[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome welcome welcome to Last Week Tonight I'm joh Oliver thank you so much for joining us just time for a quick recap of the week and it was look particularly Grim with yesterday's anti-semitic attack leaving 11 dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue this was just days after an apparently racially motivated shooting in Louisville and a series of package bombs being sent to prominent critics of Donald Trump it has been a time for sober reflection or if you're Fox News discussing those package bombs a time for wild speculation because before the suspect was
even arrested they were giving air time to a truly ludicrous Theory you talked in your uh in your notes earlier about the potential that it could be a false flag we cannot rule out that it's a a false flag operation I feel these are false flag bombings at the risk of sounding like a far right-wing lunatic I have to say that I believe that this whole thing was an elaborate hoax yeah but here's the thing about that sounding like like a far right-wing lunatic is not really a risk for the Fox News brand is it
it's more of a guarantee it'd be like if Tony Bennett started every song with at the risk of making your grandma wet what are you talking about Tony we all know that's going to happen it's specifically what you're he to do now once the suspect was found and it was clear not just that the bombs were real but that he was very much a trump supporter haraldo apologized tweeting never mind outsmarted myself in curing false flag operation and can I just say that outsmarted myself is a brilliant way to say that you did something incredibly
stupid wow I really outsmarted myself this morning when I accidentally ate kitty litter instead of grap nuts I remember thinking as I chewed the clumps I truly am two steps ahead of me but but incredibly even after the susp suspect's motivations were clear some Trump supporters remained insistent that there was more to this story Obama probably think he is to say of and Hillary Clinton probably sent hers to herself so you don't think this guy actually sent these bombs to these officials no probably not why they probably had it done they may have paid him
to do it what would be the upside of that uh trying to bring people sping over to their side and against Trump yeah okay I got it so so Obama flew to Florida mailed a bomb to himself in Washington then flew back just in time to avoid it all to frame this guy now I'm not saying that that man's Theory doesn't have any holes in it but at least we can all agree he really outsmarted Heraldo Rivera but for now let let's move on to Saudi Arabia the country with bans on pork alcohol and porn
or as it's known in America a Florida breakfast now Saudi Arabia is continuing to deal with the ongoing Fallout from the death of journalist Jamal kogi who disappeared after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul which reportedly also contained 15 Saudi operatives who'd flown in with an autopsy specialist and a bone sore the Saudis initially insisted that kogi had left the embassy alive but now admit that they'd incorrectly remembered what happened or dismembered if you will that their story instead became that he'd been killed but for good reason they say discussions led to a brawl
and he died in a fist fight yeah a fist fight apparently it started when they had a disagreement over whether or not kosi should be murdered in Cold Blood you see he didn't think so but the Saudis were really adamant it was a good idea and you know one thing just led to another now of course this story was as kogi's editor at the Washington Post tweeted utter which should also definitely be the new term that the post uses when factchecking politicians it's certainly better than using their current system of one to four pinocchios come
on you're a journalistic institution why are you using a dishonest wood demon from a children story now the Saudis then abandoned that story and suggested that the killing may have been pre premeditated which was obvious from the start especially as it now appears The Killers had the laziest of strategies to convince people the kogi had left the consulate safely CNN aired what appears to be surveillance video described to them by a Turkish source as one of the key suspects dressed in kogi's clothes even apparently a fake beard Oh Come that is pathetic frar kogi is
bald and the body double has a full head of hair if you're picking a body double for someone you better make sure they look exactly like that person that is why my body double is this owl the resemblance is uncanny you can't even tell which one is the real owl now this whole horrific situation has put Trump in a very difficult position because he is close to the Saudi leadership and has been bending over backwards to desperately try and excuse what happened and even as the Saudi story unraveled he Unleashed a critique that can only
