Seth Meyers hasn't exactly gone easy on Trump during the course of his presidency, or over his lethally poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But this week's news cycle sparked one of his harshest Closer Looks in a while.
In addition to revelations that the government considered using a "heat ray" on peaceful protesters in Washington D.C. earlier this year and that attorney-general Bill Barr wants to charge protesters with sedition, we've learned that Trump wants to discount the coronavirus deaths of thousands of people in Democratic-run cities and 'blue' states to make his administration's disastrous response to the crisis look less disastrous.
"[A]s someone who lives in one of those states and knows people affected by this virus, I would just like to say: go fuck yourself, you rotting, soulless business-ham," Meyers said emphatically.
"But sure, if you just take out all the people that died, then you did a great job, dude. By the same token, if you take out all his albums, Kid Rock has had a fantastic career."
Meyers called the blue states comment "one of the most grotesque things the President has ever said."
"It's also the most honest articulation of Trump's beliefs: if you can't empower or enrich him personally, he doesn't care about you." That includes, it seems, all Americans in any state that happened to elect Democratic leaders.
"What the President said about discounting deaths in so-called blue states was not just another Trump gaffe, it was an honest articulation of his beliefs and the beliefs of the movement he leads," Meyers summed up. "The same goes for Barr comparing lockdowns to slavery and wanting to charge people with sedition. It's an unhinged political movement that sees anyone that doesn't support them as a legitimate and wants to dismantle democracy."
