NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers teamed up with show writer Jeff Wright on Wednesday for a painfully unfunny bit where they declared that GOP criticism of George Soros and his funding of progressive causes is “racist” and “anti-Semitic.”
Meyers set the table by reporting that “following President Trump's indictment, Trump and many of his allies have been claiming the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's investigation is funded by liberal mega-donor George Soros. Here to comment is one of my writers, Jeff Wright, everybody!
After Wright did a bit about how he confused “George Soros” for “George Santos” and some jokes at the latter’s expense, he got to the point, “it turns out George Soros is some rich liberal billionaire who donates to a lot of Democrats and Republicans think he's the puppet master controlling all the strings on all these Trump investigations and that is offensive.”
Meyers then chimed in to add, “Because it's anti-Semitic,” to which Wright followed up, “It racist. I mean, why can't people admit that a black person is capable of hatching an evil scheme like this all by himself?”
If conservatives were to focus their attention exclusively on Bragg himself, Wright and Meyers would almost certainly still play the race card. As it was, Wright highlighted two Republicans and their supposedly outrageous attacks, “Seth, look at all these statements. Ron DeSantis called Alvin Bragg ‘Soros-backed’ Senator Ron Johnson called him ‘Soros funded.’”
Yes, and? Still, Wright then introduced a quick montage of various Republican politicians, conservative activists, and Fox News and Fox Business mentioning name dropping Soros in response to Trump’s indictment.
At the conclusion of the montage, Wright returned to add, “I'm Soros-ed out. Even Trump mentioned Soros in his speech from Mar-a-Lago. Why you gotta keep bringing Soros into this? Let Alvin Bragg enjoy his time in the spotlight.”
Meyers then interrupted again to ask, “Sorry, so you -- you want Alvin Bragg to get all this scrutiny that comes with indicting Trump?”
Wright was more than willing to do so for the sake of racial politics, “Seth, this is black people's moment. Okay, having a black president was great. But letting a black man take down Trump that's the final boss level.”
After Wright digressed into a Bond villain impersonation, Meyers inquired, “Okay, Jeff, I hear you, that calling the investigation Soros funded is racist but just to be clear, it's also anti-Semitic, right?”
For Wright, the answer was obvious, “Oh, hell yeah, Seth they ain't going to catch me on some Kanye West bull[bleep] now.”
Apparently Late Night thinks pointing out one person’s political donations is the same as blaming Jews for your personal problems.
This segment was sponsored by Arby’s.
Here is a transcript for the April 5-taped show:
Late Night with Seth Meyers
4/6/2023
12:39 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: Finally, following President Trump's indictment, Trump and many of his allies have been claiming the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's investigation is funded by liberal mega-donor George Soros. Here to comment is one of my writers, Jeff Wright, everybody!
JEFF WRIGHT: Thank you. Thank you, Seth. Now, first of all, when I heard all these people mentioning George Soros, I had no idea who he was. I was like, they're blaming Trump's indictment on that dude that wore glasses and lied about playing volleyball. I thought he liked Trump
MEYERS: Oh, Jeff, that's George Santos.
WRIGHT: I know that now after looking him up on TikTok and it turns out George Soros is some rich liberal billionaire who donates to a lot of Democrats and Republicans think he's the puppet master controlling all the strings on all these Trump investigations and that is offensive.
MEYERS: Because it's anti-Semitic.
WRIGHT: It racist. I mean, why can't people admit that a black person is capable of hatching an evil scheme like this all by himself? Seth, look at all these statements. Ron DeSantis called Alvin Bragg “Soros-backed” Senator Ron Johnson called him “Soros funded” and just look at all these times Fox News mentioned Soros.
LAURA INGRAHAM: George Soros funded D.A.s
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY: George Soros funded D.A
TUCKER CARLSON: Soros funded D.A.
TED CRUZ: George Soros.
DAGEN MCDOWELL: George Soros.
MIKE DAVIS: George Soros.
GREG STEUBE: Soros
JEANINE PIRRO: Soros
ERIC SCHMITT: Soros
DAVIS: Soros.
WRIGHT: I'm Soros-ed out. Even Trump mentioned Soros in his speech from Mar-a-Lago. Why you gotta keep bringing Soros into this? Let Alvin Bragg enjoy his time in the spotlight.
MEYERS: Sorry, so you -- you want Alvin Bragg to get all this scrutiny that comes with indicting Trump?
WRIGHT: Seth, this is black people's moment. Okay, having a black president was great. But letting a black man take down Trump that's the final boss level. Look, think of it in Hollywood terms. It's great when they let a black guy star in a movie. But true equality can't be achieved until black people are allowed to play the bad guy.
Okay, forget Idris Elba playing Bond. Why can't I be a Bond villain? “I see you finally figured it out, Mr. Bond. It is I who've been stealing candy from children. See, when I was a boy, I wasn't allowed to have candy. Or friends so now, neither will the world”
I'm Jeff Wright. I'm 6 feet tall and I'm represented by Erica Lancaster at CAA. You can –
MEYERS: Okay, Jeff, I hear you, that calling the investigation Soros funded is racist but just to be clear, it's also anti-Semitic, right?
WRIGHT: Oh, hell yeah, Seth they ain't going to catch me on some Kanye West bull[bleep] now.