be described as very very weird they had a very bad original concept it was carried out poorly and the coverup was one of the worst in the history of coverups it's very simple a very bad original concept you're the president addressing the assassination of a permanent resident of the United States not a Netflix executive deciding whether to Greenlight a new series and besides even if you were everyone knows the Netflix development motto is there are no bad original Concepts look this story is horrendous and businesses with toys to Saudi Arabia have now come in for
greater scrutiny including the WWE who you may remember signed a 10-year deal to Stage events there and who in April staged the greatest Royal Rumble in jeda which was wall-to-wall propaganda for the Saudi government there was actually a clip from that event that we didn't have time to show you last time involving wrestler Titus O'Neal who ran into the arena to jump into the ring and I promise what you're about to see was not staged he's had a very busy week here in Saudi Arabia he's had dinner with many princes and very important people and
he oh my God what the heck look I just don't think there is any better encapsulation of the WWE's relationship with Saudi Arabia than a wrestler meeting Saudi Arabian princes before falling flat on his face WWE actually has their next event in Saudi Arabia Jewels scheduled to take place this Friday and they've understandably been under real pressure to cancel it there are even unconfirmed reports that John Cena wants to pull out of the event and the truth is wrestling fans have long been uncomfortable with this whole Saudi deal in fact just listen to a crowd
that is cheering for the Undertaker suddenly take a turn when he brings up Crown Jewel 15 ,000 strong chanting on their feet for the Phenom at Ground [Music] Jewel holy I think the WWE itself just turned heel I mean do you know how clearly deeply bad something has to be to get wrestling fans to boo a wrestling event at a wrestling event that is the type of crowd reaction that you'd expect to hear if the WWE Championship was suddenly won by Beck which which is totally plausible by the way the guy's a Scientologist and they
give you superpowers it's not just a religion it's a set of principles to help you understand and improve your life and maybe fly just just look into it that's all I'm compelling you sincerely and yet despite all the criticism the WWE is going full steam ahead with crown jewel in partnership with a country that remember just murdered and dismembered a journalist for the Washington Post and their promotion for it has been a little tone deaf such as this actual Instagram post featuring a funeral n which was initially captioned respect is out the window at WWE
Crown Jewel and that is obviously insensitive but also it is kind of nonsense because the NN is referring to the Undertaker but that's not his catchphrase his catchphrase as we all know is boo I'm a big beef ghost here to drive you to hell boo I'm a beef ghost boo that's what he says when he wrestles look it is not going to be easy for the WWE to thread the needle on this they are pushing ahead with this event despite the serious concerns of some of their own wrestlers and their own fan base but since
they have clearly picked a lane here they may as well just say it and go Full Throttle with the marketing and there something like this on November 2nd it's Crown live from s Arabia featuring Brock Lesnar AJ Styles The Undertaker no female wrestlers cuz they aren't allowed to perform there and maybe John Cena if is willing to take a major p RP try and forget everything you've seen on the news that might make this hard to enjoy and instead watch The Brothers of Destruction leave their opponents dead and buried sorry poor choice of words someone
is going to rest in pie nope hang on someone is going to be ambushed and mutilated with a bon son you know what never mind the point is next Friday at Crown Jewel respect is out the window and if you care about human rights the WWE's got two words for you suck [Applause] it moving on our our main story tonight concerns state attorneys General and yes that is the correct plural and if you already knew that I'm sorry that high school was such a rough time for you believe me I know being a teenage grammar
nerd is something from which it is difficult to recover and look I do realize that a show about State AG sounds like a tedious Prospect just watch the start of this 2006 panel discussion on C-Span in front of an electrified crowd our panel today features three uh distinguished and very and very different and bipartisan uh Attorneys General look I got to say that was a bit of a dick move by the C-SPAN cameraman there he didn't have to pan across those empty seats but he did it anyway as if to say look even the panel's
friends didn't show up and I'll tell you what that panel did wrong actually if you want a live audience to listen to you talk about State AGS simply don't tell them in advance we filmed this show in front of a live audience you think we told them what this show's about of course not they were explicitly told that this was a taping of the Rachel Ray Show and I promise she'll be out any minute now but look it is worth the effort to learn about State AGS because they are very important and yet most of
