for Thomas' purchase of an RV. Thomas and his wife, Ginni, are known to travel across the United States in an RV each year. A report from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in October claimed that Thomas failed to repay a "significant portion" of the loan, which was for $267,230. 

Under the terms of the loan, Thomas was to make interest-only payments for five years with no money down. After those five years were up, the principal would then come due.

However, the Senate Finance Committee said in a statement on Wednesday that "Thomas made interest payments, but never repaid a substantial portion of the loan."

Thomas may have defied ethics rules that require him to include any "discharge of indebtedness" as a form of income on his annual financial disclosures. The Internal Revenue Service also treats debt that has been forgiven as income.

So, why would a loan from a personal friend to Thomas in 1999 be under scrutiny by Senate Democrats in 2023? It was probably because when Republicans took back control of the House, Democrats ratcheted up their push to kick Thomas off the Court. Conservative justices are in the majority on the Supreme Court and Democrats are freaking out that the Constitution may be followed in their rulings. They want Joe Biden to put another progressive there. 

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The ultimate goal for Democrats is to try to stack the Supreme Court. Sorry to disappoint the left but Thomas has not violated ethics rules. Yes, the Supreme Court already has an ethical code that the justices follow. There weren't concerns until conservative justices outnumbered progressive justices. It's all obvious and using a progressive HBO show host to do their bidding is just another play in the Democrats' playbook. 







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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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