Appearing on NBC’s Late Night on Monday – aired early Tuesday morning – Today co-host Matt Lauer assessed the state of the Republican presidential race: “Donald Trump is getting all the attention right now on the Republican side....This guy is great. He's a showman. He’s got a lot of P.T. Barnum in him and he knows how to promote things....it's hard for the other candidates to get any attention whatsoever, because Donald is, I think some would say, sucking the oxygen out of the room.”
Moments later, host Seth Meyers remarked: “I love that anybody thinks you can attack Donald Trump in a way that affects him. He is such a sponge of rage. Like he just takes it in.” Lauer declared: “But he's really shaking things up. He's forcing them into places where they're not comfortable.”
Meyers joked about how the morning show probably ignored other Republican candidates: “I can't imagine when you walk in, in the morning, your producer runs up and says, ‘You won't believe what John Kasich said.’ You know, there’s not that.” Lauer’s fellow co-host Savannah Guthrie chimed in: “But it's kind of becoming that because now they, you know, you have Lindsey Graham calling Donald Trump a jackass. It’s actually kind of getting to that point.”
Wrapping up the discussion, Lauer joked: “And I have nothing bad to say about Donald Trump, especially if he watches this show. Because I don't need that aggravation. I really don't.”
Here is a transcript of the exchange, aired early on July 28:
12:59 AM ET
(...)
SETH MEYERS: Donald Trump, obviously, he called into your show. Obviously I want to ask what it's like for you guys to cover Donald Trump, but he called in, he was upset with how you covered his comments about John McCain.
MATT LAUER: Well, I think he was upset with the media in general but he tended to make it a little personal. Look, Donald Trump is getting all the attention right now on the Republican side because, I mean, this is his resume. This guy is great. He's a showman. He’s got a lot of P.T. Barnum in him and he knows how to promote things. He's done it on television with his businesses for years. And so at the moment it's hard for the other candidates to get any attention whatsoever, because Donald is, I think some would say, sucking the oxygen out of the room.
MEYERS: Yeah. I can’t – I mean, for us, it's just about telling jokes – but I can't imagine when you walk in, in the morning, your producer runs up and says, “You won't believe what John Kasich said.” You know, there’s not that.
[LAUGHTER]
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: But it's kind of becoming that because now they, you know, you have Lindsey Graham calling Donald Trump a jackass.
MEYERS: Yeah.
GUTHRIE: It’s actually kind of getting to that point.
MEYERS: I love that anybody thinks you can attack Donald Trump in a way that affects him. He is such a sponge of rage. Like he just takes it in. Like you can't-
LAUER: But he's really shaking things up. He's forcing them into places where they're not comfortable. And I have nothing bad to say about Donald Trump, especially if he watches this show.
[LAUGHTER]
Because I don't need that aggravation. I really don't.
MEYERS: No, you don't. Because I will say this, he does not forget a grudge.
LAUER: No, he doesn’t.
GUTHRIE: No.
LAUER: No, he does not.
(...)