us probably don't know who Oz is although if you live in Indiana I am very excited to introduce you to yours please meet Curtis Hill AG by day although By Night something very much different I was toying around with it and discovered that I sounded sort of like Elvis we're caught in a trap I can't walk out because I love you too much baby we saw the Attorney General do all the hits say only fools Only Fools russan I don't know if you've noticed but I don't look much like Elvis I had to be honest
I hadn't noticed that frankly it's difficult to notice anything besides the most sadistic inseam in the history of tailoring that looks like a marshmallow bisected with fishing wire and that's all it looks like most ads are actually elected meaning they belong to political parties and they run campaign ads like this striking one from Michigan when you're choosing Michigan's next Attorney General ask yourself this who can you trust most not to show you their penis in a professional setting is it the candidate doesn't have a penis I'd say so well that is certainly an argument although
to be honest if you were asking me which candidate I trust most not to show me their penis I'd have to go with dickas Dennis he he can't show me his penis why that mean old raccoon still has it that that that woman is running for attorney general in Michigan it's one of 30 states where voters will be selecting their next AG on November 6 and those elections are going to be unusually competitive some estimate that more than $100 million will be spent on AG races this year that's up to three times more than ever
before so tonight let's look at who AGS are what they do and why they matter and let's start with what they do because typically they serve as a state's Chief legal officer and the people's lawyer with responsibilities ranging from a criminal law enforcement to Consumer advocacy and everything in between the landmark multi-billion dollar tobacco industry settlement in the '90s the one that killed Joe Camel that was thanks to State AGS uh this year's Blockbuster report on abuses by the Catholic church in Pennsylvania that was thanks to a state AG you know who put out that
raging wildfire in Northern California that was firefighters use your head why would State AGS have been involved in that use your instincts here the fact is the fact is though AGS often work on politically neutral matters and they still do but in recent decades they've also become significant L more partisan one small sign of this is that while all AGS belong to the National Association of Attorneys General or nag around two decades ago Republicans formed a separate Committee just for them rager and the Democrats followed suit with dger and I do know that Raga and
Daga sound like twins from Dutch folklore that teach children about right and wrong Raga always milks the cow when its others are swollen but Dara is off making nonsense with a goose when Dara is giv even no dinner this is justice but arguably the most high-profile way in which this job has become more partisan is the extent to which AGS belonging to one party have teamed up to bring lawsuits against the federal government now that used to be relatively rare but starting in the Obama years the number of those sort of lawsuits skyrocketed it was
Republican AGS who successfully limited the Medicaid expansion of Obamacare and sooning the government became a point of Pride for AGS like Texas's Greg Abbott what I do is I go into the office I sue the federal government and then I go home I've sued the Obama Administration now 25 times over the last four years yeah but that is not the smirk of a guy who just goes into the office sues the government and goes home is it that's the smirk of a guy who goes into the office sues the government adjusts the office thermostat without
telling anyone steals someone's sandwich from the fridge farts in the elevator and then goes home now abber has since gone on to become governor of Texas but his successor Ken Paxton was no less eager to sue the Obama Administration just listen to his wife proudly describing Paxton's love for lawsuits in what apparently I legally have to call a song I'm a pistol packing Mama yes I am I'm a pistol packing Mama yes I am I'm a pistol packing mama and my husband sus Obama I'm a pistol pack and Mama yes I am I I never
thought I would say this but I would honestly rather listen to Moose Knuckle Elvis Shirley templ it up in his living room in a two tight onesie now Paxton himself is actually a really good example of how a state AG's political views can significantly impact their work he told County clerks that they could refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples he was a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that shot down an Obama era rule that would have made 4 million people eligible for overtime pay and when the Obama Administration tried to extend protections for
transgender kids in public schools Paxton sued and said this any man that decides that they want to declare themselves to be female for the day can walk into your daughter's locker room or bathroom it now opens the door for anybody no matter what they are and how they're thinking they can change their gender for a day and have the ability to walk into a women's locker room it's just not right what the are you talking about obvious bigotry aside transgender people don't just switch identity for convenience they are human beings not readed frogs that's right
