As has been the case every night this week, Seth Meyers talked about the situation with Donald Trump’s policy to separate immigrant families at the border in a new “A Closer Look” segment Thursday night. But Meyers also examined Trump’s Wednesday rally in Duluth — or rather, he looked at one specific Trump comment.
“Republicans love to rail against the so-called ‘elites,’ despite the fact that their party controls all three branches of government. Or the fact they are the party of the money class. Or the fact that they elected a wealthy golf course-owning New York real estate magnate-turned-TV celebrity as president. It’s probably their most oft-repeated talking point. Liberals drink lattes and drive Priuses and Republicans are hard-working, blue-collar, getter-doners,” Meyers said to open the segment.
“And yet, at a rally in Minnesota yesterday, Trump completely gave away the game when he bared his insecurities for all to see by complaining about the fact that no one ever calls him ‘elite.’ ”
“Late Night” then played a clip from Trump’s speech in which he made the following comments:
“Did you ever notice they always call the other side, and they do this sometimes, the elite. The elite. Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president and they didn’t.”
Meyers then explained the situation to Trump, using Game 1 of this year’s NBA Finals, in which Cleveland Cavaliers player JR Smith blew a chance to win the game in regulation because he thought the Cavs were ahead when they were actually tied with the Warriors.
“Well, put it like this — LeBron James is an elite athlete because he’s the best at what he does. You’re more of a JR Smith. Because you have no idea what’s going on, and you think you are winning when you’re not.”
Speaking of thinking he’s winning when he’s not, Meyers ended Thursday’s “A Closer Look” with a jab at another odd comment Trump made during his rally.
“Trump has made very clear how he feels about immigration. He concocts lies about criminals pouring over the border and uses de-humanizing language to claim immigrants are infesting out our country,” Meyers said. “But he also knows that to enact his harshest proposals, he needs more Republicans in Congress. So at his rally yesterday, Trump tried to motivate his supporters to vote in November. But for some reason, he immediately undercut himself.”
The specific comment to which Meyers was referring saw Trump say: “What we want to do is we want to elect more Republicans so that we can deliver on all of the things I’m talking about. And I’ll be honest with you, we’re going to deliver anyway.”
Meyers, after the clip: “So Trump’s message to his supporters is ‘I want you to vote. But also if you don’t vote, it doesn’t matter.’ And you know what, I agree with Trump when he says there is no need for Republicans to vote this November. And to help him get that message out, we made an ad targeted directly at his supporters.”
“Late Night” then presented a fake political ad “paid for by the Committee to Make Bad Stuff Stop Happening,” which exhorted Trump supporters to “take it easy” instead of voting in the midterm elections this year.
You can watch that fake ad and the rest of the “A Closer Look” segment from Thursday’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in the video embedded at the top of this post.