President Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday that people "in the dark shadows" were controlling Joe Biden and that "thugs" wearing "black uniforms with gear and this and that" had flown to Washington, D.C., over the weekend to cause damage. "Lacking details, the fantastical tale took on the wild, conspiratorial tone of a subversive Reddit subchannel or a foreign government's disinformation campaign," David Nakamura notes at The Washington Post.

Trump's tale is "almost too stupid to fact-check," CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale said Tuesday. "I mean, when you have Fox's Laura Ingraham telling you it sounds like a conspiracy theory, it's probably a conspiracy theory."

Trump elaborated Tuesday, changing some significant details.

Not only were the uniformed antifa "looters" now traveling from Washington "to wherever," not to Washington, the details were secret because Trump hadn't gotten permission from the purported first-hand witness, not because they are "under investigation." The president's story, in fact, closely resembles a Facebook post from an Idaho man who falsely claimed June 1 that a plane full of black-clad Seattle antifa guys had landed in Boise to attack downtown and residential areas.

"It turns out there's a strong possibility the president got suckered by a months-old internet rumor that's been making the rounds among right-wing paranoid Facebook users," MSNBC's Chris Hayes said Tuesday night. NBC News reporter Ben Collins detailed the flood of social media rumors that have drawn heavily armed groups to downtowns across the country to battle antifa attacks that never materialized. "Look, its really easy to laugh at this whole idea that, like, antifa is taking over an airline," wearing identifying tattoos and dressed in uniform, Collins said, "but this is corrupting the intelligence pipeline to the president."

If Trump "really wants to quell the unrest, he can start by dealing with facts and not these conspiracy theories," Collins said. White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews told the Post that Trump is merely raising questions about "who may be funding travel and lodging for organized rioters," and "an investigation is underway." Peter Weber

The ill-fated streaming service Quibi may already be shutting down.

Quibi Holdings LLC "is considering shutting itself down," The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The company has reportedly hired a restructuring firm, which presented the board with "a list of options that included shutting the company down," the Journal says.

Meanwhile, The Information is also reporting that Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has "told people in the industry that he may have to shut down the company." That report adds that Quibi employees "have said important strategy meetings have been cancelled," and they've even "informally been scheduling goodbye drinks." And The Wrap reports that the "expectation is that the company will shut down and return what remains of its investors' money."

Quibi, which means "quick bites," launched in April with original shows presented in short chunks available to watch exclusively on mobile devices. But it hasn't exactly been a smooth launch year. Users complained about not being able to see Quibi's shows on their TVs — a feature that was later added — and while the service was geared toward those looking for content to watch on the go, there was less of a need for that weeks after potential subscribers stopped commuting to work due to the pandemic.

Previously, the Journal reported that Quibi was set to to "sign up fewer than two million paying subscribers" by the end of its first year, coming in "well under its original target of 7.4 million." News of the service's possible shutdown comes after Politico reported that should Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win the 2020 election, among those whose names are "being floated" for his Cabinet include Quibi CEO Meg Whitman.

Update: After this article was published, the Journal reported that Katzenberg has informed investors Quibi will be shutting down. Brendan Morrow

This year's election is looking familiar.

Polls have long given Democratic nominee Joe Biden a big advantage in this year's presidential race. And with more forecasting Democratic gains in the Senate as well, pollsters and analysts have started to compare 2020 to 1980. That's when former President Ronald Reagan swept the U.S. in a landslide, and Republicans ousted 12 Democrats in the Senate.

One of those pollsters estimating a blue wave is Charlie Cook, who runs The Cook Political Report. Cook noted in a Wednesday tweet that a big presidential win doesn't necessarily mean a complete wave — it didn't in 1972 and 1984. But he thinks this year's likely big win for Biden will be different, recalling how the losses trickled in for Democrats in 1980 and saying this year's Senate losses for Republicans "won't hit 12 but could get to be a pretty big number."

The idea's most ardent defender is Joe Trippi, who has been working on Democratic campaigns since 1980. He has repeated over and over that this year's election looks much more like 1980 than 2016, crediting the fatigue voters already feel after just four years of Trump.

Cook's insistence that just one Democratic-held Senate seat is in play this year versus nine Republican seats has only added to Trippi's evidence. Kathryn Krawczyk

It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen's attempt to prank Rudy Giuliani for his new Borat film was a great success.

