“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver attacked President Trump on his Sunday night show for insisting he knew nothing about his former associates’ alleged wrongdoings in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
“If you think about Trump’s defense here — which he definitely hasn’t — it’s actually pretty straight, because he’s essentially saying [former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort had already done all this stuff at the time that I, Donald Trump, decided to hire him as my campaign manager, which means one of two things: Either Trump did a background check, discovered his suspicious activity, and didn’t care, or he didn’t so much as Google Manafort before hiring him,” Oliver argued.
Manafort and his business associate and Trump adviser Rick Gates were indicted last week. The two are accused of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Former Trump national security adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in early October for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
Trump has sought to diminish the roles of each of the former associates.
“In all three cases, Trump’s pushback has basically been: I don’t know anything about the people I should have known those things about. And that is his signature move — he’s playing ‘The Trump Card.’ What I mean by that is, he’s using his own incompetence as a defense,” Oliver said.
