‘We were playing with them’: RT exposes pro-Trump Kremlin trolls on Samantha Bee as hoaxers
RT tracked down the alleged Kremlin trolls, who appeared on Samantha Bee’s show claiming they were paid to meddle with US election – just to find out they were hoaxers who tricked the American TV crew into paying them for appearing on Full Frontal.
The Clinton camp was never able to back its claims of Russia meddling in the US election with any actual proof. But the host of the US comedy show “Full Frontal”, Samantha Bee, apparently tried to help Hillary and organized an interview, with people that she described as paid Kremlin trolls.
“The Russian government has office buildings full of trolls, disseminating pro-Russian points of view in comment section all over the internet,” Bee said in her show.
The comedian arrived in Moscow and talked to a young man and woman, who wore balaclavas to hide their faces and said that they were “hired to make simple people change their mind about the vote and also about Russia.”
The young man even confessed to having “near a hundred [accounts] on Twitter and 20 or 15 on Facebook” to spread pro-Russian and pro-Trump messages.
Despite “Full Frontal” only being a comedy show, many US outlets, including The Entertainment Weekly and The Huffington Post, presented the story as real news.
But Bee could’ve done a better job verifying her sources, as RT easily tracked down the people she interviewed and learned that they were just hoaxers who led the host into her own trap.
“We heard that there was a request like that: they’re looking for internet trolls, hired by the Russian government,” the young man, who appeared in the "Full Frontal" clip, said.
“Because they couldn’t find any, and we were sure they wouldn’t be able too, we thought: ‘OK, we’ll pretend to be trolls.’ So we did. And she fell into her own trap.”
In his interview with RT, the hoaxer was wearing the same black balaclava and the same colorful t-shirt as he did during his appearance on US television. This time, he took the mask off and revealed his face.
According to him, Bee and her associates were 100 percent sure that they were dealing with real Kremlin trolls.
“Of camera, she and her whole crew were so curious. They genuinely wondered: Who’s paying? How’s the job done? I still think they don’t have a clue that we were playing with them,” the young man said.
The hoaxer said that he was fed up with hearing about Putin’s trolls in the western media and simply wanted to break what he believes is a myth.
“Our main goal was to have a laugh at the American journalists because it’s so stupid to go and look for Putin’s internet trolls. It was wishful thinking by Samantha, who seemed to be supporting Hillary by what she’s doing in her show. And real Putin’s trolls perfectly fit Clinton’s line,” he said.
Persuading Bee to believe they were a real deal was “a simple task” as she only requested that they “troll her Twitter a little, which anyone can do nowadays,” the young man said. According to the hoaxer, he and his female associate were paid $10,000 for appearing on the “Full Frontal” show.
