On Wednesday night’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the comedian focused his always worthwhile Closer Look segment on Donald Trump’s damage control video on abortion.
“Donald Trump is desperately trying to convince people that he’s not an extremist on abortion, after proudly taking credit for overturning Roe v. Wade,” he said, “which has now led to a horrendous ruling in Arizona outlawing almost all abortions in the state based on a Civil War-era law.”
Meyers began the segment showing clips of a 2016 Trump boasting about how he was going to get rid of Roe v. Wade, and clips of him in recent months, boasting about how successful he was in doing so. Meyers noted that even former president George W. Bush at least pretended he wasn’t going to choose anti-abortion Supreme Court justices if he had the chance.
TRUMP: Now people, pro-lifers, have the right to negotiate for the first time. [ …]
MEYERS: What do you mean, negotiate? Everything with this guy is real estate. We’re talking about health care and bodily autonomy for millions of women. And this guy is treating it like a golf course.
Meyers explained that the intense backlash from voters has clearly put Trump and the GOP in a rough position, even for a serial liar like Donald.
“Normally, it can be very hard to pin something on Trump because he’s so good at wriggling his way out of everything,” Meyers said. “But this is as straightforward as it gets. It’s like one of those conspiracy theory boards with one string going from Trump to Roe.” Then he ran a clip of Trump’s Monday video.
TRUMP: Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights.
MEYERS: Oh, people keep asking you what your position is on abortion? You know what that means, my man? You’re a shit communicator. You were president for four years. You never shut your mouth, and yet people are still wondering where you stand on one of the biggest issues of our times? And I get that it’s confusing, I mean, he says he’s pro-life, but he definitely seems like a guy who paid for an abortion—or at the very least once told the woman he would go halfsies. But the reality is, no one is confused. We all know what Trump’s personal opinion is on abortion. Whatever will help him today.
Then Meyers ran through some MAGA-surrogates spinning Trump’s brand-new backpedaling position, showing a clip of right-wing radio host Mark Simone on Fox Business with Larry Kudlow. The two men somehow took both positions: that Trump is supporting a 15-week national ban on abortion, and also that he would let states choose. If that doesn’t make you apoplectic, Simone ended by describing Trump as “the pro-choice candidate.”
MEYERS: This brings us to a segment we’re calling “Seth Tries Really Hard Not to Lose His S—. Trump is the “pro-choice candidate?” Are you out of your—I’m sorry, I believe you are mistaken. Your statements are misleading and you are failing to provide an accurate, good-faith analysis of the facts. You’re inverting the truth for political purposes and gaslighting your viewers by grossly misrepresenting the details of the situation. Let me put it another way. You’re @#$(@#Y%(@#%@#%@#&$@((^E!@(#&^$?!!!!!!
Well, I failed. This has been “Seth Tries Really Hard Not to Lose His Shit.”
But Meyers wasn’t done with Simone, going back to the same interview, where the right-wing radio host attempted to downplay Americans needing to seek health care outside of their home states.
SIMONE: If you had to travel to another state to get an abortion, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Hopefully, this is a very rare occurrence in your life. Once in your life maybe it would do it. Buying a bus ticket to go somewhere to get it is not the worst thing in the world.
MEYERS: Then you take the bus, motherfuc!&$#! You take the bus! How about every time someone has to take a bus to get abortion care out of state, we make Mark Simone wait in line for a Greyhound at the Port Authority. Dude would run out that day and buy a T-shirt that says “My body, My choice.”
Meyers finished by talking about the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling that restores an 1864 ban on all abortions, as well as “MAGA-protege” Kari Lake’s quick flip on the law she was championing during her failed gubernatorial campaign last year. He joked that viewers might remember Lake for using “so much soft lighting in her Zoom interviews that she looked like AI.” Meyers also pointed to the archaic nature of the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling.
MEYERS: States can enforce laws written before there were even states? Does that mean any state in the Louisiana Purchase is now subject to the laws of 18th-century France? If you steal a loaf of bread in Baton Rouge, you’ll be sentenced to 19 years in jail, and they’ll write a musical about you? Just to give you an idea of how insane this is.
Enjoy!
Trump’s lose-lose situation on abortion somehow got worse this week after he released a video attempting to spin a position on the polarizing issue. What does this mean? Bad news for the Republican Party, already in disarray.