John Oliver Blasts a ‘Range of Batsh*t Theories’ From Trump and Birtherism to Marjorie Taylor Greene and QAnon

After a brief hiatus, John Oliver returned to late-night to tackle a busy week of news — blasting President Donald Trump for promoting the racist conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris is ineligible to be vice president, and later going after QAnon-supporting congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Oliver briefly addressed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s choice for vice president before diving into the “depressing resurgence of birtherism” that followed.

Only a few days after Harris was announced as Biden’s running mate, law professor John Eastman wrote an op-ed for Newsweek that mirrored the “birther” campaign against former President Barack Obama. Titled “Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility,” the article went after Harris’ eligibility for the vice presidency despite the fact that she was born in Oakland, California.

“I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump said of Harris during a briefing on Thursday. “And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that’s right.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you if it’s right: it f*cking isn’t.” Oliver shot back after playing the clip. “And it’s frankly amazing how slow Trump is to respond to so many things like, I don’t know, public health crises, yet when it comes to amplifying racist conspiracy theories, suddenly he’s The Flash on cocaine.”

This segued into the next conspiracy theory that “stained this week”: QAnon and Greene, the frontrunner for a congressional seat in a conservative district in Northwest Georgia.

“The conspiracy involves a range of batshit theories but very basically, many QAnon supporters believe in a global conspiracy involving a ring of Satan-worshipping, child-molesting criminals led by prominent Democrats that includes everyone from Hillary Clinton to Tom Hanks to a Mexican cement company,” Oliver said. “They also believe information about it is being leaked via cryptic posts on the internet by someone with very high Q-level security clearance—which sounds just as made-up as it definitely is.”

The host played a clip of Greene making racist comments about the Muslim and Black communities — even claiming that if she were “Black people” she would be proud of Confederate statues and view them as a mark of how far America has come.

Oliver pointed out that House Republicans initially attempted to distance themselves from Greene, but they’ve had a change of heart since Trump praised her victory and she was considered the heavy favorite to win. “I get you that should be welcoming to your new colleagues, but maybe don’t be that welcoming when they basically accused your co-workers of being satanic child sex ringleaders,” Oliver joked.

“This should be worrying. It’s bad enough to encounter these conspiracy theories online — it is worse to potentially encounter them in the halls of Congress,” he added. “I would love to be shocked that the Republican leadership is embracing an ongoing troll with a history of racist comments but the truth is they’ve been doing that for years now because you can only see Greene as a disturbing anomaly if you ignore the basic facts that when it comes to the modern Republican party, ‘Where they go one, they go all’”

Watch above, via YouTube.

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