Seth Meyers Rips ‘Sadistic’ Trump for His Lack of Empathy for Coronavirus Victims (Video)

“Trump wants you to be a warrior while he sits safely in isolation in the White House.”

Seth Meyers was back in his attic for another episode of “Late Night” on Wednesday — and, of course, another edition of “A Closer Look.” Donald Trump continues to be the focus of most of the late night hosts, what with the bounty of television appearances he continues to make as we near the end of our second month in lockdown. And in a new edition of “A Closer Look,” Meyers took aim at Trump’s decision “to give up in the fight against coronavirus in order to reopen the economy.”

“You would think that, putting aside his banality, his narcissism and his deadly incompetence, Donald Trump could at the very least muster a little empathy for the victims of this pandemic, their loved ones, and the millions who have put themselves in harm’s way, lost jobs, or made tremendous personal sacrifices during this crisis. But of course he can’t do that because he isn’t capable of empathy,” Meyers said after opening the segment with some jokes about the copy of the novel “The Thorn Birds” that’s made many appearances on the show the past two months.

“He only has two emotions, boredom and rage. He’s either staring off into the distance while someone talks about complex policy details, or hissing at reporters like a snake whose nest was just disturbed. In fact, just listen to the cold, detached way in which Trump talked about allowing Americans to die in order to reopen the economy and the 30 million people who have lost jobs because of his handling of this crisis during an interview on ABC yesterday.”

“Late Night” then queued up a couple clips from the interview, in which ABC News’s David Muir asked him about the possibility that people will die from reopening the economy, as well as the continually increasing unemployment rate. “How bad is this going to get?” Muir asked.

Trump’s reply in the clip: “Well, that is what it is.”

“Wow, soaring words,” Meyers quipped. “It reminds me of Martin Luther King’s ‘I slept pretty good last night’ speech. Or FDR’s famous response when they told him about Pearl Harbor: ‘Well, s— happens.’ Usually when someone is that soulless and dead-eyed you’re not asking them questions about the economy, you’re holding up a Rorschach test.”

Meyers continued with this thread throughout Wednesday’s “A Closer Look.” A few moments later he took on the multiple times Tuesday when Trump referred to the American people as “warriors” as he reiterated his belief that the country must reopen soon.

“Trump wants you to be a warrior while he sits safely in isolation in the White House,” Meyers said after the montage of clips played.

“This is truly sadistic. The president is telling you to go out and face off against the deadly virus all for the sake of the stock market. The only way that could be more out of touch is if he said it while dousing himself in Purell and holding a 36-pack of toilet paper. Every day it seems we pass a grim new milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 70,000 Americans now dead and at least 30 million out of work. Which according to Trump means it’s a perfect time to stand down and wrap things up.”

You can watch the full “A Closer Look” segment from Wednesday’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” in the video embedded up at the top of this article.

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