As Democratic House impeachment managers wrap up their case against Donald Trump, Seth Meyers spent his last “A Closer Look” segment of the week Thursday night hammering Republicans and Fox News for doing everything they can to look away—sometimes literally.
“We’ve all seen the damning video footage this week, it’s haunting,” the Late Night host said. “And yet the Republican Party and its media apparatus aren’t just looking the other way metaphorically, they’re looking away literally.”
He went on to recount stories about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who spent much of the 2016 presidential campaign warning how dangerous Trump would be, looking down at papers in his lap instead of watching the Capitol riot footage, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sitting by himself in an upper gallery with his feet up on the seat in front him, reading unrelated material during the trial.
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“Of course he was,” Meyers said. “Hawley is the richest kid in high school who, during the memorial assembly for the beloved librarian, loudly comments on the Playboy hidden in his science book.”
All of this brought the host to Fox News, which “actually had the gall to cut away from the trial in the middle of the harrowing testimony to get to Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro.” At the top of the 5 p.m. hour on Wednesday, Fox abruptly cut off Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) mid-sentence so that The Five could start on time.
“Usually these two are the ones getting cut off,” Meyers joked of Watters and Pirro. “At any time, you could ask Jesse Watters to blow into a breathalyzer and the result would probably just say ‘Natty Light.’ And I’m sure Jeanine’s been kicked out of her share of Applebee’s.”
After sharing with viewers just how inane The Five’s commentary was while the “historic” impeachment trial was still underway, Meyers arrived at his central point.
“It’s been clear from the start who Trump was and what he stood for,” he said. “Republicans knew it then and they know it now. They made the same case Democrats are making now. They saw it, they warned us about it, and then they capitulated.”
“And that’s because they share Trump’s goals,” Meyers continued. “They’re engaged in the same project. They agree with him. They saw that supporting him was the path to power and they jumped on board. And they’re willing to look away from any piece of evidence or tell any lie necessary to expunge their guilt.”
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