Samantha Bee, Seth Meyers skeptically tackle the most salacious claim in the Trump Russia dossier
Several Western intelligence sources say that Russia has gathered comprising personal and/or financial information on President-elect Donald Trump, according to the BBC and CNN, but BuzzFeed News' publication on Tuesday night of an unsubstantiated Trump dossier compiled by a former British MI6 agent has gotten most of the attention. And one claim in particular has captured the public imagination. On Wednesday night, Late Night's Seth Meyers and Samantha Bee at Full Frontal dove right in to this salacious claim — and yes, it's mildly NSFW, especially the Full Frontal segment.
Meyers was rightly skeptical. "Look, nobody wants to believe that Trump paid Russian hookers to pee all over a bed more than I do, but there is zero proof that happened," he said. "Plus, I find it hard to believe that Trump actually paid somebody for services rendered." He wagged his finger at BuzzFeed: "In all seriousness, I haven't been this shocked by BuzzFeed since their quiz told me I was a Carrie when I'm so obviously a Miranda." And then he made a pretty good point: "Even if Russian operatives did claim to have compromising information on Trump, you know who else does? All of us." Meyers brought up Trump boasting at his press conference Wednesday that he turned down a $2 billion deal in Dubai just this past weekend, concluding: "He wants credit for not committing an impeachable offense!"
Bee also made a joke about Trump not paying his bills, and she was similarly skeptical of the "golden shower" claim. "The only verifiable part of this report is how much joy it gave me," she said. "It also claims the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin, which would be a capital offense," she added, if anybody could stop talking about that other thing. "There's a high probability this story is bullsh-t," she said, "but the fact that it's plausible bullsh-t is a terrifying statement about what our nation has come to." The only good thing about BuzzFeed's journalistic malpractice, she said, is that maybe the juicy allegation "draws attention to the less delicious details about Russia manipulating our president." Watch below — if you don't mind crude humor. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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