John Oliver: Matt Whitaker Is A Trump ‘Toady Who Will Restrain Mueller’

John Oliver launched a strong attack on acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker last now. The Last Week Tonight host dissected Whitaker’s career and claimed that President Donald Trump only appointed him because he wants to end Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Oliver said Trump ‘did the thing that we’ve all kind of been bracing for’ by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Oliver said that ‘everything about that appointment is weird’, meaning Whitaker’s surprise promotion to acting AG, bypassing usual channels.

“And that is troubling for any number of reasons,” Oliver said. “From the fact that he’s been a regular critic of the Mueller investigation to his questionable judicial philosophy.”

Oliver discussed Whitaker’s background, including his involvement with a company that is under investigation by the FBI. Mocking the patents taken out by the company, Oliver was re-iterating concerns that have appeared in the press about Whitaker’s possible conflicts of interest.

“It should be pretty clear what is actually happening here,” Oliver said. “Trump wants a toady who will restrain Mueller and Whitaker appears to be that guy.”

Trump has attempted to claim that he does not know Matt Whitaker, despite earlier claiming to know Whitaker and thinking he was a good guy. Oliver wasn’t buying Trump’s denials about knowing Whitaker.

“But by Friday morning, Trump was already desperately backpedaling,” Oliver said. “OK, so that is just clearly bullshit. Unless Trump simply forgot the man he appointed as acting attorney general is named Matt Whitaker, which actually might be plausible. After all, he does look more like his name would be Dork Blunderbuss or Chunk Smushington.”