On Thursday’s episode of “Late Night,” host Seth Meyers chucked a couple jokes at Donald Trump for his weird, “low energy” attempt at being nice at his rally on Wednesday before moving onto a bigger issue: how Trump and other Republicans are trying to swing the midterms by making categorically untruthful claims about tax cuts and health care.
“If there’s one refrain you hear more than any other at these rallies, it’s [Trump’s] false claim that he’s accomplished more than any president in history,” Meyers said. “But, tellingly, Republicans are not talking about any of those supposed accomplishments. Just take their signature piece of legislation, the massive tax cut they gave to corporations and the wealthy. That tax cut is so unpopular that rather than just campaign on it, Trump is just making up a completely new tax cut specifically for the middle class that he claims Republicans are about to pass.”
“Late Night” then played a couple clips of Trump talking about this alleged tax cut bill, in an interview and at a rally.
“So Trump says Republicans are gonna introduce a major middle class tax cut prior to November, which sounds great except for the fact Congress is out of session until after the November 6 midterm elections,” Meyers continued. “So there are two possibilities here. Either Trump is lying, or he doesn’t know how Congress works. And honestly, it’s probably both. If you’re ever asking yourself: Is Trump lying or is he stupid, the answer is most likely C. All of the above.
“And yet Trump keeps repeating this obvious fabrication hoping voters will hear it and think Republicans are actually going to cut their taxes. In fact, here’s an exchange Trump had with reporters this week where they tried to explain to him that what he was saying made no sense. I’m gonna read the transcript for you.”
Here’s said transcript:
Reporter: “You said that you wanted tax cuts by November 1st. Congress isn’t even in session. How is that possible?”
Trump: “No, we’re going to be passing — no, no. We’re putting in a resolution sometime in the next week, or week and a half, two weeks.”
Reporter: “A resolution where?”
Trump: “We’re going to put in — we’re giving a middle-income tax reduction of about 10 percent.”
Reporter: “Are you signing an executive order for that?”
Trump: “No. No. No. I’m going through Congress.”
Reporter: “But Congress isn’t in session though.”
Trump: “We won’t have time to do the vote. We’ll do the vote later.”
Reporter: “Congress is out.”
Trump: “We’ll do the vote after the election.”
Meyers sounded increasingly incredulous as he read it, and then summed up the entire interaction with a pair of solid zingers:
“It’s like an Abbott & Costello routine where Trump is Abbott and Costello. And the theater has a gas leak,” Meyers joked. “That transcript is like listening to your grandpa talk to the cable guy.”
You can watch all of the “A Closer Look” segment from Thursday’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” in the video embedded at the top of this post.