Seth Meyers Laughs Off Peter Schweizer’s ‘Clinton Cash’ Bias, But How Serious Are The Book’s Allegations?

As the 2016 presidential race gears up, late-night comedy has already started poking its satirical head into the elections. Seth Meyer devoted an entire segment of his show Monday to calling out Peter Schweizer’s possible bias in Clinton Cash, a controversial new book accusing Hillary and Bill of questionable financial practices.

Seth reminded his audience that similar scrutiny should be turned back on the allegations Peter makes in Clinton Cash. Meyers noted that Schweizer himself was deeply involved within the conservative community and had written several other books that illustrated a clear anti-liberal agenda.

“Scheiwizer was a consultant in the Bush administration from 2008 to 2009 and more recently advised Sarah Palin on foreign policy. Some of his previous books include Do As I Say And Not As I Do: Profiles In Liberal Hypocrisy and the more succinctly titled, and this is real, Makers and Takers:Why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic and envious, whine less … and even hug their children more than liberals. So, clearly, it’s hard to tell if he has any bias.”

Clinton Cash’s knocks on Hillary, however, have grown far beyond Peter’s own reputation. As Meyers pointed out, the New York Times and other major media outlets — many of which are often criticized by conservative media for liberal bias — have run some form of an article about the allegations sparked by Peter’s book. Despite that, there are still many who remain unconvinced that Clinton Cash is anything more than wild speculation intended to weaken Hillary’s presidential campaign. Even Bill O’Reilly was hesitant to buy into Schweizer’s claims.

The Clinton campaign at least sees Clinton Cash as serious enough to warrant their acknowledgment. Hillary 2016 press secretary Brian Fallon penned a release for Medium, where he discussed essential flaws that he saw in both Schweizer’s original book and the New York Times article that expanded on Clinton’s perceived role in the sale of company Uranium One to Russia involving the State Department. Both the book and article stated that Hillary’s donors stood to benefit from the deal, but the major donor that they name was no longer even an owner of stock in the company at the time, according to Fallon.

“In its article, the Times focuses on Frank Giustra, a Canadian businessman and known philanthropist whose donations to the Clinton Foundation date back to 2005. It is true that Mr. Giustra was the owner of a predecessor firm to Uranium One, the company whose sale was being reviewed by C.F.I.U.S. But by the time of Uranium One’s proposed sale in 2010, Mr. Giustra no longer held a position with the company. In fact, as he told the Times, he had liquidated his stake in Uranium One entirely back in 2007 and thus had no reason to have sought any favor from Clinton’s State Department.”

Whether or not Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash manages to sink Hillary’s campaign, it’s at least given the election machine and comedians like Seth Meyers fodder for the upcoming weeks while more figures emerge in both the Democratic and Republican fields.

[Images via Justin Sullivan and Frederick M.Brown/Getty Images]