NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers responded to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Monday by echoing the White House line that remarks about Biden’s age and memory were “very gratuitous.” Meyers also labeled the report “a [bleep] hit job” while spending most of the time in-between those remarks by focusing on Donald Trump’s bloopers.
Before playing a video of CNN’s Anderson Cooper on February 8, Meyers declared that “Hur issued a report clearing Biden of any wrongdoing but then added in what seemed to be a very gratuitous hypothetical about Biden's age.”
In the clip, Cooper is seen reading from the report, “The report clears him legally but could damage him obviously politically, including a passage which reads, and I quote, ‘Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury as he did during our interview with him as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’”
Meyers followed up by trying to argue Biden is the victim of a double standard, “If that kind of language was appropriate in a legal finding, then prosecutors could have done the same thing to Trump. Robert Mueller could have said, 'we can't charge the president with obstruction of justice because he would likely present himself to jurors as a demented weirdo who doesn't know what city he's in, forgets how to shake hands, and can't remember how to spell his wife's name or his own name.'”
Of course, there is a difference between a typo and forgetting what years you were vice president, but Meyers rolled right along, “Again, I'm not saying Biden's age is not fair game, it is. On Thursday, for example, Biden complained about the special counsel report and said the media should look into the origins of the report. But even he couldn't say the word 'origins.'”
Meyers then played a clip of Trump from April 2019 struggling to pronounce the word “origins” and often saying “oranges” in an attempt to make the point that people focusing on Biden’s bloopers are being hypocritical, but again, struggling to pronounce a word is not the same thing as confusing Mexico for Egypt or François Mitterrand for Emanuel Macron or Helmut Kohl for Angela Merkel all within the same week.
Meyers also played a more recent clip of Trump suggesting that if he loses in November, Pennsylvania will have to get a name change, which led Meyers to respond, “Trump and Biden are both old. It is not ideal. That's the choice. And as for the special counsel report, two things can be true: it was a [bleep] political hit job, but also the reality is 86 percent of Americans think Biden is too old for another term, so Biden has to prove them wrong.”
If Biden has to prove them wrong, then maybe Hur’s comments about a potential jury’s views of Biden aren’t that “gratuitous” after all.
Here is a transcript for the February 12-taped show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
2/13/2024
12:48 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: Hur issued a report clearing Biden of any wrongdoing but then added in what seemed to be a very gratuitous hypothetical about Biden's age.
ANDERSON COOPER [FEBRUARY 8]: The report clears him legally, but could damage him obviously politically, including a passage which reads, and I quote, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury as he did during our interview with him as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
MEYERS: If that kind of language was appropriate in a legal finding, then prosecutors could have done the same thing to Trump. Robert Mueller could have said, “we can't charge the president with obstruction of justice because he would likely present himself to jurors as a demented weirdo who doesn't know what city he's in, forgets how to shake hands, and can't remember how to spell his wife's name, or his own name.”
Again, I'm not saying Biden's age is not fair game, it is. On Thursday, for example, Biden complained about the special counsel report and said the media should look into the origins of the report. But even he couldn't say the word “origins.”
DONALD TRUMP [APRIL 2, 2019]: I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges -- the oranges of the -- investigation, the beginnings of that investigation. You look at the orange of the investigation. The Mueller Report I wish covered the oranges of how it started.
MEYERS: Oh, shoot, I got the guys mixed up. I hope this doesn't end up being the top story. That, of course, was Trump struggling to say the word "origins," and Trump's mind has only continued to devolve since then over the weekend, he claimed that if he loses in November, the state of Pennsylvania will have a new name.
TRUMP [FEBRUARY 9]: If you live in this commonwealth, register everyone you know and get them out to vote we have to -- we have to win in November, or we're not going to have Pennsylvania. They'll change the name. They're going to change the name of Pennsylvania.
MEYERS: "Hi mom, yeah, I'm worried about grandpa. Yeah, he says they're going to change the name of Pennsylvania if we lose World War II and he keeps asking for oranges."
Trump and Biden are both old. It is not ideal. That's the choice. And as for the special counsel report, two things can be true: it was a [bleep] political hit job, but also the reality is 86 percent of Americans think Biden is too old for another term, so Biden has to prove them wrong.