readed frogs should the need arise can spontaneously change from female to male I just hit you with an unexpected frog fact in the middle of talking about State Attorneys General and I know what you're thinking where the is Rachel Ray if she's not here in the next 5 minutes I'm going to Riot just be patient be patient she'll be here she's making for Tartas and you're all going to have a taste now she'll be here just be patient now now now Paxton has actually spent almost his entire time in office under indictment and is awaiting
trial for Securities fraud but that is not even the Ken Paxton related allegation I would like to show you instead I'd like to focus on one mentioned in a real Attack ad from his current opponent this is the Colin County Courthouse where a Dallas Curr accidentally left a $1,000 pen at the metal detectors this is Ken Paxton the indicted Texas Attorney General rummaging through the metal detector trays and stealing that $1,000 pen and this is Ken Paxton the indited Texas Attorney General walking away with a stolen pen vote Justin Nelson for Texas Attorney General he
will fight on behalf of all Texans and he won't steal your pain yeah I mean I guess I guess that's a relief although thanks to that ad earlier I would also like to know that he won't steal my pen or show me his penis or for that matter show me his pen or steal my penis I really need to know all his positions on the penis pen show steal Continuum still the larger point is State AGS are increasingly partisan and when you look at how Ken Paxton has used his power it is hard not to
think that that is a bad thing but partisanship can cut both ways and now that Trump is in office Democratic State AGS are the ones filing lawsuits against the president and while you may have been unhappy to hear people cheer for that pistol packing Mama's husband suing Obama I suspect it may feel a little different hearing the Democratic AG of Washington state say this we have 19 since the Donald Trump became president we've filed 19 lawsuits against the administration so what do you say to people who just think you have an act to grind against
this guy well I I plead guilty I I mean I do I don't know what to say yeah I yeah you see it's interesting how your feelings on suing the government can change a lot based on who is saying it it's like how uh I'm getting off here is a fine thing for someone to say if they're standing next to the door of a train but a very rude thing to say if they are masturbating on that same train so look State AGS have a lot of power and while many of us may not have
been aware of that corporations and other special interests certainly have because both raaga and Daga have been increasingly aggressive about raising funds and one way they do that is by organizing events where they essentially sell access to AGS Raga especially has some pretty lavish getaways where Industries can mingle with the AGS who are supposed to be policing them as CBS found when it spoted on one in South Carolina we saw at least nine State AGS rubbing shoulders with representatives from Coke Industries big tobacco payday lenders and the NRA the dress code Resort casual CBS News
reviewed 88 donations over $50,000 and found more than half of the donors had matters under consideration by a state attorney general or had recently settled now Raa says there is absolutely no quidd pro quo there so I guess those groups simply donated substantial amounts of money because they wanted to chillax to the max at a resort casual Clan bake with North Dakota attorney general Wayne stenum oh yeah he's not just the AG of North Dakota he's the mayor of Margaritaville Wayne party's hard he's an animal and look some State AGS have been ridiculously cozy with
corporations take Scott puit former head of the EPA he previously served as Oklahoma's AG where he had a very close relationship with energy companies he sued the EPA 14 times and wrote the agency multiple letters about policies that threaten to impact local oil companies like Devon energy but when a reporter obtained copies of pu's correspondence with Devon he noticed a weird coincidence the letters that Scott puit had written were identical copies in most cases of the draft letters that Devon had sent him he had taken those letters and simply put them on a stationary and
sent them in as if they were essentially the state law enforcement official opinion I was like holy exactly like he said holy and and that sure looks like puit let an oil company do his work for him although to be fair maybe he just happened to think up the exact same words in the exact same order that they did maybe you find that plausible personally I find it about as plausible as I do the idea that the family in a quiet place stayed silent for 472 days wow no one farted for more than a year
