--- title: John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Focus on 2020 Election description: There are too many other things to worry about. canonical: https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-19T16:31:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:32.106Z og:title: John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Focus on 2020 Election og:description: He explains his position og:url: https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Focus on 2020 Election twitter:description: He explains his position twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Pay Attention to the 2020 Election Now by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 19, 2019 4:31 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 19, 2019 4:31 PM UTC John Oliver doesn’t want to be distracted from the news cycle—and doesn’t think you should be either. The comedian’s show,[ _Last Week Tonight_,](http://time.com/5530497/john-oliver-returns-brexit-last-week-tonight/) just returned from hiatus, but even on vacation Oliver stayed tuned in to the news. “It feels irresponsible and reckless to say, ‘I won’t concern myself with the fact that America is destroying itself. I’ll surprise myself three months later to see what happened,’” he joked with Seth Meyers on Monday night’s episode of _Late Night with Seth Meyers_. Of course, it’s easy to be distracted as the [2020 presidential election](http://time.com/5532266/elizabeth-warren-universal-child-care-wealth-tax/) gets underway and new candidates announce their campaigns. “The bar’s pretty low now,” Oliver told Meyers. “Whenever anyone announces for president now you just go, “Sure, fine — yeah, added to the list, you’re fine. Kamala Harris, great. [Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/5532296/bernie-sanders-announces-running-for-president-2020/), great. A tortoise, walking across an abandoned Wendy’s parking lot? Has he got an exploratory committee? You would work as well.’” Oliver, though, recommends trying to stay vigilant to the current news cycle even as people start to look forward to the upcoming election. “It’s dangerous I think giving it too much attention right now when there’s plenty of other sh-t we should be looking at,” he said. Watch John Oliver on Seth Meyers below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/"},"headline":"John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Pay Attention to the 2020 Election Now","datePublished":"2019-02-19T16:31:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:32.106Z","description":"There are too many other things to worry about.","url":"https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5531661/john-oliver-on-seth-meyers/","name":"John Oliver Thinks It's Dangerous to Pay Attention to the 2020 Election Now"}}]}] ```