Samantha Bee runs down the man who 'created the Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory'

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Full Frontal)

published 24 October 2019

"Yesterday, the U.S.'s top diplomat in Ukraine testified to Congress that the quid, it was oh so pro quo," Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal. The diplomat, William Taylor, gave "the strongest evidence we've seen that [President] Trump really did pressure Ukraine to investigate his rivals since Mick Mulvaney went on TV and admitted it."

"For those who are a little confused by the Biden-Ukraine 'controversy' that Trump was supposedly investigating, let's do a comprehensive explainer of the whole scandal," Bee said. She kept it brief: "It's bulls--t. Explainer over." Former Vice President Joe Biden isn't above reproach on some issues, "but the Ukraine story is not one of them," she said. "So where did Trump get this crazy idea?" Peter Schweizer, a right-wing author whose latest book "created the Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory that Trump is obsessed with," Bee explained.

"So who the hell is Peter Schweizer, and how does he keep Schweizing us?" Bee asked — and answered. A longtime associate of Steve Bannon, Schweizer "devised a clever way to use the mainstream media against liberal politicians: Just gather a bunch of provocative but unrelated facts about a Democrat and pretend they point to a nefarious plot that's completely unsupported by those facts, then, instead of feeding them into the right-wing media fever swamp, feed them to respectable mainstream outlets that, in their desperate quest for balance, will investigate, promote, and legitimize the story, allowing it to spew all over the news ecosystem."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Schweizer did it with Hillary Clinton in 2016, "and now the media are falling for the same scam all over again," Bee said. "The good news is that this time his scheme backfired and it may lead to Trump's impeachment. The bad news is that he probably has further plans for 2020," like "a book suggesting that Elizabeth Warren owns a condo in North Korea" or something. She tried out a Schweizer of her own, and if you don't mind some scattered NSFW language, watch below. Peter Weber

Explore More

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.