that should really be the title of the movie because that is genuinely incredible so so State AGS are power ful increasingly partisan and over half of them are on the ballot this year and Republicans are very much ready for this fight as AR consur State Ag and chair of rager Leslie rutage will tell you when it comes to the Democratic AGS I can't speak to what they do I know they raise a heck of a lot less money than the Republican AGS do because we have been crushing it okay so first again bit of a
dick move by the cband cameraman there under cutting her claims of crushing it with a cruel cutaway to her audience candy crushing it but the fact is she is right raaga is really outraising dger and it seems they are now locked in an arms race for funds which just cannot be the healthiest way for this system to operate naughty rugger naughty Dugger if you keep keep behaving like that your parents will sell you to deceit like your sisters now interestingly rutti is one of the AGS up for election on November 6th as is possible pen
Thief Ken Paxton and if you live in any of these highlighted states you have got an AG race to vote for and it is really worth taking a few minutes to research the candidates especially because many people who do actually vote end up leaving the AG box on the ballot empty so your vote for AG May technically be even more valuable in Texas one poll showed that 39% of registered voters didn't name who that they would vote for for AG because they and I quote haven't thought enough about it which sounds terrible but that's actually
a cause for genuine hope because remember that is where Ken Paxton is running and if there is one thing sure to damage Ken Paxton's reputation it's an awareness of Ken Paxton's reputation so so please before November 6th just think about your AG race you can do it you've got nine days left and I know that we've all been asked to think about a this year from Supreme Court nominations to gun control to the energy of Pete Davidson's penis it's it's been a lot and now I am adding research your state AG race to your list
but it is honestly worth it also if you do it you'll frankly be amazed at the kind of tidbits that you might find if you live in Wisconsin just Google Brad schiml $10,000 coins and you'll learn about how your AG managed to spend 10 grand of taxpayer money on coins reading K AE which stand stands for his actual personal motto kicking ass every day if you live in Arkansas Google Leslie rutage karaoke 2016 so you can see our friend from before absolutely crushing it on stage I think a track for sex it really turns me
[Music] on I'm always staring at him when he's Ching along than you Les thank wait did that guy just say sing it Leslie I'm not sure that's encouragement I think that might be an honest plea sing it Leslie sing it don't just drone it a rhythmically at an inconsistent volume the band's in E Major and you're in h try and bring it into the known musical Universe Leslie and look if you're in Michigan and even if you are not please Google Bill shoy 1989 video he is their current AG but he's not actually up for
election because he's running for governor but it is still worth Googling that so you can watch him creepily hitting on a woman behind the camera could you please Mo closer to the lamp I would be happy to move closer to the lamp I will do anything you want some things I may not let you run the camera on I admire your tenacity appreciate your spirit of Vincent vano Rembrant TUS lre oh that is rough to watch I don't know how she got through the interview without punching him in the dick my point here is my
point here is taking just 2 minutes to research your state AG is a valuable use of your time and if you are thinking that you don't have 2 minutes you actually do because it's 11:28 right now I'm not saying goodbye until 11:30 so go to vote411.org right now where you can find out if there is an election in your state and if so who your AG candidates are seriously do it now you will not be missing anything I promise nothing entertaining is going to happen for the rest of this show in fact to help drive
you away for the rest of the broadcast a bagpiper will be playing Leslie rut's favorite song she thinks my tractor sexy take it away [Music] oh God yes believe it or not the bag pipes make this song even more unlistenable than it already is that is an ungodly noise no disrespect turn this show off now and research your AG and if you haven't already been repelled into action I'll happily add an accordion into the mix oh yes the Sweet Sweet Sound of a bagpipe accordion duet two sounds that go together like poptarts and fish go
to vote411.org right now because I promise this just isn't going to get any better and don't push me on this you think I won't add a theramin to this sound think again don't try me you shouldn't be watching this show anymore I'm slightly disappointed that our live audience is still here Rachel Ray is not coming tonight you've been betrayed they were never going to be forars but I'll tell you who is coming though six children playing the recorder oh my God how are you somehow the worst ingredient in all this go research your AGS because
these guys are about to get louder that is our show thank you so much for watching see you next week good night oh my oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]