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“Trump can’t read”: Samantha Bee comes up with the best US election conspiracy theory so far

By Annalisa Merelli
Published

In a US political climate filled with conspiracy theories—whether about Hillary Clinton’s body double running her campaign or Donald Trump’s supposed desire to drop out of the election at the eleventh hour—there’s another secret storyline staring us right in the face, and comedian Samantha Bee is on it: Trump can’t read.

On her TBS show Full Frontal, for a new segment called “People are Saying,” Bee perfectly parodies the creation of a conspiracy theory. It’s an excellent display of how, if looking for evidence of something sinister, one’s bound to find it.

“After seeing how easy and fun it is to find random scraps of evidence and spin them into random conspiracy theories,” Bee explains, “we decided to do it ourselves.” Indeed, she didn’t have to look far to substantiate the suspicion that Trump could be illiterate. What else could explain his distinct lack of interest in books? His frequent misuse of words? His inability to follow a script?

Pretty obvious if you ask Bee. He can’t read—that’s what people are saying.

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