Seth Meyers used his "Closer Look" segment on Thursday night to tackle the timeline of President Trump and his allies ignoring health experts and firing officials who pushed back on the preferred narrative downplaying the coronavirus pandemic. One of them, Dr Rick Bright, testified before the House that he was fired in part for resisting Trump's push to hand out hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment — and also that the government's continued delays and inaction may contribute to the U.S. being in, and I quote, "deep shit."
"This is why we need an actual, functioning, centralised federal government that listens to scientists instead of just relying on private companies to do things that don't benefit their investors or their bottom line," Meyers said, referring to Trump's failed March plan to outsource testing to businesses like Target and CVS. "Republicans love to hollow out the government and outsource everything to big business and then complain that government is incompetent and should be run like a business. That's their scam: make government incompetent, then use that incompetence as proof that government is bad. They're like a husband who cheats on his wife and then says, 'See? This is proof we need an open marriage.'"
In the segment, Meyers lays out how the recent Trumpworld turn against Dr. Anthony Fauci — one of the most popular and trusted public figures in the country and a non-partisan public health official — has sought to recast the good doctor as a bad actor who's trying to make Trump look incompetent, doesn't want Americans to get haircuts, and is bossing the federal government around rather than just advising them on using the best available medical information at the time.
"Of course, in this case, it's just easier to pretend Anthony Fauci is president, not Donald Trump," notes Meyers, "because then you'd have to acknowledge that the horrific death toll and the cratering economy have unfolded under Trump's watch."
