John Oliver Gleefully Mocks Noted Liar (and MSNBC Host) Brian Williams

By Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast

09 March 20

The “Last Week Tonight” host couldn’t believe Williams, who’s been caught telling a number of lies on-air, is also unable to do simple math.

ast week, John Oliver dedicated the majority of his late-night show to the coronavirus—namely, Trump’s boneheaded response to it (and litany of lies over it), as well as Fox News’ wildly irresponsible promotion of conspiracy theories surrounding it. 

While the Last Week Tonight host continued to hammer the Trump administration over their bungling of the coronavirus’ spread, including Trump’s patently false claim that people can get tested at will, and Mike Pence’s refusal to answer whether the 30 million uninsured people in America can have their testing covered, he began his program with a quick recap of the week, “which saw Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg end their presidential campaigns—in Bloomberg’s case, after spending over half a billion dollars.” 

He added, “It is hard to overstate just how much money Bloomberg wasted—although, as Brian Williams viewers know, it’s not impossible.” 

Yes, the truth-averse Brian Williams, host of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, made himself look like an idiot on-air this past week while discussing the outrageous amount of money Bloomberg burned on his campaign, and all those groan-worthy memes. 

Williams, who again has a very tenuous relationship with the truth, was discussing the following tweet by Washington Post contributor Mekita Rivas: 

Cue Williams, ace mathematician: “When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear,” said Williams. “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. Don’t tell us if you’re ahead of us on the math. He could have given each American $1 million and have lunch money left over. It’s an incredible way of putting it.”

New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay agreed with Williams’ assessment, saying, “Absolutely. Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he’s spent, he could have given every American a million dollars…It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true. It’s disturbing. It does suggest, you know, what we’re talking about here, which is there is too much money in politics.” 

Yeesh. “OK, for the record: it’s not true. $500 million divided by 327 million is not $1 million, it’s around $1.50, which goes to show you can’t believe everything you see on Twitter,” cracked Oliver.

“Twitter is not where you go for facts; it’s where you go to see the official account of New Jersey tweet ‘gabagool,’ or Post Malone tweet ‘is meatball an fruit,’ or see Henry Winkler posting photos of him holding fish,” the comedian continued. 

At least Oliver didn’t stoop to defending Williams’ former MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews over allegations of sexual harassment like his network-mate Bill Maher. Now that was a truly nauseating performance.