The comedian's sequel, in which Borat travels to America in hopes of gifting his daughter to someone close to the Trump administration, drops on Amazon this Friday. But spoiler-filled details emerged on Wednesday about a shocking scene in which Baron Cohen dupes President Trump's personal lawyer.

In the movie, The Guardian reveals, Giuliani speaks with the actress who portrays Borat's daughter for what he thinks is a conservative news show, after which "the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel suite, which is rigged with concealed cameras." From there, Giuliani "can be seen lying back on the bed, fiddling with his untucked shirt" and then "reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals," The Guardian writes.

At that point, Borat reportedly interrupts the two, bursting in to say, "She's 15. She's too old for you."

In reviews for the film published on Wednesday, critics were naturally gobsmacked by the Giuliani moment, with the Los Angeles Times speaking of a "what-the-hell-am-I-seeing" sequence that will likely lead to "indignant lawsuits," while Deadline said that the "big Giuliani finale is a stunner" and Vanity Fair wrote that "you cannot help wondering exactly what Giuliani may have done next" had he not been interrupted.

Giuliani actually revealed earlier this year that he called the police on Baron Cohen over a prank interview, at the time telling Page Six, in a statement that didn't exactly age well, "I felt good about myself because he didn't get me." Perhaps he meant to conclude that sentence with a Borat-style "not!" Brendan Morrow

Mel Brooks is ripping President Trump for his COVID-19 response and backing Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president in what is evidently his first political video ever.

The icon of comedy in a video shared Wednesday by his son Max endorsed the Democratic nominee for president, doing so while his son and grandson stood outside behind him.

"They can't be with me," Brooks explained. "Why? Because of this coronavirus, and Donald Trump's not doing a damn thing about it. So many people have died, and when you're dead, you can't do much!"

Brooks went on to endorse Biden, saying he's voting for the former vice president because "Joe likes facts, because Joe likes science" and because he "will keep us going."

Max Brooks previously shared a hilarious social distancing PSA in March featuring the Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles director in isolation, but he noted on Wednesday that at 94, his father "has never made a political video. Until now." Brendan Morrow

Michael Bloomberg isn't just outspending President Trump in Florida. He's dragging the president into a "money pit," a former a former Florida Democratic Party spokesman tells Politico.

After his brief and pricey failed presidential run, the former New York City mayor threw his support and his billions behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Bloomberg has specifically focused on the critical swing state of Florida, pledging to spend at least $100 million there, mostly on TV ads, to boost Biden's candidacy. Both Republicans and Democrats aren't quite sure why Bloomberg is spending so much on TV versus social media and voter outreach. But Max Steele, a former Florida Democratic Party spokesman, tells Politico the point is rather to "keep [Trump] mired down" because "Florida is a money pit."

Steve Schale, who leads the pro-Biden Unite the Country super PAC, agreed. Because of Bloomberg and other PACs' overhwleming spending, "Trump has now been committed to the equivalent of land war in Asia by having to spend so much of his money in Florida," Schale told Politico. In turn, Trump hasn't had the money he needs to compete in the north and midwest, namely Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And with Florida covered by Bloomberg, other Democratic PACs have been able to head for the northern battlegrounds where Trump is falling behind.

The idea that Trump is hemorrhaging money to keep up with Biden is boosted by the fact that his campaign reported having just $63 million in the bank at the end of September, even after raising $1.5 billion since the 2016 election. Read more at Politico. Kathryn Krawczyk

The Department of Justice and Purdue Pharma have reached an $8.3 billion settlement regarding the OxyContin maker's role in the opioid crisis, the DOJ announced during a Wednesday press conference. In addition, Purdue will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, The Associated Press reports.

Purdue will plead guilty to offering doctors kickback payments if they wrote more prescriptions for Purdue's painkillers, as well as using health record software to push for those prescriptions. The company will also have to admit it held up Drug Enforcement Administration investigations into the company as part of the settlement. It will forfeit at least $2 billion to the federal government, pay at least a $3.54 billion criminal fine, and fork over $2.8 billion in damages, among other charges. Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, preventing it from paying the criminal fine right away.

The settlement doesn't absolve Purdue's owners and executives from criminal liability, as a criminal investigation into them and the company is still ongoing. It will turn Purdue into a public benefit company managed by a trust and remove its owners, the Sackler family, of any involvement. The company also still has to deal with thousands of claims from local and state officials over the opioid epidemic as they dealt with more than 450,000 overdose deaths in the past 20 years. Purdue has suggested paying $10 billion to settle them all. Kathryn Krawczyk