This was supposed to be a good week for President Donald Trump. His popular Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, would charm his way through a Senate confirmation hearing, and Americans would finally stop talking about Russia. But that would be too easy.
“Trump is apparently desperate for any good news these days,” Seth Meyers said on Wednesday’s Late Night, pointing to a clip of Trump urging his fellow Republicans to highlight their historical connection to Abraham Lincoln. “This can only mean one thing: Trump just found out Lincoln was a Republican,” the host said. “Dude, the Republicans literally call it the Party of Lincoln. Did you think they were talking about the car?”
The president’s desperation stems from FBI Director James Comey’s testimony about investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible “collusion” with Russia during a congressional hearing on Monday in which he also debunked Trump’s claims about Obama “wiretapping” him.
“It doesn’t hurt normal people to say ‘I’m sorry,’ but it might kill Trump,” Meyers said. “I don’t think his mouth can make those words.” But while some in Trump’s party want him to apologize to President Obama and move on, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell of his own when he claimed the U.S. “incidentally” spied on Team Trump.
“Rather than brief members of his own committee, he ran directly to the White House and briefed the subject of his own investigation, Donald Trump,” Meyers said of Nunes. “You’re supposed to be conducting the investigation. You don’t go tell the guy you’re investigating.”
“Also none of this vindicates Trump,” he continued. “Even Nunes admitted that what Trump said about Obama was still wrong.” What’s “especially crazy” about the whole thing, Meyers added, is that when Comey testified on Monday, Nunes accused him of putting a “big gray cloud” over the administration. “If Comey put a big gray cloud over everything, Nunes just Cheech and Chong’d it.”
Later, Meyers pivoted to the Gorsuch hearings, accusing Republicans like Lindsey Graham of abandoning their morals and “holding their noses” at Trump’s potentially unlawful behavior just to get a conservative justice on the court. They were “probably so giddy” during the hearings, he said, “because they knew they were getting away with one of the greatest thefts in modern politics: the stealing of a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court from President Obama.”
“Fundamentally, these hearings are awkward because we’re in the unprecedented situation of a president trying to fill a stolen Supreme Court seat while under the cloud of an FBI investigation,” Meyers concluded. “If the shoe were on the other foot, Republicans would stonewall for four years.”