The attempt at burying the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as a Friday evening news dump, of course, does not work in this era of 24/7 news cycles, but it did mean that late-night hosts had to wait until Monday to crack jokes about the biggest current story in a Trump administration swirling with major stories.
It was a busy weekend for Donald Trump on Twitter, with the president directing tweet tirades at McCabe, James Comey and even special counsel Robert Mueller directly, specifically mentioning Mueller for the first time. In a new “A Closer Look” segment on “Late Night” Monday, host Seth Meyers had a lot to say about all this madness.
“Mueller’s investigation came under serious threat this weekend when President Trump went on a Twitter tirade and for the first time targeted Mueller by name. Trump tweeted, ‘The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion’ and there was no crime and called it a witch hunt,” Meyers said. “Now the latest Trump meltdown was prompted in part by the firing of Andrew McCabe, who oversaw investigations into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server and Trump’s campaign. McCabe has been an object of paranoid fixation for Trump, who has obsessively tweeted about McCabe for months.”
Would Have All the Top Scores’ (Video)” target=”_blank”]
Meyers then displayed a series of old Trump tweets whining about McCabe, including one from December in which he said that McCabe “is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”
“He’s racing the clock? You’re the one who’s freaking out like a Final ‘Jeopardy’ contestant and knows the music is about to stop,” Meyers said before acting out such a scenario as the “Jeopardy” theme played. “‘What is the Mueller probe should never have been started, and that there was no collusion, and there was no crime, witch hunt?’ We were looking for the capital of Vermont. What is Montpelier? Montpelier.
Meyers then noted how hilarious it is that McCabe, like Comey before him, apparently kept detailed notes of all his interactions with Trump, and has turned those notes over to Mueller.
“Trump’s such an idiot. He keeps firing dudes who take meticulous notes. And something tells me when you compare Comey’s and McCabe’s notes side by side, they’re gonna to match up,” Meyers said before displaying a pair of legal pads that both have “This dude is cray” written on them. “Trump reacted to the news that McCabe kept memos by once again attacking him in the Russia probe. tweeting ‘Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe but he never took notes when he was with me. I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them fake memos?’
“Yeah, I mean, sure bro, you’re the president. Call them whatever you want. Call them fake memos, and when you’re on trial, you can call it a fake trial. And when you’re in jail for the rest of your life, hey, it’s fake jail. It’s up to you.”
You can watch all of Monday’s “A Closer Look” segment from Monday’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in the video embedded above.