If one were to construct a Mount Rushmore of late-night election coverage, it would consist of Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver, Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee, Real Time’s Bill Maher, and, last but not least, Late Night’s Seth Meyers.
Meyers’s penchant for political comedy became hilariously evident during the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when the former SNL head writer roasted Donald Trump—then a mere racist reality-show host—in the presence of A-list stars and media heavies. Donald did not take it well. And during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Meyers’s Stewart-esque “A Closer Look” segments have become essential viewing.
And so, on Election Day eve, the comedian unleashed his final “A Closer Look” before viewers head to the polls and cast their votes. Meyers began by taking a few lighthearted shots at Hillary Clinton, claiming her celeb-heavy campaigning has been to gather “photos for a coffee table book called People I’m Not as Cool as.”
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“This massive show of support from celebrities seemed to wound the fragile ego of Donald Trump, who literally spent the entire weekend bitching about it,” quipped Meyers, throwing to clips of the Republican candidate whining about how he doesn’t need Jay Z, Beyoncé, or J. Lo to pack houses—just his gleefully unhinged, white nationalist whistle-blowing rhetoric.
Trump, of course, loves celebrities. The man once posed as his own publicist in order to plant tabloid items about his rumored celebrity conquests, presided over a revolving door of warring D-listers for seven years on The Celebrity Apprentice, and promised a star-studded Republican National Convention boasting the likes of Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger—only to deliver has-been Scott Baio and never-was Antonio Sabato Jr.
Oh, and “at the same time that Trump and his team were complaining about musicians and [Jay Z’s] foul language, he himself campaigned with Ted Nugent,” mentioned Meyers, despite the fact that Nugent is an outspoken racist who’s referred to President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel,” once described black South Africans as people who “are not created equal” and “still put bones in their noses,” once adopted a 17-year-old girl when he was 30 so he could legally have sex with her, and even admitted to shitting his pants to get out of the Vietnam War (making him a draft-dodger, just like his preferred candidate).
“There was also a very unflattering portrait of Trump’s final days on the trail in The New York Times which revealed that in order to keep Trump on message, ‘Aides to Mr. Trump have finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to… savage his rivals,’” said Meyers, adding incredulously: “They had to take away his Twitter account—an embarrassing revelation that gave President Obama the perfect opening to do what has clearly become one of his favorite hobbies this campaign season: burning Donald Trump.”
The Late Night host then threw to a clip of Obama at a rally for Hillary Clinton going in on Trump for his itchy Twitter finger. “Apparently, his campaign has taken away his Twitter. In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control, they said, ‘We’re just gonna take away your Twitter.’ Now, if somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes. If somebody starts tweeting at three in the morning because SNL made fun of ya, then you can’t handle the nuclear codes,’” announced Obama.
In addition to the stripping of his Twitter, the illuminating Times story also revealed another out-there anecdote about candidate Trump: that he “still privately muses about all the ways he will punish his enemies after Election Day, including a threat to fund a ‘super PAC’ with vengeance as its core mission.’” “He muses about vengeance,” joked Meyers. “He’s like a Bond villain except instead of stroking a cat, he probably uses his own hair.”
