MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace traveled to NBC and Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday to brag about not voting for her boss, John McCain, in 2008 while simultaneously claiming the Trump-era party is so irredeemable that Tuesday’s election “is the first nonpartisan” one her lifetime and that voting for Harris constitutes an “emergency.”
Whether Meyers is aware that Wallace failed to vote for McCain while working on his campaign was not clear when he asked, “You've worked on campaigns before. Bush in '04, McCain in '08. Certainly, I think when you lived through those times, you felt like the parties were very different, and yet, now you look back, and you realize there was a lot more they agreed on, certainly about the values in this country. Are you shaken by what you see at Madison Square Garden? Or have you just become immune to it?”
Wallace replied, “No, I'm so mad that I can still be devastated… I want to not be devastated anymore, and I'm devastated that people were cheering for that stuff.”
Later, she added, “You know, you—I worked on campaigns because I believed in the people that I worked for, except the one that I didn't vote for. But I was never scared. And I think a lot of people in the pro-democracy—this is the first nonpartisan election in my lifetime, maybe ever.”
At this point, Meyers should’ve interrupted to challenge Wallace. You cannot mourn that the GOP isn’t what it used to be while also bragging that you failed to vote for McCain, the quintessential moderate Republican hawk that people like Wallace claim they long for, and demand to be taken seriously.
As it was, Wallace continued, “This is not a partisan election. I mean, this is—I mean, Kamala Harris has run a stellar campaign. And she spent time alongside the Cheneys. That's like a joke that you guys couldn't even make up ten years ago, right?”
Wallace also declared that she is a “proud, hawkish, pro-democracy person. But I think the Trump thing—like, voting for Hillary Clinton was easy. Voting for Joe Biden was a pleasure. Voting for Kamala Harris feels like an emergency.”
When McCain died in 2018, Wallace was noticeably not invited to the funeral, which shows what he thought of her using him and Sarah Palin to advance her own profile.
Here is a transcript for the October 29-taped show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
10/30/2024
12:57 PM ET
SETH MEYERS: You've worked on campaigns before. Bush in '04, McCain in '08. Certainly, I think when you lived through those times, you felt like the parties were very different, and yet, now you look back, and you realize there was a lot more they agreed on, certainly about the values in this country. Are you shaken by what you see at Madison Square Garden? Or have you just become immune to it?
NICOLLE WALLACE: No, I'm so mad that I can still be devastated.
MEYERS: Yeah.
WALLACE: Right? Like I want to --
MEYERS: That's a good way of putting it.
WALLACE: I want to not be devastated anymore, and I'm devastated that people were cheering for that stuff.
MEYERS: Yeah.
WALLACE: Like, just gutted. Because I think it's really hard to hate up close. You know, and I remember at the beginning of Twitter, I would tweet back at people, "Oh, you'd like me if you knew me." How dumb am I? Like, most of them are Russian. But, I mean, lots of people here hate me too, Seth.
MEYERS: They're like, "I like to know you. Where we meet now?"
WALLACE: I mean, it was like a better -- it was a quainter time, right?
MEYERS: Yeah.
WALLACE: But I was never scared before an election night, ever.
MEYERS: Yeah.
WALLACE: You know, you -- I worked on campaigns because I believed in the people that I worked for, except the one that I didn't vote for. But I was never scared. And I think a lot of people in the pro-democracy -- this is the first nonpartisan election in my lifetime.
MEYERS: Yeah.
WALLACE: Maybe ever. This is not a partisan election. I mean, this is -- I mean, Kamala Harris has run a stellar campaign. And she spent time alongside the Cheneys. That's like a joke that you guys couldn't even make up ten years ago, right?
MEYERS: Yeah. Yeah.
WALLACE: Like, I mean -- and that's where we are. And I'm a proud, hawkish, pro-democracy person. But I think the Trump thing -- like, voting for Hillary Clinton was easy. Voting for Joe Biden was a pleasure. Voting for Kamala Harris feels like an emergency.
